Changes

== President Ronald Reagan ==

== President Ronald Reagan ==

This lecture is about [[Ronald Reagan]], whose influence on American history remains high even 20 years after he was president.  An entire course could even be taught about him.

Ronald Reagan, born to a poor family in Illinois, was taught to read by his mother at home.<ref>http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/spring/schoolhouse.html</ref>  Like his father, Ronald was unsuccessful at most things in life, but had a positive attitude instilled in him by his mother and the "Disciples of Christ" evangelical Christian faith.  He played sports but was not very good; took economics in college but did poorly; became a second-rate sports broadcaster; and then went on to a second-rate movie career.  But through it all his upbeat optimism about the people and the nation continued.

 

After serving in World War II (he was rejected for a promotion), he became a leader of the Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood at a time when the communists were trying to infiltrate it.  Though a Democrat himself, Reagan found himself in the way of the communist infiltration.  He stood up to them, and they terrorized him in an attempt to intimidate him.  Reagan became an strong anti-communist that would guide him the rest of his life.

 

After campaigning for the conservative Barry Goldwater for president in 1964 (Goldwater lost), Reagan ran for governor of California by emphasizing two points:  (1) "to send the welfare bums back to work," and (2) "to clean up the mess at Berkeley" (referring to the student and hippie protests).  Reagan won in an upset.  He then governed California until 1974, when he decided to start running for president.

While I believe that this law was a great idea, I disagree with a part of it.  This Act granted amnesty to most illegal aliens who had come to the United States before 1982 and had lived there ever since.  I understand why this was done, but I do not agree with it.

While I believe that this law was a great idea, I disagree with a part of it.  This Act granted amnesty to most illegal aliens who had come to the United States before 1982 and had lived there ever since.  I understand why this was done, but I do not agree with it.

== Gulf War ==

== Gulf War ==