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President Reagan often referred to America as a shining city on a hill, a beacon of hope for all the oppressed people of
the world. In his Farewell to the Nation address on January 11, 1989 he said this about that shining city on a hill:
I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said
it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming
with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity.
And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to
get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.
And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was 8 years ago.
But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow
has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the
pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurling through the darkness, toward home.
the world. In his Farewell to the Nation address on January 11, 1989 he said this about that shining city on a hill:
I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said
it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming
with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity.
And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to
get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.
And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was 8 years ago.
But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow
has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the
pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurling through the darkness, toward home.