No, not Nancy Reagan.
Ronald Reagan. The man who would eventually become the 40th President of the United States of America.
In 1961, Reagan recorded a message on behalf of the American Medical Association's "Operation Coffee Cup." This was the AMA's effort to oppose the Democrats' plan to socialize medicine for the elderly through the Social Security system--what's now known in our society as Medicare.
He accepted no money to make this recording. Reagan did it because he strongly opposed the plan and because he figured that socializing medicine for the elderly was a smaller step on the path to socializing it for every American.
The idea of "Operation Coffee Cup" was that members of the AMA Women's Auxiliary would invite people they knew to their homes, brew a pot of coffee and then put this record on their record players for the gathering. The hope was to spur people to write letters opposing this legislation.
A cut of what makes up the majority of this record (sans Reagan's introduction) has been posted to YouTube. (A brief snippet of this was played today on Rush Limbaugh's radio program.) If you listen to the content of the message Reagan recorded nearly fifty years ago, the threat remains the same and the consequences have not changed. This message easily translates to modern-day.
(If you are unable to play the video embedded above, please click here to link to it directly.)
Reagan understood the big picture then and it hasn't changed one bit. That's why there are so many protests occurring across the country at the various town hall meetings being held by President Obama.
Our voices are making a difference but the fight isn't over. Our opposition now must be louder than ever.
I implore you to listen again to the last minute of that video and Ronald Reagan's call to action.
He was right.
He is right.
You and I can do this.
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