Forever an Optimist
By Trent Loos

At the conclusion of a week marked with carefully selected sound bytes from our 40th President, Ronald Reagan, I too found a couple that I truly appreciate.

"We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success -- only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free. Trust the people." - President Ronald Reagan, September 21, 1981.

The passing of just a great leader always brings about trips down memory lane. What will we as a society learn from his life? I have learned a great deal about the man and two things resonate with me. First, he was an eternal optimist. In every speech he gave, dating back to 1964, he spoke of “better days ahead.” What made him a leader in my mind was not only that he believed in better days but that he showed up every day to do his part to see that belief come to fruition.

The second characteristic that had a great impact on me was Reagan’s ability to connect with the person on the street in all levels of his public life. Today, we whine about a disconnect in our industry. Yet how many of us take to the streets to address the problem? The size of your enterprise, your company or your government does not matter. These groups are all still made up of human beings and it is up to each one of us to open dialogue with other people. Reagan’s lesson for us, first and foremost, is that we must put the emphasis on the people.

I truly enjoyed hearing about Ronald Reagan at his ranch. I can relate to the solace he enjoyed in the saddle away from the hustle and bustle of the city. He obviously understood what it is that drives everyone in farming and ranching today - the beauty and wonder of Mother Nature and her ability to foster creativity and a sense of purpose.

While history will most likely mark his presidency as one against communism and its evil empire, he may have also been the last president to stand up for the environment and the true environmental stewards who make their living from the land. He drafted an executive order in 1986 to maintain an affordable price for grazing federal lands. By his own admission in 1980, he was a “sagebrush rebel”. In 1964, he saw what many others are just figuring out today:

"Yet anytime you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we are denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we are always "against" things, never "for" anything."

"Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so."

Here are some things that I think we can learn from Ronald Reagan that can be applied today? We don’t need to agree on every issue to get along. We need to re-emphasize the importance of people. We need to be willing to hold to our convictions even if it requires swimming upstream. At a time when the entire agricultural community is enjoying excellent economic conditions, we have internal divisions that pose great threats. We need to address that immediately.

We live in the best country in the world. Most of our people are very well fed. We have a higher living standard than ever before. The opportunities we enjoy today are here because those who preceded us saw better days ahead and did what they felt necessary to make a difference. My hope is that we follow their lead and each of us accepts the challenge to do our small part to create ample opportunities for our children and grandchildren.

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