Thomas Jefferson's greatest virtue, according to Woodrow Wilson, was not his many accomplishments but his benevolent opinion of mankind. Indeed, the same thing could be said of Ronald Reagan. I may not have agreed with everything he said or did (I'm not a Republican or a Democrat), but I think he had a grasp of human nature and how that nature interacts with world events far better than most of his contemporaries.

Ronald Reagan believed that liberated from the spider's web of governmental bureaucracy, judicial activism, and the social engineering of the intelligentsia, human beings could live lives of dignity and integrity. He realized that to lead such lives, people must take responsibility for their own actions. This is in striking contrast to the doctrines of his greatest critics: the belief that people who engage in unhealthy or antisocial behaviors are not to blame for the consequences of those behaviors.

Such a conviction comes with the reality that lives of dignity and decency can only be lived if we are willing to make the effort. If, for example, we allow our children to grow up with a vulgar, cruel, and infantile popular culture wherein they spend more time exposed to violent video games, reality TV, pornography, or rap music than to reading books, visiting museums, playing sports, or engaging in hobbies, should we really expect them to grow up to be anything more than vulgar, cruel, and infantile adults? If we re-elect crime and scandal-plague politicians and buy the products of companies that needlessly pollute the environment or exploit children, are we not teaching our young people that it's OK to abuse and exploit others? If we allow falsehoods or distortions to go unchallenged in order to avoid being politically incorrect or controversial or unpopular, are we not teaching our children that honesty and integrity don't matter; that the truth is meaningless? If we reward people who engaged in criminal or anti-social acts with the trappings of celebrity, do we really think our grandchildren will live in a better world than the one we know?

The June 16th issue of Newsday featured two stories that could be used in an al-Qaida training film. The lead story was about a street thug with a long rap sheet for murder, armed robbery, and assault who went on to become a successful and prosperous real estate developer in Suffolk County. In another section of the paper, buyers at a Suffolk County auctioning of the houses of people who can't afford to pay their property taxes seemed only to regret that the county is slow in throwing sick and elderly people out of their homes and into the street. What does this say about a society where the wicked prosper and people couldn't be more eager to exploit the misfortunes of their neighbors?

On the surface, these events represent the weaknesses of society. But there is also great strength in good people and none in high public office appreciated that more than Ronald Reagan. Unlike most politicians and diplomats, Reagan was not afraid to call the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and did not shirk from pointing out that it was doomed by its own inherent contradictions. Nor did he hesitate in observing that that system would change not through force of arms but when enough good people had decided that they were not going to live with the lies and the indecency anymore. If there was hope for Russia, he reasoned, there was hope for America - and, indeed, humanity.