 President of the United States. This invocation is a prayer for the United States of America. And it was composed by Archbishop John Carroll, the first Roman Catholic bishop of the United States. John Carroll was one of the members of one of the founding families of this country. He accompanied Benjamin Franklin on several diplomatic missions, and his brother Thomas was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. And this is his prayer for the new nation. We pray the oh God of might, wisdom, and justice, through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with thy holy spirit of counsel and fortitude the president of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness and be eminently useful to thy people over whom he presides. By encouraging due respect for virtue and religion, by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy, let the light of thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and governance, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge, and may perpetuate to all of us the blessing of equal liberty. We pray for his excellency, the governor of this state, for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled by thy powerful protection to discharge the duties of their stations with honesty and ability. And finally, we recommend likewise to thy unbounded mercy all of our brethren and fellow citizens of the United States that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of thy most holy law, that they may be preserved in union and in that peace which the world cannot give. Amen. On October 1st, two of our students, Jennifer and Sheila Della, became American citizens. Let's join them as we pledge allegiance to the flag. We pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Our parish choral group will lead us and then to you at this time, the 40th President of the United States of America, President Ronald Reagan. Thank you. Well, thank you all very much for the most heartwarming reception. I feel like I'm playing in theater of the round again here. It's good to be back in Michigan and great to be in Redford Township with the St. Agatha Aggies. Now, I understand that you're in the midst of spirit week, and I know you're looking forward to a great homecoming football victory. I have an idea that your spirit isn't just for a week, but for always. You know, really, in getting around the country as I have, your generation is really terrific. And I thank you for helping turn our country around in that regard. We've come here because you're what America's all about, you're America's future. And the future rest and the hopes and the dreams that you have inside your hearts and helping you make those hopes and dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about. Now, I've often been accused of being an optimist, and I hope so. All my life I've seen that when people have freedom and a vision, when they have the courage and opportunity to work hard, and when people believe in the power of faith and hope, they can accomplish great things. And today, right here in Michigan and all across America, in your factories and farms and out at Tiger Stadium, we're meeting the challenge and accomplishing great things. And I know how excited you are about the Tigers. They're a great team. And I can't take a side on the series now, what, with the California team and with the Tigers? And I was having been a sports announcer and broadcasting Major League Baseball some years ago. I kept saying, well, maybe I could cheer for one and pray for the other. And then I realized that wouldn't work either. And I found myself being reminded of something if you wouldn't mind a personal story, reminded of something that has to do with praying and athletics. It was in a chalk talk in college. I was a freshman and the lightest man on the line. And there that evening, we were in a classroom and the coach was diagramming plays on the board. And I don't know how it happened, but the coach heavily started. It got around to prayer with regard to football. Well, I'd never gone in a game in my life, in high school or college, that I hadn't prayed before that game. But being a freshman and all those big holickers around me, I would have been the last person in the world to admit it. But as the talk went on, suddenly I was discovering that everybody on the team did the same thing, went into a game after, but only after praying. But the amazing thing is I'd worked out a prayer for myself. You can't pray to win. We're all God's children and how is he gonna favor one side and not the other? So knowing that was impossible, I'd figured out for myself that I would pray that I did my best, didn't make any mistakes, that no one would be injured on either side. And that the best team would win and that we would all be content and satisfied. We wouldn't have any regrets of saying, well, why did I do this or not do that when the game was over? And as the conversation went on, I discovered that every fellow in that room had worked that same thing out for himself. So that's why if I'm praying at all for the World Series games, I'll just be praying that the best team wins and that no one gets hurt and that we can all be happy when it's over. So I hope you don't mind my sharing that with you, but you know, in the past few years, there's been a grassroots revolution to recommit our schools to an agenda for excellence that will reach every child in this land. Teachers, school principals, school boards are joining with parents to bring back discipline and higher standings, proven values, and quality education. And what do you know, after 20 years of decline in the scholastic achievement tests for college entrance exams, the scores are going up. I'm going to continue to get our, or in our efforts to get passed in the Congress the tuition tax credit bill. The, this bill would help hardworking parents who like yours, who pay to send you to this school and to other independent schools throughout the country. And yet who are also paying their full share of taxes to support the public schools. And I think that only fairness dictates that there should be credit given tax wise for this double burden. We've been working for excellence at all levels of our society. And the victories that are those that all of us have achieved, our strong economy, our return to the values of faith, family, and neighborhood and our determination to stay strong and be prepared for peace. These aren't just victories of an administration in Washington, they're victories of the people of this country. You made them possible. The wisest thing that's ever been said I think about peace was the simplest. It was when Pope Paul VI spoke before the United Nations in 1965 and he said, no more war, war, never again. I have seen four wars in my lifetime. I've lost friends in those wars and the sons of friends. If we're prepared for peace, if we stay strong and we realize there are no cheap easy solutions, no easy answers, a peace that brings liberty and human dignity will settle in and grow deeper. I told foreign Soviet minister Gromyko just 12 days ago that we remain ready to reduce nuclear arms, hopefully to eliminate them all together, ready to negotiate a fair deal and ready to meet them halfway. You know, each day the world turns completely and so each day the world is reborn. Possibilities that yesterday didn't exist emerged to startle us. With your help and support, we're going to keep on the path to a lasting peace. And with your help and support, we're going to keep on getting victories for all the people. As long as we remember that the difference between having faith in people and faith in big government is the difference between success and failure, we're going to be able to reach for the stars. As long as we concentrate on hard work and high tech, not on hard times and high taxes, we can have the future of our dreams. More than 208 years ago, a small band of patriots began one of history's greatest adventures, something called America. These brave men and women laid everything on the line for freedom, independence, opportunity and peace. And ever since, our country has been an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere and a magnet to millions of immigrants seeking the miracle that is America. And let me tell you that I was very happy to be at the ceremony just 10 days ago when two of your classmates, those who led us in the Pledge of Allegiance, Sheila Della and Jennifer, became new American citizens. That's proof that America's adventure isn't over yet. It never should be. Your generation will be ready to meet the challenges before you, so be confident, aim high, work hard, stick to your values and you'll never go wrong. The future is yours and it's going to be terrific. It's going to be better than anything that any of the rest of us ever knew because that's what America's been doing generation after generation. To your principal, Mrs. Colas, to Father Murphy, to all your teachers and especially to all of you, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your letting me join you here today and I also have to thank especially my pen pal Carol who issued the invitation. You see, presidents do get letters when you write. Now, I know that that's all of the monologue. I know that we're gonna have a dialogue and I've been looking forward to this and questions and answers for a limited period of time so when you're ready. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, Patrick Augire has a question for you. Mr. President, do you think the Tigers have as good a chance of winning the World Series as you have of being reelected? I'm afraid to answer that question. Because if I should guess wrong on that, just think I'd have to spend the rest of the month worrying about what's going to happen. Just let me say, I'll go back to that original prayer idea. May the best team win. Thank you, Mr. President. Just taking a wild shot here, what position do you play? Offensive tackle, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Mr. President, Dennis Shubatowski has a question for you. Mr. President, it's being the President of the United States really what you expected it to be. Yes. I had some experience, you know, I was Governor of California for eight years, which is the most populous state in the Union. It's about 10% of the whole country in numbers of people. And so I found that there's a great similarity between that experience of being the Chief Executive Officer of the state and of the federal government. So there weren't too many surprises. At the same time, there were some. You see the presidency, you don't become president. The presidency is an institution over which you have temporary custody. And I'll just tell you one little incident to illustrate what I mean. Every place I went and those Marines at the helicopter, they were throwing those salutes. Well, I was an officer in World War II and I'm not in uniform. And so I knew I wasn't supposed to salute or felt that I wasn't. And yet it bothered me. I'd try to nod and speak and they'd still hold that salute. So one day I was talking to the Marine Commandant, the head man. And I said to him, a Marine had just saluted me. And I said, you know, there ought to be some regulation. He said, if I'm commander in chief, as I am now of the armed forces, there ought to be a regulation that I can return salutes. And the general said, Mr. President, I think if you did, no one would say anything. Thank you, Mr. President. So I learned that. Mr. President, Glenn Williams has a question for you. Mr. President, if you could do one thing to make the world a better place, what would it be? That one thing would be the total elimination of nuclear weapons and assault. Mr. President, Janet McClarity has a question for you. Mr. President, what do you think the first women walking in space will do for women across the nation? Oh, I think what's taken place in space already, the Sally Ride and her mission up there and now the two of them up on this present mission, I think it is just further proof and evidence that probably the last and worst era of discrimination that we've known has come to an end. Mr. President, Robert, I afraid he has a question for you. Mr. President, what clubs or activities were you involved with in your high school? Oh, I was, I majored in extracurricular activities. In addition to athletics, I was in the drama club and I wound up as president of the student body. I've been in the student senate before that and it continued that way through college in which then I added a Greek letter of fraternity to the list of things that I belong to. I never dreamed when I was in the drama club that I might wind up making my living that way. I did, but I believe, seriously, let me answer your question, Robert, that I believe that the extracurricular activities are just as important as every other part of education that there is teaching and learning in all of those things. It brings more out of you and I like the idea, however, that all of those things are based on retaining or retaining a level of grade for eligibility that shows that you are not neglecting studies in order to participate in them. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, Janet Subnussky has a question for you. Mr. President, I know Mrs. Reagan spends much of her time working against alcohol abuse. How do you feel about this subject, especially among teenagers? I feel as strongly as she does and that's really saying something because she has really wrapped up in this. Alcohol is just another form of drug and all of them, there is, there's just no place for them. You're growing up now and you're laying, among other things, the physical foundation for the rest of your life. And it's just like buying a used car and then finding out the various places where it breaks down because somebody abused it in its younger days. You only get this piece of machinery once. Take care of it, really take care of it. And I'm prepared to tell you from personal experience that there'll come a place down the road when you'll really be happy that you did because I've been 39 years old now for about 30 odd, one odd years. Mr. President, John Peltz has a question for you. Mr. President, do you favor a national health program? Why or why not? When you say national health program, you mean just encouragement of health or socialized medicine? Socialized medicine. Socialized medicine, no. Today, if you have to get sick, any place in the world gets sick here in this country. We have the greatest medical care of any country in the world. And those countries that are practicing socialized medicine, the quality of the care has declined, the waiting list is forever and the cost is far greater than it is here in spite of the recent escalation in medical practice charges. The cost is greater. I believe that provide medicine and medical care for those people who cannot afford it for themselves as we're doing, but the rest of it should be right out there in private enterprise the same as we do everything else. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, Mr. President, James Kitchin has a question for you, sir. Mr. President, do you think Congress will ever pass legislation for tuition tax credit? Yes, I do think that. If we will all remember that they work for us, we're going to continue pushing for this. But what we need to do, they need to hear from the people. And I have used this expression many times. They need to get letters. They need to be called when they're back in their districts and so forth as to what it is we the people want. And the expression I've used is, it isn't necessary to educate them. It isn't necessary to make them see the light, make them feel the heat. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, Dantes McSween has a question for you. Mr. President, for future generations, do you want to be remembered as Ronald Reagan, the actor, or Ronald Reagan president of the United States? I'll take this one. Yes, I would like to be remembered for this. Oh, I made some pictures that I was proud of. I also made some that I hope will never show up on the late late show. The studio didn't want them good, it wanted them thirsty. So, no, I would like to, I would hope that I could accomplish something for which I would be remembered. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, Mr. President, Ken Craig has a question for you. Mr. President, when you become frustrated in your dealings with other countries, how do you deal with your frustrations? Well, I don't let them see it. I go home and I talk it over with Nancy and she calms me down to a certain extent. But I have to say this, there have been less and less of those times as time has gone on in these last couple of years. I believe that our relations now with other countries are better than they have been within my memory. Our alliances with our friends and allies in NATO, the recent trip to China, and what we accomplished there, and even with this recent visit with Mr. Gromyko, I think that he understands us a little better. I was rather frank with him, and I told him that we didn't like his system, but we weren't trying to change it for them and they better not try to change ours. And I think the frustrations are less. It is complicated, it is very touchy. The most frustrating thing today is the whole new thing in recent years of terrorism that's all over the world, these cowardly acts where such as we've seen in the tragedies in Beirut and all, that and trying to establish whether there is some government, actual government that is inspiring this and supporting these terrorist movements. It is, that is frustrating. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, Mary Petigliol has a question for you. Mr. President, how do you feel about traveling to different countries, especially those which there is political unrest? Well, it goes with the job, going with the territory, and I have to tell you, I've had enough traveling by now in my life and I'm not crazy about it, but I must say it does pay off. It does cement relationships. Our recent trip to England for the summit conference, our allies there, the seven nations, the seven of us that are there together dealing with our problems of trade and commerce and so forth, our trip to Japan with Prime Minister Nakasone. He is, I think, an excellent man and dedicated to improving the relations with us and so you come home usually with quite a feeling of accomplishment. Thank you. Yes, it isn't easy. You do know that you live in a fishbowl, but when you get up and through that gate to Camp David, the weekends now and then, you certainly have a degree of privacy, virtue of my experience as a government and some people who for the first time find themselves in that fishbowl. The understandable security precautions that have to be taken in the world the way it is today are frustrating, such as the friends of neighbors and parents and all who are outside here and crowds when we came in and you'd love to be able to go over and say hello and you can't do it. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, Mr. President, thank you very much. All right, I wanna thank you. But listen, I wanna just, for you young ladies, I just wanna give you one little experience having mentioned summit conference and so forth. The one before this one in England was held in Virginia and held in that town that was the first British colony here and really the cradle of our nation and the first meeting was to be held in what had been the British governor's residence and we met that night for dinner, the first meeting, and I was all prepared for Margaret Thatcher, the vice, or the prime minister of England. I was going to say to her in that particular house, Margaret, if one of your predecessors had been a little more clever, you would be hosting this gathering here in our country. And I started, I said, Margaret, if one of your predecessors had been a little more clever, she quietly turned to me and said, I know I would have been hosting this gathering. Thank you all and God bless you. Mr. President, on behalf of the students of St. Agatha, I am pleased to present you with these high-class articles of clothing. An Aggie football jersey, a baseball cap, and a school sweater. Accept these pleas as tokens of our esteem and affection. And now a benediction. Let us pray. Oh God, upholding these United States, that all her citizens might find salvation, besture us all too long for heaven's gates to heed thy paths and be a loyal nation. Oh Lord of nations, we ask thee bless our president and all those entrusted with our nation's order. Help them be true to him they represent, thy son, the king of kings, and our rewarder. Oh God, whose might has made our country free. With grateful hearts, we come before thine altar. Bestow thy peace, preserve our liberty. If thou wilt be our strength, we cannot falter. Amen.