Last week, I was invited by my friends at the Young America’s Foundation to travel to Santa Barbara, where the Foundation has its Western presence — through its 1997 acquisition of President Ronald Reagan’s 600 acre mountain ranch, Rancho Del Cielo, and where they subsequently built the Reagan Ranch Center in downtown Santa Barbara — a state of the art conference center which acts as a headquarters for training thousands of young people about the conservative principles which Reagan espoused and lived.
Last Tuesday, at the Reagan Ranch Center, the Foundation hosted a special event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s prophetic speech at the Brandenburg Gate in a then-divided Berlin where Reagan appealed to the Soviet Premiere, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
About a hundred and fifty of us were on hand for the festivities, which started with well known conservative talk show host Michael Medved (pictured) broadcasting his radio program live from the Reagan Ranch Center. It was a great program and if you would like to hear the podcast of that show click here.
Following the Medved live broadcast, we were treated to a video showing (with popcorn) of a tremendous film, In The Face Of Evil, that chronicled the political life of former President Reagan, and the role that he played in leading our nation to ultimately win the cold war. I strongly recommend this film to you, and you can find out much more about it, as well as order a copy, here.
The two staff people at the Ranch Center with whom I interacted the most were Andrew Coffin, Acting Director and Director of Programs and Operations and Clark Vandeventer, Director of Reagan Ranch Center Development and Supporter Relations. After a tour of the Ranch Center, I had a chance to chat with Clark for a few minutes about Young America’s Foundation, the Reagan Ranch Center, and this special occasion…
The main event of the evening was a great program where we were able to hear from Peter Robinson, currently a fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Back in 1987 Peter Robinson was a 30-year-old speechwriter for then President Ronald Reagan who researched a wrote the now infamous "Tear down this wall!" speech.
We all got to first meet Robinson as well as Michael Medved at a special rooftop reception (the views up there span from the ocean to the mountains, and are nothing short of breathtaking). I took the opportunity at the reception to have Robinson sign a copy of his awesome book, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (order it here). Truth be known, I was actually ‘reacquainting’ with Robinson, whom I had met during my tenure as Executive Director of the 
California Republican Party, as he was friends and neighbors with then-State GOP Chairman John McGraw.
After the rooftop event, we all descended to the first floor where the main program commenced — Michael Medved and Peter Robinson talking about the speech, and about President Reagan. First we all watched the full speech (you can read it right here). The central and famous "Tear down this wall!" portion of the speech can be watched here:
After we were all taken back to that amazing speech, delivered as only Ronald Reagan could have done it, Medved more or less ‘interviewed’ Robinson, who shared with all of us present some very heart-felt and thoughtful retrospective on the 20th anniversary of the speech. We had the "FlashCam" with us, and so you can watch Robinson below talking about where he got the inspiration to include the famous line in the speech:
Robinson spoke about how the "Tear down this wall!" line was controversial, and how many senior 
officials tried to get him to take the line out of the speech. (Robinson is pictured to the right next to a piece of the Berlin wall that is erected in the foyer of the Reagan Center). You can read the account of the challenges of getting this verbiage into the speech from the perspective of fellow Reagan speechwriter and now Congressman Dana Rohrabacher here and another account here.
I can tell you that everyone there was overwhelmed with the nostalgia of Reagan, and reminded of the important leadership role that this amazing man had on shaping the world in which we live today. Underscored was the need for the Young America’s Foundation Reagan Ranch Center — because there is an important message about the legacy of President Reagan about which future generations of young Americans need to learn.
In conjunction with my trip to Santa Barbara, I had an opportunity to visit the Reagan Ranch itself. Look for some highlights and observations of that experience in my column tomorrow!
I will close by extending my appreciation to the Young America’s Foundation, and to the great staff people at the Reagan Ranch, for hosting me for this great event. I would encourage all FR readers to figure out a way to make it to Santa Barbara to check out the ranch, and the center. And if you are a college student, definitely get a hold of the foundation. I can tell you that during my years of involvement as a leader in Young Americans for Freedom, the programs, guest speakers and collateral materials provided to me by the foundation were invaluable in being able to effectively promote conservatism on California college campuses.
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