Caldwell: Guest Opinion: History worth preserving

Having met several politicians over the years, I have come to the conclusion that a great many of them are nothing less than great actors. What the public sees and hears is often a performance meant to inspire, endear and motivate the electorate, but that is all it really is — a performance. There are some exceptions, but they are few and far between, in my experience anyway.

Ironically, the biggest exception to this rule involved a real-life actor turned politician, our former governor and president, Ronald Reagan. If there was ever a politician skilled at playing a part and saying his lines perfectly, it was the Gipper. Yet, I had a wonderful opportunity to visit the Reagan Ranch a couple of years ago, and I came away completely convinced that this great man was one of the most genuine and authentic persons ever elected to the White House, right up there with the likes of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

The ranch visit demonstrated that Ronald Reagan was the same man in private that he was in public. He was the embodiment of the virtues of hard work and humility. Here was evidence that the leader of the free world built and mended his own fences, cut the grass, groomed the horses and mucked out the stalls, in between hosting heads of state at a ranch and home that could only be described as modest. Zip ties connected two twin bed headboards in the master bedroom. Any other leader of his power, stature and fame would have been embarrassed to call the ranch home, but not President Reagan.

The reason I am sharing this experience with you this day has to do with the fact that the Young America’s Foundation, the nonprofit organization formed to celebrate, communicate and preserve the legacy of Ronald Reagan, was forced to file a lawsuit against the county of Santa Barbara because the county is seeking to place an open-24/7/365 unsupervised trail through the ranch as part of the Gaviota Plan, even though the ranch is miles from the coastline.

Despite the foundation testifying of the dangers posed by facilitating unrestricted public access to this national treasure, the Board of Supervisors refused to cooperate by conducting the required analysis of the adverse impacts to the ranch when they designated the trail. Nor did the supervisors do anything to mitigate the potential impacts.

In my opinion, this ranch is no less important than George Washington’s Mount Vernon. It must be protected at all costs to preserve a vital part of our nation’s history, because it speaks volumes of one of our greatest presidents.

The county’s own mission statement regarding cultural and historic resources states that one of the goals is to preserve and protect historic resources. The supervisors’ action belies this commitment. Therefore, I encourage you to contact the Board of Supervisors at 568-2190 and demand that they settle with the Young America’s Foundation and move the trail site away from the Reagan Ranch property.

Andy Caldwell is the executive director of COLAB and host of the Andy Caldwell Radio Show, weekdays from 3-5 p.m., on News-Press Radio AM 1290.