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Rosy Outlook Hid Ugly Facts From Reagan (Marc Fisher, June 8, 2004, Washington Post)

Ray Lamb had been on the streets since 1981. He was a bright man and carried a Bible with him, as well as books about beekeeping. He also drank -- a lot. At the farm, where no alcohol was allowed, Lamb spent weeks by himself in a tiny log cabin, praying and reading. He read religious works and inspirational tracts. When I was there, he was deep into a volume called "The Incredible Human Potential."

"When I come here," Lamb told me out in the cabin, "I quit drinking fast, and it is great. I can even see a little better. Everything's changing for me. I take a deep breath, sit out here, watch the sun rise, eat off the land. Berries. Nuts. Find a honeycomb."

President Reagan could hear a story like Lamb's and spin it into a lesson for us all about the power each of us has to rise up from the depths and grab hold of life's opportunities. This was more than an actor's ability to enliven a character; there was in Reagan an imaginative empathy that connected with people of all walks.

Reagan would have left out the rest of Lamb's story, the part about how he had been working and functioning up until 1981, when Reagan fired all of the country's air traffic controllers because they had launched an illegal strike. Lamb had been a controller for 17 years, working in Leesburg.

"Ray's world fell apart," said Michael Kirwan, a saintly man who would drive the homeless of Washington to that farm and knew Lamb well. Kirwan, who has since died, would not have blamed Lamb's fall on the president, nor do I.

Sacking the controllers and hiring new ones was classic Reagan, a dramatic demonstration that, despite his amiable manner, he meant business. It was one of his boldest, most effective moves.

Criminals frequently meet unhappy ends, but Mr. Lamb wasn't sent to jail for his lawbreaking and Mr. Fisher offers no reason he couldn't have simply gotten another job.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 10, 2004 9:37 AM