J.E. Dyer, CDR, USN (Ret.) will discuss how today’s
world seems to be coming apart at the seams, even here in America. Old
political solutions appear increasingly inadequate to correct our problems.
Besides growing threats from abroad – radical Islamism, Iran’s pursuit of the
bomb, hegemonic activism from China – America herself is reeling from a spate
of scandals which have revealed a government alarmingly out of control.
Anti-Semitism is rising dramatically in Europe, but incidents of it are on
the rise in the United States as well. Attacks on Christians are also
increasing around the globe, and freedom of religion is under attack even in
America – as are freedom of thought and economic freedom.
The ideas of America’s Founders
remain relevant today for analyzing and correcting the situation in which we
find ourselves. But the modern president whose lifetime experience can broker
the Founders’ ideas for us, and can in general be a useful guide, is Ronald
Reagan. Reagan made a 50-year study of both predatory ideologies and the
American philosophy of political and economic freedom. He sought to apply the principles he had taken to heart in governing the United States from 1981 to
1989.
Reagan knew and acted on a small
set of core principles which should resonate with us today: for example, that
the forces of evil are, indeed, evil, and that we must not make concessions
to them on principles – but beyond that, they are cowardly when confronted.
They are destructive, not constructive; they do not hold the upper hand in a
battle for the future of men and women.
He knew that oppressive ideologies
are incapable of organizing societies for a viable future. He understood, on
the other hand, that releasing human beings to political and economic freedom
is the greatest accelerator of human strength and ingenuity, and is certainly
the best method of improving everyone’s lot. Freedom is not a luxury; it is a
necessity, if we want a society founded on compassion, generosity, and
tolerance.
How did Reagan apply these
principles to the problems of governing? On June 24, in light of these
principles, we will look at his prescription in the 1980s for revitalizing
America and winning the Cold War. Our spiritual “malaise” may be worse today
than it was in the last years before Reagan was elected president, but the
principles in his philosophy of national security and domestic government are
timeless.
J.E. (Jennifer) Dyer is a retired US Naval intelligence officer who served around the
world, afloat and ashore, from 1983 to 2004. Her Cold War years were spent in
anti-submarine warfare and military operational planning. After the Soviet
Union collapsed, her emphasis shifted, with much of her community, to aerial
targeting and campaign planning. Jennifer served in naval operations throughout
the world, as well as in joint operations in the Balkans and the Persian Gulf
in the 1990s. She was the first woman to deploy for operations in submarines in
the Mediterranean Sea, in the early 1990s. As a Navy Commander, her final assignment
was as the chief intelligence officer for the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group from
2001-2004. With the Nimitz
Strike Group, she deployed for Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom in
2003. She lives in the “Inland Empire” of southern California, blogging as The
Optimistic Conservative. J. E. Dyer’s articles have appeared at Hot Air, the
Commentary blog, Patheos.com, The Daily Caller, The Jewish Press, The Weekly
Standard online, and the blog Liberty Unyielding.
Please join Children
of Holocaust Survivors for this very critical and informative presentation by
J.E. Dyer.
$15 per person - cash or check at the door
Register by email to RSVP1@cjhsla.org or call 818-704-0523
www.cjhsla.org for more information