What does a great president have in common with a great city like Temecula?
Ronald Reagan was a sentimental can-do kind of guy. As biographer Peggy Noonan noted, he had character, when character was king. He had a clear vision, enabling him to accomplish great things. He never cared who got the credit, just as long as the job got done. His glass was always at least half full.
So what has that got to do with Temecula? And what makes Temecula so great?
Reagan once owned land in the Temecula Valley, many years before we became a city. The late Don Rohrbacher, father of now Congressman Dana Rohrbacher, resided here. In the early 1980s, Dana was a speechwriter for the President.
More than 20 years ago, President Reagan was speaking at a luncheon meeting of the United States Olympic Committee in Los Angeles. He talked about out how sports was a great way to bring people together. He praised the USOC for raising the money from the private sector, that enabled the United States to host the Olympics. He described the "noble American tradition of direct citizen involvement" -- the definition of democracy.
He gave that speech on March 3, 1983. "One of the top priorities of our administration," he explained, "has been to encourage the American people as individuals, as organizations in private and in business life to get more directly involved in getting things done, solving problems, and helping each other. Private initiative," Reagan recognized, "is our most precious American resource, and it's as alive today as it was when our ancestors used to join in barn-raising parties when it was needed for a neighbor."
The President cited examples of what can happen when the right spirit of "Can do" and "I will" replaces "Let's wait" and "I won't."
He spoke of "the folks in a rather small town, Temecula." (At the time, we were a rural community with a population of under 4,000.) "They got together and built themselves a sports park, held fundraising barbecues and dinners. And those that didn't have money, volunteered the time and energy. And now the young people of that community have baseball diamonds for Little League and other sports events, just due to what's traditional Americanism."
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of residents, businesses and service organizations in the area chipped in. Companies large and small offered the use of earth-moving and other equipment, services and supplies. Restaurants fed the volunteers. Parents and children pulled weeds and planted trees. It was a three-year effort, and in the end, the people of Temecula had their sports park.
Any visitor who cares to delve more deeply can get the flavor of what went on by visiting the Temecula Valley Museum in Old Town and asking to see the sports park scrap book. As you turn the pages, it becomes clear that the folks took great pride in their community.
That was Temecula then, but what makes Temecula great today?
More than half a century ago, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale wrote a book called, "The Power of Positive Thinking." It was a best seller and made him a popular speaker and author. A preacher, he got his inspiration from the Bible. His premise was studied, used to pursue one or another motivational aspect of the concept, embellished and distorted, and by the time he died in 1993, at age 95, his once exciting insight had faded from public memory.
Nevertheless, great ideas have a way of sticking with us and it helped that the President was a deeply religious man and a product of the Norman Vincent Peale era. In his heart and mind, the can-do spirit was nurtured and he applied it in his personal and public life. "Mr. Gorbachev! Tear down this wall!" Talk about the power of positive thinking!
These days, teachers struggle with the challenge of instilling in their students a feeling of purpose and self worth. Two points in history, the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the building of the Rancho California Sports Park in Temecula, provide marvelous opportunities for instilling positive attributes.
In one, the most powerful individual in the world, the President of the United States, made a statement that led to the end of the Cold War. In the other, ordinary moms, dads and kids took it upon themselves to build a sports park on their own initiative, and showed us all that the Can-Do spirit is potent, not just in the souls of great men, but also in the hearts and minds of ordinary people.
This, of course, is an oversimplification. In the case of the Berlin Wall, the timing was right. Many other factors played a part, but the sum of all of them - including the resolute voice of a man with a mission - got it done. And in the case of the sports park, Temecula families were desperate for a decent place for the kids - and adults - to play.
The nay-sayers would have you dismiss this element of human self-engineering. The truth is, nothing gets done without someone - many someones - with enthusiasm behind it, pushing. Enthusiasm often is ignited by the example of others.
Dr. Peale probably influenced President Reagan. The President no doubt motivated Mike Naggar, who, demonstrating his own initiative, ran as an outsider and won a seat on the City Council. (Can do!) Deeply impressed by the Great Communicator, Naggar vowed one day to name a Temecula park after the man he admired.
After President Reagan died, John Hunneman mentioned in his column in The Californian that the President, years earlier, had talked about the great people of Temecula in one of his speeches. To Naggar, the tremendous outpouring of affection for the late President at his death was a sign that the moment was right to name the sports park after him.
Naggar had the name change put on the agenda of the Community Development Commission, which has jurisdiction over the City's parks. The motion passed, 5 - 0, but final authority rested in the City Council, sitting as members of the Community Development District, which voted, 5 - 0, to officially change the name of Rancho California Sports Park to Ronald Reagan Sports Park.
Finally, on March 3, 2005, twenty-two years after the late President put the unincorporated area of Temecula n the map, the people of the City of Temecula formally dedicated their first sports park in his name.
