Grieving a Cherished Illusion

I knew at a relatively early age that what Ronald Reagan called the “shining city on a hill,” the America of our ideals, was an invention, a romantic notion that made us all feel good. The overturning of Roe v. Wade shattered that illusion for me. But it turns out that disillusionment is a good thing.

“I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind, it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind swept, God blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace - a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.”

— Ronald Reagan, January 12, 1989