Los Angeles, CA

I've been in LA this week, and it has been such a good trip...it would be better with Rachel, though. Yesterday our group went to the Ronald Reagan Library and Santa Barbara. Today we went to the Richard Nixon Library, Hollywood, and Beverly Hills. Tomorrow, we go to a couple of Missions and San Diego.

On Reagan's tomb memorial is written, "I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph, and there is purpose and worth to each and every life." This is one of the final messages the world has of former President Reagan, even from a man who was almost fatally shot and certainly severely wounded. Reagan wrote in his personal diary describing the shooter as "a mixed up young man" and did not seem to harbor any resentment toward that young man. Something worthy of respect.

Today is actually an historic date for the Nixon Library. Before we toured the facility, some staff members were cleaning up from a reception held in the main lobby, and we learned that the Library was being included in the National Presidential Library Circuit, which means the facility will now be eligible for federal funding, whereas before it had only been a museum and raised all of its own funding. Interesting to be a part of history so close.