Cape lawmaker seeks to honor Reagan

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Nearly an entire wall of state Rep. Nathan Cooper's office in the Missouri Capitol is blanketed with images of Ronald Reagan.

From a full-page magazine ad from around the 1950s of Reagan, then actor and corporate pitchman touting the virtues of Chesterfield cigarettes, to a 1980 campaign poster, to a 1997 photo of Cooper shaking hands with the former president, Reagan's face is everywhere.

With a sheepish grin, Cooper, R-Cape Girardeau, admitted a fascination with America's 40th president.

To Cooper, it is the campaign poster featuring the then-Republican nominee looking visionary, resolute and, well, presidential that sums up the man.

"I think that shows the essence of Reagan," said Cooper, a House freshman.

In the wake of Reagan's death last summer at the age of 93, Cooper is sponsoring a pair of bills to honor the late president and conservative icon.

"With Ronald Reagan's passing, now is the time to set in motion projects to remember Reagan's legacy," Cooper said. "Reagan was able to turn this country from a time of despair to one of forward looking."

Cooper's bills would name an as yet unbuilt and unfunded span across the Mississippi River at St. Louis as the Ronald Wilson Reagan Memorial Bridge and establish the late president's birthday as a statewide day of honor.

While the St. Louis bridge is on the drawing board, it could be a decade or more before funding is secured and the project completed. Cooper said he doesn't feel he's jumping the gun.

"At some point in time, you have to start thinking of naming these items," Cooper said. "Now is as good a time as any."

While there are many Missourians worthy of the honor, such as Republican John Ashcroft, a former Missouri governor, U.S. senator and federal attorney general, Cooper said Reagan's accomplishments have greater resonance with most Missourians.

The other measure would direct the governor to annually proclaim Feb. 6 as Ronald Reagan Day. Schools would be encouraged, but not required, to observe the day with activities honoring Reagan's memory. It would not be an official state holiday, such as those commemorating former presidents Harry S. Truman and Abraham Lincoln.

The Senate approved an identical bill on Tuesday. During the light-hearted debate on the measure, some Democrats suggested other Republican presidents, such as Theodore Roosevelt or Richard Nixon, might be more worthy of the honor.

"Some talk about a Richard Nixon Day. I think we ought to have just an 18-minute moment of silence on that day," joked state Sen. Victor Callahan, D-Independence, in reference to the infamous gap on a key recording implicating Nixon in the Watergate cover-up that forced him to resign.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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