Finding meaning in a $500 speeding ticket in Ronald Reagan’s Dixon

My spouse, 4 daughters and I drove in a rented minibus from Chicago to St. Louis for my cousin’s marriage ceremony once I out of the blue grew to become conscious of a police automotive behind me with flashy lights, which signifies to the shoulder of the highway.

A good, very younger and really good police officer who wished to be in his early twenty, approached my window and requested me if I noticed that I had pushed in a constructing zone the place the pace restrict was 45.

I informed him that I might swear that the board had simply stated 65. He acknowledges that the pace restrict 65 was some time in the past, but it surely was probably the most lately 45. Solely later did I discover out that I used to be the final sufferer of a pace lure, and I’d be accused of driving 20 miles above the pace restrict.

Dennis Quaid performed the fortieth president of America in “Reagan”. (Getty Photos)

Whereas the officer crammed the ticket, I seen that his arms had been shaking. I’ve to be new throughout work, I believed and once I felt his weak point, I attempted to see if he wouldn’t let me go away with a warning. He stated he could not do it and seen that I needed to seem earlier than the courtroom in a month.

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“However I’m visiting California,” I begged. “There is no such thing as a solution to come again in a month.”

He insisted on calling the courtroom and seeing if they’d speed up my look. It was solely when he completed writing the ticket that I checked out and seen that the jurisdiction through which my “crime” was dedicated, Dixon, Illinois, was Ronald Reagan’s birthplace.

As I attempted to course of this data, I used to be reminded of what my mom, who was simply as pious as Reagan’s mom, usually stated that there’s a divine plan and that nothing is random in a universe the place God orders the steps of his kids. Which in my case meant that I used to be led to Dixon, in opposition to my will, maybe for a motive.

President Ronald Reagan lived like a boy on this easy home with white frames on Hempin Avenue in Dixon, Illinois, from 1920-1924. It’s now a museum. (Getty Photos)

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However I nonetheless had particulars to attend: in response to the officer’s suggestion, I finished and referred to as a servant within the city corridor of Dixon to clarify my perilous scenario. She agreed that I might go to the choose – however not till the following day. So I introduced the household, we spent the evening in Dixon, Illinois.

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We left the freeway within the heart of Dixon and settled within the Vacation Inn. After consuming some pizza, we determined to see the sights. I’ve by no means been to Dixon and had no concept that this journey would take me with it, however so long as we had been there, I made a decision to make the very best of it and study as a lot about Reagan as I might.

We went to a gasoline station and requested for a clues to 2 locations that I really feel that I needed to go to Ronald Reagan higher: the Rock River the place he saved 77 lives as a lifeguard and certainly one of his youth houses on Hennepin Avenue.

We drove a dusty path to return to the river and spent virtually an hour in search of the well-known tree trunk that Reagan would have carved right into a notch for each life he saved. However in fact there was nothing to be discovered.

Statue of Ronald Reagan on the farmhouse of the deceased president in Dixon, Illinois. (Fox Information/Cortney O’Brien)

After a relaxed afternoon through which my kids clarify the that means of the Rock River, go to the sting of his stony banks and play like kids, we stacked within the automotive.

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Subsequent cease: the home on Hempin Avenue and extra insights into Reagan.

The home was white and small, and I put within the kitchen and within the room upstairs to consider what the scene regarded like 75 years earlier when Reagan’s mom Nelle was doing a meal whereas her son did his homework. I additionally stopped shopping for some poems written by Nelle – nothing particular and even sure, however only a group of papers that had been collectively.

After we had taken some photos for the home, we had been gone once more; Again to the lodge to prepare for my assembly with the choose the following morning.

After I handed the steel detectors with my spouse and 4 younger daughters in tow, I rapidly discovered my public defender who informed me what to do. I might go to jail, he stated, however almost certainly I’d simply need to pay a nice so long as I pleaded responsible.

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After I defined that I had solely traveled in entrance of me with the pace of the automotive and that there have been vehicles behind me, he simply smiled and stated that I needed to inform the choose – and in just a few brief minutes I did precisely that.

I even had video photos on my cellular phone that confirmed what occurred once I tried to go on the pace restrict after My quote. Vehicles not solely touched me from behind, however a driver rushed round my proper aspect and confirmed me his center finger. I had the entire thing on tape to show the choose that 45 km / h was an unreasonable pace.

“How do you argue?” He requested whereas I stood in entrance of him.

“Honorable, I wish to present you some photos I took to indicate you what occurred once I drove the pace that was posted,” I stated with a hopeful tone.

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Former President Ronald Reagan and his spouse Nancy Wave whereas attending a gala in honor of his 83rd birthday, 3 February 1994, in Washington.

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“Son, I am not going to look at your video,” he says. “Now, how do you argue?”

I considered the warning from the general public defender about the potential of the jail and my 4 younger daughters who wanted their father to remain a free man. I quickly answered: “responsible, your honor”, and with that I used to be on my solution to the servant to pay a big nice of $ 500.

The great girl by the window listened to my story after which regarded down on her clipboard. She seen that I used to be the nineteenth case that day, and with out saying it precisely, one thing about her smile left me the robust impression that this was how Dixon had financed their metropolis providers. Nineteen folks for $ 500 per head, Hey, that might maintain plenty of providers financed, I believed to myself.

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The truth that I fell prey to this pace lure ultimately didn’t matter, as a result of once I returned to California, my aunt Jeanne, who had heard about my perilous scenario, had despatched a test to cowl the ticket.

And I began to grasp that there was a aim in what had occurred and that my journey to Dixon was a part of what Reagan would name it “DP” or the Divine Plan, for me to raised perceive a person I believed I understood.

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Extract “Reagan making: a memoir of the producer of the Reagan film “ By Mark Joseph. The Reagan movie is accessible on DVD/Blu-ray and on Amazon And iTunes.