Word: reaganized
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Ronald Reagan hesitated for a moment in the cool luminance of the Oval Office, his last minutes as President ticking by. Tears welled in the eyes of the few aides who surrounded him, but Reagan was busy reaching into his coat pocket as he fished out a white laminated card...
...give this to?" he asked quietly. He held up his authentication card for the launching of nuclear missiles, the card that must be inserted into the "football" toted with tender care by an ever present military assistant to certify the command to strike at an enemy. Reagan had dutifully carried the card for eight years. Its unimportance at his parting was perhaps the most powerful statement of this singular leader's legacy. The world moves toward peace, and the paraphernalia of nuclear command, which once held the world in its thrall, is almost an afterthought...
...answered his national security assistant, Lieut. General Colin Powell. "After the swearing-in of President Bush, a military aide will take it from you." Almost reluctantly, Reagan tucked the card back in his pocket. He took one more sweeping look around the room where he had exercised the globe's greatest power so long and so exuberantly, slowly squared his shoulders and walked out to the sun-streaked colonnade that links the office with the mansion. White House staff members crowded against the glass doors and windows, some of them openly weeping...
...done hundreds of times before, Reagan walked along the Rose Garden, savoring the crisp morning air and glancing at gardener Irvin Williams' meticulous winter designs. But this time Reagan slowed, turned right and left to wave one more time. Halfway down the colonnade, he suddenly faced away, picked up his gait and, never looking back, went to meet the Bushes and take them to the Capitol to yield the presidency to his personally chosen successor...
...last hours of the Reagans were crammed with thunderous tributes and then dozens of tiny, human gestures of thanks. The Notre Dame football team, voted the national champion, came by and left Reagan the blue-and-gold letter sweater of George Gipp. Suddenly make-believe was real; the latter-day Gipper finally had the authentic article, and he clung to it reverently as the team departed. The apt gift touched him almost as much as anything that happened in the parting...