The 40th President

“Getting shot hurts. Still my fear was growing because no matter how hard I tried to breathe it seemed I was getting less and less air. I focused on that tiled ceiling and prayed. But I realized I couldn’t ask for God’s help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed up young man who had shot me. Isn’t that the meaning of the lost sheep? We are all God’s children and therefore equally loved by him. I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back to the fold.”

—Ronald Reagan’s diary, entry for March 20-April 11, 1981.