Finding Hope Through Humor
President Ronald Reagan's popularity in the polls
rose and fell like a roller-coaster. Shortly
after an attempt was made to assassinate him, his
ratings soared to nearly 90 percent, the highest
on record. But one year later, when the US
economy was still mired in recession, his
approval ratings had plummeted to a low of 30
percent.
Every other week Dick Wirthlin, the president's
pollster, reported the ratings to the president
and he now had the unhappy task of telling Reagan
the disturbing news.
"How are they? What do the figures look
like?" Reagan asked.
"They're pretty bad, Mr. President."
"How bad are they?"
"Well, they're as low as they can get."
"So, what do you mean?"
"Well, they're about 32 percent."
"Anything lower than that in the second year
of the presidency?" Reagan asked.
"I think that's the lowest," Wirthlin
replied.
Just then Reagan's face brightened and he smiled,
"Dick, Dick, don't worry. I'll just go out
there and try to get shot again!"
The president had a knack of effectively bringing
humor into his problems which, of course, made
them easier to handle. Humor has a way of helping
us to find hope. And hope has a way of helping us
to solve problems!
- Steve Goodier - |
