Reagan Library Acquires Reagan's Air Force One The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum acquired President Reagan's Air Force One (SAM 27000), a Boeing 707, from the U.S. Air Force on Sept. 8, 2001, after a final flight ceremony. Now library officials are actively carrying out their plans for a proposed Air Force One Pavilion at the Reagan Library to open in mid-2004. The retired Air Force One jet was used to transport Richard Nixon home from the White House after resigning the presidency and flew successor Gerald Ford. The plane was also used to fly Jimmy Carter to Germany, where he met 52 newly freed American hostages upon their release from Iran. Reagan used the plane to fly to Berlin, where he implored Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!" The plane frequently shuttled Reagan to and from important diplomatic summits—now viewed as turning points in the Cold War—with the former Soviet leader in Geneva, Reykjavik, and Moscow. The pavilion will focus on how Presidents have toured the nation and the world, tracing significant events that have surrounded both Air Force One and its Chief Executives. Building plans include a Mezzanine Gallery, Main Floor Gallery, Marine One Gallery, Grand Colonnade, Fountain Plaza, and Sky View Terrace. The library depends on personal and corporate contributions. For more information, including how to make contributions to support the Air Force One Pavilion project, visit the library website, www.reaganfoundation.org, or write Executive Director Mark Burson or Director of Development Holly Bauer, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation, 40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley, Calif. 93065, or call 805-522-2977. First Annual Conference To Reconsider Lincoln The first annual 'Lincoln Reconsidered' conference, sponsored by www.Lew_Rockwell.com, will examine Lincoln's presidential legacy. To be held Saturday, March 22, at the John Marshall Hotel in Richmond, Va., the day-long conference will feature Donald Livingston on "Lincoln and Slavery;" Joseph Stromberg of the Mises Institute on "Lincoln and Total War;" Clyde Wilson, editor of the John C. Calhoun papers and professor of Southern history at the University of South Carolina, on the "Mythology of Lincoln and the Union;" John Chodes, playwright and author, on "Lincoln's Civil War Against New York City;" Ron Holland on "Lincoln's Economic Policy;" Thomas DiLorenzo, author of The Real Lincoln, on the "Politics and Economics of Reconstruction;" and Paul Gottfried, author of Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt, on "Why the Neocons Lie About Lincoln." Registration fee for the conference is $49. Contact Tami Holland, 888-560-8779, or e-mail [email protected]. For more information on the conference visit www.southerncaucus.org/lincoln/. For hotel accommodations contact the John Marshall Hotel, 804-783-1929. Affirmative Action Focus Of Federalist Society Lunch A recent luncheon forum sponsored by the Federalist Society addressed the issues of affirmative action and government employment discrimination growing out of the Worth v. Martinez case against the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Dennis Worth, a project manager with the St. Louis office of HUD, had received "highly qualified" ratings as an employee over the course of 16 years, but after being denied two promotions noticed that 42 of 43 departmental employees who had been promoted in his division since 1986 were black or female. Just one promotion went to a white male. Worth is the now the plaintiff in a class-action suit against HUD and EEOC filed last August by the Center for Individual Rights. The issues raised during the February 6 luncheon addressed court interpretations of Title VII, from cases such as Adarand and Weber, and whether there is a diversity exception to Title VII. (Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act "prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.") The four panelists were: Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity; Michael L. Foreman, director of the Employment Discrimination Project of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law; Curt Levey of the Center for Individual Rights; and Shirley Wilcher, executive director of Americans for a Fair Chance. They debated the legal justifications of the federal government's affirmative action hiring and promotion policies in general and HUD employment practices in particular. Stuart Taylor, National Journal columnist, served as the moderator. For more information on the Federalist Society and their future forums, visit www.fed-soc.org. For more information on the Worth v. Martinez lawsuit, visit the Center for Individual Rights' web site:
www.cir-usa.org/update.html#HUD_complaint. CATO Holds Book Forum On American Government The CATO Institute will feature a book forum on Feb. 24, 2003, on a new study that traces the fundamental principles of liberty and the protection of indvidual rights in the early founding of American constitutional government. Randall G. Holcombe, professor of economics at Florida State University, will discuss his new book, From Liberty to Democracy: The Transformation of American Government, and Dennis Soyle and Joseph Romance will provide comments in what Cato promises will be a "lively discussion of the fate of liberty in a political world dominated by majority rule." A reception will follow the 4 p.m. forum. To register, call Krystal Brand, 202-789-5229 or r-mail her at [email protected]. For more information about future book forums visit the CATO website www.cato.org.
