On this day in 1911, one of the greatest liberators of the 20th Century was born in the tiny town of Tampco, Illinois. As one of the greatest champions of the multi-faceted crown jewel that is the American Dream, with each respect personalized to and by the individual so engaged, it is at once indicative and appropriate that a man so large came from a town so small.

That he came to fell the greatest evil of his lifetime, and to do so with the very wit, flair and aplomb for which he was dismissed by Those Who Know Better as incapable of anything, let alone something so eminent, was to him but his personal encapsulation of the gifts on proffer from this great land that he so dearly loved.

That he turned his subjective part of the American Dream into a lifelong quest for something so magnanimous and universal as the end of Soviet tyranny, and thereby the pronounced advancement of freedom everywhere, speaks volumes about the man whom we celebrate today.

That he was, and is, a veritable rock star in the former Eastern Bloc nations whom he helped set free and throughout the rest of the world, whilst still considered a blundering dunce by Those Who Know Better here at home, remains a colossal injustice that caused the man in question merely to smile, knowingly and with abject pleasure, and raise his glass to his tremendous good fortune to have been born in what he knew to be this the most splendid of nations.

Happy Birthday, Ronaldus Magnus, and may God continue to hold you in His arms.