AP

Reagan plays with daughter Patti in their pool in California, 1966

Advice To A Daughter On Being Honest
	When she was 15, daughter Patti was attending The Orme School in Arizona. After she turned herself in for smoking, Reagan wrote to her about, among other things, the virtues of truth telling.

Dear Patti: Yes—turning yourself in was the right thing to do and I'm sure you feel better for having done it. I'm sure you realize also that it was proper for the school to impose a punishment as they did. If we could pay for rule breaking just by confessing it there wouldn't be much law and order. In the Bible we can read where Jesus heard confessions and promised forgiveness but on the condition that we would go forth and not commit the sin again.

These are two issues here Dear Patti. One is the fact that for two years you broke not only school rules but family rules and to do this you had to resort to tricks and deception. Why is this of such great concern to the school or to me and your mother? The answer is very simple. We are concerned that you can establish a pattern of living wherein you accept dishonesty as a way of life.

Let's turn from you and translate it into someone else. Would you be happy if you weren't sure that I was quite honest? Would you be comfortable if you had to wonder whether you could believe things I said? Or if perhaps now you had to worry that maybe I was being dishonest in this job—that some day the paper would carry a story exposing me as a lawbreaker? You know the answer of course. But don't you see—compromising with truth no matter how trivial does something to us. The next time it serves our purpose we do it again and one day we find ourselves in trouble and we're not quite sure why or how.

Now issue number two—smoking itself. I'm sure I don't have to repeat all the reasons why it's bad for you. Science leaves us very little doubt about it anymore. Yes I know many adults continue to smoke but I don't know any who don't wish they could quit. That alone should tell you something—if they want to quit and can't that's pretty good proof that tobacco is capable of forming a habit stronger than human will power. Unfortunately women are more susceptible to habits than men and find them much harder to break or change . . . I must go now. I hope you'll accept and work out your hours without bitterness and with the intention of not repeating the act that brought them about. I hope too you'll continue to improve in your studies . . .

      Love,
      Dad

NEXT LETTER: On a Happy Marriage

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