First lady Nancy Reagan cradles the Reagans' pet, a King Charles spaniel named Rex, as she and President Reagan stroll along the White House South lawn in this December, 1986 photo. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

1. Former first lady Nancy Reagan dies at 94 in California

Nancy Reagan, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 94, was a remarkable woman. She is being remembered, in some quarters, for all the wrong reasons. Some have remarked upon her role in her husband’s political decisions; others have talked about her sense of fashion – or even the designer china she chose for the Reagan White House.

But she was more than that. She added something to Ronald Reagan that was not there before, and strengthened what was. And she passionately held the belief that we are responsible for our own destiny.

“Nancy Reagan, the influential and stylish wife of the 40th president of the United States who unabashedly put Ronald Reagan at the center of her life but who became a political figure in her own right, died on Sunday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 94,” The New York Times reported. “The cause was congestive heart failure, according to a statement from Joanne Drake, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Reagan.”

Here’s how NBC reported it: “Nancy Reagan, the helpmate, backstage adviser and fierce protector of Ronald Reagan in his journey from actor to president – and finally during his 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease – has died.”

Those things are all true, of course. But there’s something telling in how NBC illustrated the story on its Twitter account. It used wax figures of the smiling couple.

Maybe that was a mistake; maybe it was because to many in Washington and New York City, Nancy Reagan was little more than a decorative ornament to Ronald Reagan.

The NBC article goes on to say, “Her best-known project as first lady was the ‘Just Say No’ campaign to help kids and teens stay off drugs.”

And in the hours since her death, the “Just Say No” campaign has been relentlessly mocked. CNN’s Marc Lamont Hill claimed that the campaign “ignored the medical and economic elements of addiction.”

Of course it didn’t. The focus of “Just Say No” was never addiction to drugs, it was introduction to drugs. Children who choose to say no don’t get addicted.

And that’s the key, in that sentence. For Mrs. Reagan, it was about choices. She wished for children to make good choices. And she believed that through good choices, children could live better lives.

To use thoroughly modern terminology, she gave children agency. She recognized that they play a role in their own quality of life.

Contrast that to Michelle Obama. Her signature program isn’t about making better choices in life – it’s about taking away choice. Through her school lunch program, she denies children and their parents agency.

The meals mandated by the federal rules are terrible, according to millions of kids, inadequate, according to many young athletes, and wasteful, according to administrators. But the rules don’t even allow parents to pack lunches their children want to eat. Lunches from home are considered “competitive” food that falls under the rules.

Nancy Reagan would have been appalled.

Each of us is responsible for our own destiny, she believed.