WASHINGTON -- First lady Nancy Reagan Friday led about 2,000 Washington school children in shouting 'No' to drugs.
Gathered on the South Lawn of the White House, the students who had paraded under the banner of 'Just Say No' to drugs, shouted 'No' in unison three times at Reagan's prompting.
'That's wonderful. That will keep the drugs away,' she said.
'I am proud of each of you have taken the time to march against drugs,' she said. 'Sometimes it's not easy saying no to drugs ... But everybody doesn't do it. It's not fun, and it takes more courage to say no than to say yes.'
In an interview with the radio program 'UPI Roundtable,' Reagan said as a result of her conference this week on drug abuse with first ladies from 17 other nations she will be traveling to some of their countries.
She also plans to talk about the issue with Pope John Paul II during the president's trip to Europe next month.
Asked what she would tell the pope, Reagan replied, 'I think I'm goi.g to listen and hear what the pope says to me.'
'I couldn't imagine that I would be talking at one stage to third- and fourth-graders,' she caid in the interview. 'It just seemed inconceivable. you know, when I was growing up, we were all so unprepared for what happened in the 60s. Parents and children, and unknowledgeable. We didn't know anything about it, and that was our downfall.'
'When you teach them to read and write is really when you should teach them about drugs,' Reagan said.
