Washington ( CNN ) -- We 're approaching the 100th anniversary of the birthday of Ronald Reagan : February 6 , 2011 . It 's time to begin thinking seriously about an appropriate national commemoration of this good man and great president . To date , the main attempts to honor Reagan in the nation 's capital have gone askew . A government office building second in size only to the Pentagon ? An airport from which Washingtonians can not fly to California ? These do not seem very appropriate monuments to a president who fought bureaucracy and yearned for home . The other ideas that sometimes circulate in Congress seem equally misplaced : Placing Reagan on the currency or building a giant statue somewhere in Washington . More than most presidents , Reagan would have wanted to be remembered for his ideas , not his image . The right commemoration would honor those . Let me suggest something : A museum in Washington dedicated to the victims of communism . The struggle against communism impelled American foreign policy for almost half a century . That struggle was also the central concern of Ronald Reagan 's political life . As much as Reagan cared about the geopolitics of the struggle , he cared even more about the human victims of communism 's brutal totalitarian ideology . The countries of Eastern Europe are now memorializing their terrible experiences under communism . A particularly impressive museum has opened in Budapest , Hungary . But Eastern Europe did not suffer alone . Cambodia , China , Cuba , Ethiopia and Afghanistan also have their stories to tell . A `` Ronald Reagan Museum of the Victims of Communism '' in Washington would ensure that these stories were kept alive and made vivid for future generations . The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington offers an outstanding example to emulate . The Holocaust Museum has emerged as one of Washington 's most-visited sites . It offers a message that is purposeful as well as mournful . It 's a message propounded from the National Archives to the Lincoln Memorial -- and a message to which Ronald Reagan devoted his political life : . The principles on which the United States is built are not mere preferences . Reject those principles , and you are embarking on a nightmare that can culminate in the ultimate horrors of human injustice , oppression , cruelty and violence . As yet , the crimes of communism are appallingly minimized , excused or even condoned in the places where they were ordered , places such as Moscow , Havana , Beijing and Hanoi . Earlier this year , I had the chance to visit the one and only public remembrance of the Cultural Revolution in all China , a small museum in a park on the outskirts of a provincial city . What could be more fitting than to remember those crimes in the city that we called the capital of the free world during the struggle against communism ? And in the name of the president who not only spoke so eloquently against those crimes , but who issued the challenge that presaged communism 's downfall ? So there 's my proposal for the new Congress . Introduce a bill to authorize the development of the museum on February 6 , with a view to completing work in time for Reagan 's 110th birthday in 2021 . Instead of a statue , remember this president who so valued the individual with a monument that will restore the individuality of wronged , imprisoned and murdered millions . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Frum .
The 100th anniversary of David Frum birth is February 6 . David Frum says California has honored him inappropriately , with a building , an airport . He says the real monument to Reagan would be a museum honoring victims of communism . David Frum 's great cause was to fight against communist regimes , CNN says .