This week has been mostly about giving our 41s President, George H.W. Bush a respectful and well-earned fair well. My first thought, when I heard he had passed was “that’s too bad, he was a good man.” My second thought, having just recently endured the week long goodbye to SenatorMcCain was, “here we go again”, but, you know what? I’ve enjoyed the coverageand while I thought I knew a lot about the man I learned a lot more.
There is no man or woman walking the face of our beloved earth that is perfect. Not-a-one. Each and every one of us have our issues. To that, I think we can all agree.
When you think about 41’s life and pause to put it into perspective, it is pretty damn amazing. Whether you are a fan or not, Bush 41 lead a life that any American loving patriot should be in awe of.
He was born into wealth but at 18 he joined the Navy. That’s “joined” the Navy, not drafted. Here is a kid who could have basically done anything he wanted but instead chose to join the fight in the Pacific during the height of World War II. He would go on to be the youngest naval fighter pilot; landing and taking off aircraft carriers, an art in itself, especially back then.
During his service, he flew over 50 missions; one as you know, that ended with his plane being shot down. His fellow crew members lost their lives, something he carried throughout his whole life. As he floated in the middle of the Pacific, he hoped and prayed that the US would find him before the Japanese did. When a submarine surfaced near him, one can only imagine the feeling he had when he saw the American Flag on the side of the sub.
From there, he finished college at Yale. Wanting to make his own way, he moved away from the family in Massachusetts to Midland, Texas where he became an oil man. W spoke about the family living in a small apartment sharing a common bathroom with ladies of the night.
Becoming filthy rich with his own hands and smarts he decides to, as he said, give it back by running for public office. His first attempt to run for congress was met with defeat but two years later he won his bid and served two terms in the House of Representatives. During his public career he also held the position of Ambassador to the United Nations. In 1971 he became the head of the Republican National Committee during the Watergate scandal. He was also made the U.S. envoy to China and in 1976 became the Director of Central Intelligence Agency.
Bush then set out to become President but failed to win the party’s nomination to Ronald Reagan. I guess if you have to lose, losing to Reagan isn’t a bad way to go. As you know, Reagan would pick Bush as his Vice President and Bush stayed with Reagan throughout his two terms. Bush was extremely loyal to Reagan and stood by him at every turn. Following the Reagan years, Bush successfully won the office of the Presidency in 1989.
During his one year term, Bush is credited with skillfully seeing through the dissolution of the Soviet Union and oversaw the military’s removal of Panamanian dictator Noriega. Bush was especially known for his ousting of Iraq when they invaded Kuwait in 1990. This was by far Bush’s biggest achievement. No American lives were lost during this assault, which is remarkable when you think about it. Many however, criticized Bush at the time for not going all the way to Bagdad and removing Saddam Hussein. I would like to think those very same critics now understand why Bush didn’t.
This week’s tribute to our 41st President was nothing less than impressive. When you think about all of the planning that it took and how each phase went off without a single flaw you know that George had to be proud.
I like that we honor our Presidents and I think this week gave all of us a lot to think about in terms of our own lives. We aren’t Presidents, or congress people, many of us don’t even like the United Nations much less want to be its Ambassador and I am guessing that running the CIA would make it hard to sleep at night, but, we are fathers, brothers and sisters. We are Americans and thus we can learn from this man’s life. From what I’ve learned, Mr. Bush’s basket was full of many honorable deeds. He liked people and people liked him. He felt a duty to the people and he did the best he knew how to fulfill that duty.
When given the choice to pick and choose the good or bad of a man, I choose the good. I was very proud of our country this week and grateful for learning more about our 41st President. God rest his soul.
