George H.W. Bush

People aren't saints just because they die or grow old; but honestly recognizing their defects shouldn't blind us to the good or heroic in them.

George Bush? There's a lot to admire, even love; but he also did some terrible things. It's beyond my pay grade to attempt some final accounting.

He was courageous in dangerous situations, but modest. He maintained a loving marriage for a lifetime, and seems to have been a good father. He was capable, and by all accounts personally decent. He cared more about government than about politics. He resigned loudly from the NRA and spoke out against Mr. Trump. He gains stature by comparison with Trump: Bush could read, think, and collegially talk with opponents. 

 

He was born with the proverbial silver spoon (son of a U.S. Senator from a prestigious family), with all that entails. He had self-assurance and “class.”

He also used the Willie Horton ad, considered the most racist presidential campaign ad ever, pre-Trump. He lied to the country in creating the racist War on Drugs, which most law-enforcement officials now concede was misguided and ineffective. 

 

But he was better than he might have been. 

 

I'm prejudiced in his favor regarding the first Kuwait war. I'd been in Kuwait with my Kuwaiti friends, and wanted them freed from the Iraqi occupation. The occupiers arrested and nearly executed one of my closest friends. So I'm not objective as to our getting into that war – though I do wonder about reports that U.S. officials including April Glaspie covertly signaled approval to Saddam before Iraq invaded.

Most or all of Bush's misdeeds he believed were in his country's interest – or at least in his party's interest, or his political interest. We're all partially blinded by the belief systems we grow up with and by our life experiences. 

 

Strongly opposing the bad things Bush did, or acquiesced in, doesn't keep me from appreciating a great deal about him. (I'd likely feel different if I had a black son destroyed by the War on Drugs, or if I'd been bombed by the U.S., or imprisoned by a U.S.-supported “government” in Latin America.)

A close friend posted on Facebook a lovely image of George and Barbara dancing against a starry night-sky. I understand my friend's romantic feeling about the private Bush; but he shouldn't lose sight of significant facts about the public one. 

 

Other friends have re-posted the long analysis in the Intercept of Bush's misdeeds. Many of its charges are accurate; but to those friends I'd say, if you can manage it, don't lose sight of what was good in this guy.

Yeah, I mostly opposed him, politically; but he was Yale's baseball captain, a war hero, a good husband and father, and a capable public servant, even if his skills were sometimes used for appalling purposes. He was the kind of moderate Republican that party has eradicated. He celebrated his 80^th birthday by jumping out of an airplane. 

 

I'm not convinced there's Heaven or Hell. I've rarely met anyone wholly evil or wholly good. Even Barack Obama, a very decent guy, could be considered a war criminal. So I try to see the good in folks I disagree with, and the warts on people I like or admire – and retain that vision after people die.

Seeing clearly is even more important with local political figures here at home. 

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[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 9 December in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air periodically during the week on KRWG and KTAL (101.5 FM / www.lccommunityradio.org.]

[It's interesting how the internet, specifically Facebook, affects some things.  I'm not sure I'd have written a column about former President Bush's death, but for Facebook.  I'd have noticed all what was going on, grumbled about the hagiographers, mulled over what I admired and what I loathed about Mr. Bush, and gone about my business; but all these postings and comments and links from everyone made me feel as if I had to have a "position" on Bush.]

[The reactions to Bush's death, and his life, illustrate some deeper point I can't fully articulate, about the range of reasonable perceptions people can have of anything or anyone, and do have, depending upon their vantage point and previous experience, each of which (if expressed honestly) is a truth and which, collectively, approximate something in the same zip code as Truth.  For most of us, if the person or thing matters much, we are or should be open to letting our perceptions, or our assessment or those perceptions, grow, develop, and change over time as developments or new information may warrant.  We are always blind people struggling with some elephant.]  

[fyi -- this is the image a friend posted that I mentioned in the column: