I want to share briefly with you an experience I had this past weekend while visiting with a member of my family who came to North Texas to visit my sons, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and me.

To be honest, I was drawn inexorably into making direct comparisons between what I saw over the weekend and what we are experiencing now in real time as events continue to unfold in D.C.

On Saturday, we drove to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. My brother-in-law had not seen it yet, but it was my third or fourth visit. I love going there, if only to allow my sappiness to show itself while touring the 9/11 exhibit at the Bush Museum. I visited with one of the docents at the front door when we entered and I told her how much I have grown to admire President Bush in recent years, particularly in light of what his most recent successor has done to denigrate the office he inherited. She nodded in agreement. She gets it.

As we walked through the myriad exhibits, I was struck by the wisdom the museum presented that came from Bush during not only in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, but in his speaking on behalf of HIV/AIDS research the investments made in the PEPFAR program that the Bush administration created, which Donald Trump wants to dismantle. Bush spoke eloquently about how the nation’s response to 9/11 was not a war “against Islam,” but a war against the terrorists who perverted a great religion.

Bush’s fingerprints can be found on efforts to reform public education during his presidency and on his efforts to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

All told, we had a wonderful experience reliving those turbulent years … and wishing for a return to the wisdom that Bush was capable of exhibiting during difficult times.

The next day we ventured to Arlington to tour the National Medal of Honor Museum. I’ve written already about that experience. I won’t repeat myself.

However, I do want to note that I found the absence of meaningful remarks from the current president about the heroism on display at the Medal of Honor Museum to be striking. He has draped the medal around the necks of several heroes during his terms in office, but in each ceremony I have watched from afar I cannot eradicate from my memory the insults he has hurled at wounded warriors, his refusal to visit American graves in France during the D-Day commemoration, the horrible things he has said about a Gold Star family — Iraqi immigrants — whose son died fighting in Iraq while wearing a U.S. Army uniform.

I know I am not not the only American patriot who thinks this way. It saddens me terribly. However, it did not a single thing to take away the respect, admiration and love I feel toward the 3,600 men who have received the nation’s highest military honor.

I am a proud American patriot who was thrilled to see these exhibits designed to bring out the love I have for my country and for the people who have served it.