{"id":9714,"date":"2015-06-12T14:53:39","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T14:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9714"},"modified":"2015-06-12T14:53:39","modified_gmt":"2015-06-12T14:53:39","slug":"happy-birthday-mr-president-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9714","title":{"rendered":"Happy birthday, Mr. President"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On the occasion of former President George H.W. Bush’s 91st birthday, I feel moved to tell you my George Bush Story.<\/p>\n

It’s not all that grand, but it kind of speaks to the issue of: What does one say to someone who’s done so much in his life?<\/p>\n

The former president came to Amarillo in 2007 to speak at a symposium about leadership. The event occurred at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts. As editor of the editorial page for the Amarillo Globe-News, I received an invitation to “have lunch with President Bush.” Yes, I know that sounds high-falutin’. I use that phrase to make a little fun of myself, as I was one of about 200 or so “special guests” who broke bread with the 41st president.<\/p>\n

He said a few words, thanked all the right people and we all concluded our lunch.<\/p>\n

Then came another special moment. I was among some in the lunch crowd who got invited to a picture-taking session with president.<\/p>\n

So, the president left the room to prepare for what’s known in the newspaper business as the classic “grip-and-grin” session. We followed him out of the room and then stood in line.<\/p>\n

Here’s where a bit of trauma set in: trying to decide what to say to someone who’s done what this man has done over the course of lengthy and incredibly varied public service career.<\/p>\n

Think about it. He was a naval aviator during World War II, and was shot down on a combat mission in the Pacific; he served in Congress for two terms, representing the Houston area; he served as chairman of the Republican National Committee; U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; head of the CIA; special envoy to China; vice president of the United States; then was elected president of the United States.<\/p>\n

Not a bad dossier, correct. Indeed, I’ve said for years that George H.W. Bush arguably was the most qualified<\/em> man ever to serve as president and commander in chief.<\/p>\n

So, what does one way when you shake this man’s hand?<\/p>\n

I settled on nothing at all original, witty or memorable.<\/p>\n

I merely said, “Mr. President, thank you so much for the service you gave to this country.”<\/p>\n

The more interesting element of that 45-second encounter, though, was his response. He bowed his head as he thanked me for the expression of gratitude. He asked me for my name and what I did for a living.<\/p>\n

I truly hope he understood I was sincere in saying what I said.<\/p>\n

Then it was over. I received a framed picture of “George Bush and me” a couple of weeks later. It’s on my bedroom dresser. I’m proud of it.<\/p>\n

Happy birthday, Mr. President.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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On the occasion of former President George H.W. Bush’s 91st birthday, I feel moved to tell you my George Bush Story. It’s not all that grand, but it kind of speaks to the issue of: What does one say to someone who’s done so much in his life? The former president came to Amarillo in … Continue reading Happy birthday, Mr. President<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[989,1112,1890,3700,3905,5014,5103,5302],"class_list":["post-9714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cia","tag-congress","tag-george-h-w-bush","tag-presidency","tag-republican-national-committee","tag-united-nations","tag-vice-presidency","tag-world-war-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}