Honor

About a week or two before Christmas, all on the same day, Jackie gets separate calls from 3 of our daughters. Does dad have such and such a book asks one and then an hour later another call with a question about a different book and then 20 minutes later by the third girl asking about yet another book.

It turns out that I didn't have any of their choices and so last Sunday when our family got together to celebrate Christmas I was blessed with: 41, A Portrait Of My Father, by George W. Bush, - Made In America, an autobiography by hockey player Chris Chelios - and Killing Patton. by Bill O'Reilly from daughter Becky who was kind enough to "scan" the book ahead of time for me.

I've just finished reading 41 which I found really enjoyable. It received almost unanimous praise on the review sections at Amazon and Barnes and Noble but of course got the expected raspberry from it's review in the New York Times. I did read the review and thought it reflected the expected hate and vitriol that they always have had for the author.

I have a personal story about George W. Bush. When President Bush was running for his second term he took a bus tour in South West Michigan and one of the stops was to give a speech at the Ottawa County fairgrounds. At that time we were living just across the road from the back of the fairgrounds and that morning I look out the window of our house and notice snipers checking out possible positions from trees that are no further than 30 yards from us. You just don't see that everyday.

The President is supposed to come for his appearance sometime between 1 and 3 pm and I have road tests scheduled and our test site is a couple of miles down the road from where we were living. It is a beautiful September day and I'm at our office when a police car pulls up and parks at the corner of Aniline and Ottawa Beech Road to block any traffic. I walk over to join a small crowd at the corner to check things out and after a few minutes we see driving by a formation of about 20 motorcycle police followed by an armed personal carrier carrying a dozen men with combat gear and then what looks like a truck equipped with surface to air missiles.

The caravan stops and we look back 100 yards and see 3 big blue buses parked in front of Capt'n Sundae, a local and very popular north side ice cream eatery. Sweet memories from Capt'n Sundae are what every north side kid will have fondly when they grow up. There is a large outdoor seating area located underneath a tree shaded canopy where on a typical summer evening both winners and losers in their little league and T ball uniforms mix with bathing suit clad high school and college guys and girls returning from a day at the Holland State Park waiting in line behind grandma and grandpa, mom and dad and an occasional biker and biker babe dressed in their do rag, leather and tattoo.

A dozen high school kids clad in the blue capt'n shirts frantically prepare the soft serve cones, slushes, Hudsonville ice cream, and speciality ice cream concoctions. One of the most favorite dishes is the Tommy Turtle which is a bowl of vanilla soft serve topped with hot fudge, hot carmel and pecans.

But this is about 2 in the afternoon and the story is that President Bush gets out of one of the buses, strolls up to the order window and asks what's good. They of course make him the Tommy Turtle, offer it gratis but the President insists on paying. He then takes his time and eats the treat and talks with anyone who happened to be there and has his photo taken with anyone else who has a camera. One of the photos is still on display there today.

Unfortunately I am not there. I am still at the corner hoping that my customer would come in the back way to our location. And when he did I didn't want him not to find anyone there. After about 20 minutes, without my customer coming of course, the buses fire up their engines and drive past me and I wave, but you can't see into the buses and the President might be in any one of the identical buses so I smile and wave at all three.

Two of my daughters went to the rally at the fairgrounds. They were way back in the crowd, the President was standing on a flat bed trailer giving his speech and there was another flat bed trailer between him and the crowd and my girls could hear the speech but could not really see the President.

My oldest daughter at that time was a morning DJ at the local Christian radio station. Her co host (interestingly enough named Tommy) really wanted to see the President but like my girls he ended up way back in the crowd. His wife wasn't as interested so she had dropped Tommy off at the fairgrounds and then stopped with her 4 year old twins for some ice cream at the Capt'n. A lot of time in life and in politics timing is everything and she ended up eating ice cream with President Bush and her twins had their picture taken with him. They eagerly showed the picture to their dad when he picked them up. However the next day when their mom asked them if they wanted to take the photo for show and tell at their play school they said no, we'd rather bring our Sponge Bob Square Pants character.

Politically I am to the right of Bush 41 and Bush 43 and also to Bush 45 if that happens. I do find in the story of Bush 41 though qualities that you just do not see anymore in politics or for that matter much in the world at large. There are many words that can describe what I am talking about, such as hard working, loyal, honest, humble, forgiving, encouraging, doing your duty and finally, trusting that if you do your best God will take care of the rest and leave it to Him to ultimately defend your character.

These I will sum up in one word - Honor. The sense of duty one has to serve God, family and country to the best of one's ability, to admit one's mistakes and to try to do better the next time. George Herbert Walker Bush had all of that in spades. 41 is first of all a son's remembrance of the values he learned from his father. It reminded me so much of how my father would tell us these little stories and sayings that reflected what it meant and how it worked to do things the right way.

Many will say that 43 was not the same man that 41 was and I don't know if I was tested like my father that I would have matched up any better. I can only do my best and try to learn from my mistakes and fight the good fight and trust that God will defend my character.

And of course stop at the Capt'n from time to time with my grand kids to make memories.