A parting salute

I don't often feel a strong impulse to post here. I am a busy guy, and I fit blogging in with lots of other stuff. It gets lower priority than most other things, and I get around to it when I can. The events of the last few days, president-wise, have got me doing a lot of thinking, and I find a sudden strong need to write it down. This may not be the popular thing to say these days, but such is the soapbox I have that I'll use it.

Thank you, George W. Bush.

There, I said it. Get over it.

I think history will look kindly upon the two terms of Bush, though it will take a long time to see things properly through the lens of time. Was it perfect? By no means. Domestically I disagreed with the Republican spending spree, implicitly condoned by the president. The idiotic interest rate reductions and devaluing of the dollar by the Fed is part of why we are where we are today. On the international front, outsourcing the Iran problem to the feckless Europeans was a mistake, and the dealings with North Korea were laughable at best. Too free a hand with the various Secretaries of State, methinks. In the end, though it gets down to this:

Do you remember 9/11? I do.

On that day, everything changed for me. I lost family, and so did many others. I remember the sheer panic of that day, wondering whether my father and brother were alive. A cousin of mine, a great guy, was caught in an elevator while the fires raged. He stayed in the elevator and helped two women out first, just before the tower collapsed. He never left that elevator, but the ladies were able to escape.

I remember the anthrax attacks. I remember the uncertainty around whether we would be attacked again.

I remember the blackout of 2003, watching the sun go down outside my house and looking at the total lack of lights, wondering whether this was another attack.

I remember.

To this day I can't think about this stuff without getting very upset. I just had to step away from my computer after I typed this to cry a bit. I'm glad I am in my office eating lunch.

The simple fact is that we have been safe in the US since 9/11 while other places around the world have not been. I thank George W. Bush and our great men in uniform for this. I also have tremendous respect for a man who despite being so reviled never got vindictive or angry, but continued to do the right thing even when it wasn't politically expedient. It was shown yet again in the weeks during which power was smoothly transferred to the president-elect.

It saddens me that so many people seem to have forgotten about that day and what came after. It is human nature to want to put those sorts of memories behind you. But you know what? Your ability to do that at its very essence was made possible by George W. Bush's administration. In a strange way I am glad that people can complain about how things were handled, about how we should do things different. That means that it is working; we are winning, though it is far from over.

And what about our next president? Well, I couldn't disagree more philosophically with him. Still, though, he won fair and square, so he deserves his chance. He'll have my support, if not my agreement. I think he'll find things not quite so easy when the mantle of power is upon him, and I hope he can make the same kind of tough decisions that his predecessor made without thought for personal gain or politics.