Dear George H.W. Bush,
It saddened me as I watched a celebration service in honor of your life, not that you are gone, because you are with our God, our Lord and Savior, but because my children don’t have heroes like you in politics today.
The respect you have been shown over this past week has left the millennials of today speechless. They’ve tweeted and retweeted images of Bob Dole standing to salute and I’m sure they’ll be sharing the story of Jim Baker rubbing your feet shortly if they aren’t already. They’ve grown up in an age of hatred, harsh words, lies, infidelity, and being offended by the least little thing that doesn’t measure up to life as they want it. They don’t understand pride in country, yet humility in service.
Your celebration service has also left the media searching for words to explain the peace and celebration that your family and friends have shown. Faith isn’t always understood, in fact, most often people just don’t get it. How do you believe in something you can’t see?
To those people, I ask “How can you look at the life of President George H.W. Bush and not see?” Were you a perfect man? Of course not, and I’m certain Barbara would attest to that, but you lived a life well. You served your country, respected those in your party, your Christian circle of friends, as well as all those who disagreed with you. That’s not really found in this world anymore. Its “my way or the highway”.
When I was a senior in high school, back in 1984, my friend and I dressed up that year for Halloween as Ronald Reagan and “A bush” and we passed out jelly beans. We didn’t do that out of disrespect, but of total respect for the two of you and the offices you would soon be holding. You both were heroes to us and many others because the class and respect shown publicly and privately.
And please don’t think I’m bashing the millennials, I’m not. Just the opposite. I feel sorry for them, that somehow my generation has let them down. Somewhere in the course of my high school graduation and today, we have allowed God to be taken out of seemingly everything. We have somehow, in our ignorance, sat back and remained quiet when taking a stand should have happened. We’ve clouded our views so much that you can’t really tell if we stand with the world, or we stand with God.
We judge those who aren’t like us and show no respect for anyone who’s not “on our side”. We shout in outrage when people take a knee when “Oh say can you see…” has begun to play or they set our stars and stripes on fire, yet how often has my generation taken a knee just to pray for our country? We scream and protest pro-choice stances and those who don’t agree with the Biblical view of marriage, yet have we shown love to the least of these?
Yes, Mr. President, you lived life well and that is evident by the respect you’ve been shown. You lived a life that loved God and loved your neighbor. They say you are the last of the greatest, and oh how I pray that is not true! I pray those today will stand up and say, “I want to be like him!” They’ll answer the call to love God above all and serve Him in whatever capacity that entails. They’ll respect their neighbors and above all love one another and at the end of their lives, just like yours, God will get the glory and we will find comfort in knowing we will see them again! After all, “friends are friends forever when the Lord’s the Lord of them”! (Michael W. Smith)
Again, thank you for your service to our country and thanking you for a life well lived!
Respectfully,
A proud American
“In our hearts we know what matters. We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend; a loving parent; a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood, and town better than he found it,” -President George HW Bush
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