Skip to footer

George H. W. Bush in his own words: 10 stories from the updated 'All the Best, George Bush'

"All the Best, George Bush" is a collection of the personal correspondence of George H. W. Bush from his first years in the Navy in 1942 all the way to 2011. Here are 10 excerpts from the book.

7. 2001– A new President

Doug Mills/AP

Hugh Sidey was an American journalist and author.

Dear Hugh,

I am now trying to figure out exactly when I realized our son was the President of the United States.

I am certain that the moment he took the oath of office standing there with Laura and the twins and the Chief Justice was the key; but there were other moments before and after that helped define the matter....

This I calculated was my 5th inauguration as a platform guest – two as Ronald Reagan's Vice President. My own inauguration as the 41st President. Then Bill Clinton's as #42, then this wonderful one....

The Army singing sergeant did one of those mod-versions of a patriotic song medley – the kind where you throw in wobbles and descant noises. Why can't they just sing 'em straight anymore? Anyway it wasn't horrible. It was just bad....

Then the big moment as George was invited to the podium.... I got close to tears several times but never lost it. But this moment was clearly the most emotional of all for both Bar and me.... Wonder. Joy. Amazement. Honor. Happiness. I don't know how to describe what I felt, but it was good, real good.

....People say all the time "What do we call you now." I like "#41."

7 of 10
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.