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An obligation to lead

December 05, 2018

Speaking on campus in April (1997), President George Bush Encouraged Audience Members to Participate in Government because we have AN OBLIGATION TO LEAD By Jamie Martin | Summer 1997 |

According to former President George Bush, retirement has been good. He’s relaxed, gets to travel, and can say whatever he wants to without fear of being derided by the media. “I’m a liberated free spirit when it comes to questions … if I like the question, fine; otherwise I won’t answer it!” Bush said. He apparently liked the questions he received on the Harding campus, answering them all. On April 24, Bush spoke to a crowded Benson Auditorium as the final speaker in this year’s American Studies Distinguished Lecture Series. With all 3,400 seats filled, there was a line of people waiting in the lobby for a chance to snag any last-minute vacancies. During the lecture, amidst humorous anecdotes poking fun at himself and his presidential term, Bush cautioned listeners against isolationism and urged support for strengthened ties with other nations such as China. “The United States–China relationship is the single most important in the world. It has more to do with peace in the next millennium than any other single relationship,” Bush explained. With the demise of the Soviet Union leaving the role of sole superpower to the United States, Bush emphasized that America must continue to lead world affairs. In fact, he pointed out that our superpower status gives us all an obligation to lead. “When we hear the siren’s call of ‘Come home America’ we ought to turn our attentions the other way, and we must continue to lead around the world. We have an obligation because we have the largest gross domestic product in the world, our own freedom, our own geography.” Bush went on, saying, “I believe that the United States must lead, and if we don’t, we’ll wake up several years from now and find another crisis on our hands.” "If America does not keep its foreign policy strong and guard against isolation," Bush said, "then we may see a strange coalition form between the extreme right and the left." Bush cautioned that his political opponents Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot, combined with the democratic leaders in Congress during his term in office to oppose both Operation Desert Storm and the North American Free Trade Agreement. [mks_pullquote align="left" width="500" size="32" bg_color="#000000" txt_color="#020202"]“ What really matters in your life are your family, your friends and your faith . ” -George H.W. Bush[/mks_pullquote] He expressed his concern for the nation’s present and future leaders and the decreasing involvement in the political arena. “I know there’s an ugly climate in Washington today, but do not be turned off,” Bush said. “Politics in America is a noble calling, and if you, good men and women of Harding, decide to sit on your hands because you don’t like the charge or counter charge of the day, you’re going to get the kind of government you deserve, which isn’t a very good one. But if you participate and get into the arena — it doesn’t matter whether you run for office (or) you’re helping somebody else getting into the political process at the local level — I can guarantee you that the future is going to be very bright,” Bush said. Bush pointed out that the media has charged him with being privileged, therefore out of touch with most Americans. However Bush said he was privileged to have been taught values from his parents. “My (role models are) my own mother and dad. They inculcated in us a sense of values. Today, as I look at the biggest problem facing the decimation and decline of the American family, they rank in my book as those who I look up to the most.” Giving credit to his parents for developing his sense of morality, Bush said that they taught him service to others. “My mother was a great one for saying, ‘Share credit; don’t always take credit for everything.’ These are truisms, but she lived them. They didn’t lecture us — they lived them,” Bush explained. “And that’s the privilege; that’s where I plead to having been privileged in life,” he added. According to Bush, he and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft are writing a book on the major foreign policy initiatives that took place during Bush’s presidency. “I’m gratified that I had a good enough team so that we were able to shape events in such a way that, when freedom finally prevailed in the Cold War, that when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union imploded, it happened peacefully,” Bush said. Strength of character is one of the attributes Bush finds important for aspiring politicians to possess. On this subject Bush said, “Character matters, and what’s truly important is not the political wars you win of lose, the victories on the playing field of the marks you get. What really matters in your life are your family, your friends and your faith.” Bush credited faith for keeping him strong through tough situations. He mentioned that he said many prayers the night before the Persian Gulf War began. [mks_pullquote align="right" width="500" size="32" bg_color="#000000" txt_color="#020202"]“ Let history decide whether I was a good president or a bad president. But I was a better president because I had faith in the Almighty. ” -George H.W. Bush[/mks_pullquote] The Bushes leaned on faith through personal tragedy as well. When talking about the death of their 4-year-old child, Robin, to leukemia, he said, “...it was faith that sustained us. When some people lose kids, their marriages fall apart; when we lost our child, we came together, but it was nothing miraculous about our character — it had to do with our faith in God.” Above all, Bush hopes that people will know that his administration, as well as he and Barbara, did their best to uphold the high standards that should prevail in the Oval Office. “What I really hope history will show is that Barbara and I conducted ourselves with honor in the White House and upheld the integrity of the office,” Bush said. “Let history decide whether I was a good president or a bad president. But I was a better president because I had faith in the Almighty.”

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