AdamSmith Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 Most telling, and moving, how the Bushes (George H.W., even George W. [heresy! ], and now Bar) are looking better and better with time, given the current scene. (Today's world a low bar, to be sure; but still.) I post the below with admiration for a kind of iron-assed personality that we can, maybe in a fairly short time, hope to return to in our leaders. Barbara Bush redefined the role of first lady ...In 1989, she famously visited Grandma's House, one of the first homes created to care for infants infected with HIV. She spent nearly an hour at the facility near the White House and held babies infected with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS -- at a time when that disease carried a crippling stigma and stoked widespread fear. Through this simple act she helped disprove the myth that the disease could be caught simply through physical contact. "You can hug and pick up AIDS babies and people who have the HIV virus" without hurting yourself, she said during the visit. "There is a need for compassion," she said as she cradled a baby. That one visit helped change public perception and likely spared an untold number of people infected with the virus from further pain... https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/17/opinions/barbara-bush-opinion-brower/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamSmith Posted April 18, 2018 Author Share Posted April 18, 2018 ...It's noteworthy that while Barbara Bush could relate to people from different backgrounds, she came from one of great privilege. Raised in a wealthy New York suburb and educated at boarding school, she met her future husband, George H.W. Bush, in 1941 at a country club Christmas dance in Greenwich, Connecticut. She was just 16 and he was 17. They became engaged before he went off to fight in World War II as a Navy torpedo pilot. "I married the first man I ever kissed," she said, adding with her usual dry sense of humor, "when I tell my children that, they just about throw up." She and her husband had six children, including former President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush... https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/17/opinions/barbara-bush-opinion-brower/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamSmith Posted April 18, 2018 Author Share Posted April 18, 2018 ...Think I have mentioned that one time I sat a couple tables away from Bar and GWB and another couple dining at this place in Kennebunkport... https://www.gracehotels.com/whitebarninn/grace-dining/ ...close enough to overhear them. They of course occupied this table closest to the window. With a couple of black-suited, earpiece-outfitted SS agents sipping soda water at the bar. And two black and blacked-out-windows Ford SUVs just outside the door. She was hilarious! Droll, Sahara-dry witty, catching every nuance in the convo. I don't think even Joan Rivers was really as funny and witty as I overheard Bar Bush being in her talk with friends, right there behind me. I spent my whole meal trying my best not to laugh out loud. George was pretty funny too -- in, again, that family-inherited, southern-Connecticut-based, driest possible way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RA1 Posted April 18, 2018 Members Share Posted April 18, 2018 Amazing lady. Thanks for your input. Best regards, RA1 AdamSmith 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
