Wednesday letters: Presidential salutes
Opinion // Letters
Dec. 4, 2018 Updated: Dec. 5, 2018 1:06 a.m.
Former President George H.W. Bush is seen at his Houston office. Behind him is a portrait of the USS George H.W. Bush.
Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Staff / Houston Chronicle
Shared life
George H.W. Bush became one of yours. But I wish he had remained one of ours.
This son of Greenwich, Conn., who married a girl from Rye, N.Y., two affluent towns a few miles from my home on the shoreline of Long Island Sound, should have had a predictable future. He could have taken his war hero experience (a teenage fighter pilot!) and Yale degree and joined other bright young men in post-war America, wearing gray flannel suits and wing-tip shoes and taking the commuter train into Manhattan to a bank, stock brokerage or advertising agency.
But instead he set out not just for Texas, but West Texas where his style and accent surely confused and confounded the Jock Ewing types in the oil industry. And built a life and career that would eventually lead him back East to the highest office in the land.
I wish we could have kept him.
But I'm glad you shared him.
Jim Vespe, Mamaroneck, N.Y.
Too little, too late
The various good words directed toward George H. W. Bush by the media and the Democrats are well deserved even though they are hypocrisy to the nth degree.
Neither ever said a good word about him when he was involved in politics and most often maligned everything he did and said in their own unique style of misrepresentation.
David Morrison, Conroe
Shining example
George Bush had a life full of one thousand points. His thousand points included a life of service to the Navy during World War II, but with his passing the only member of the greatest generation that became president is now Jimmy Carter who also served his nation well and served the state of Georgia too.
His decisions and there were a lot of them showed that he cared best on fulfilling them rightly.
Even Donald Trump acknowledged the accomplishments he had made to honor Mr. Bush.
We honor him for the winning of the Cold War that came during his time as the nation's 41st president as well as the downfall of the once mighty Soviet Union that did happen in 1991.
Even his relationship and working partnership with Ronald Reagan became one of the best president-vice presidential relationship in the history of the American presidency, and he had it for eight years.
John Huerta, Houston
Stood tall
President Bush was a strong guy who had been to war, and during his time in government service he always remembered how to stand tall and stand for America.
He also was a father and husband who had been taught to be polite and gracious. It is that dichotomy of a strong man and leader who was also gracious and civil that served our country for many years. He truly found happiness in service to his country and in love for his family. Whether he agreed or disagreed with you on politics he was always polite. It was almost never about him and always about God, country and family.
Our country needed him as our president, and our country is better off for having elected him as our 41st president.
Bill Turney, Houston
Missed already
I have the greatest respect for former President George H.W. Bush, but to the best of my memory never voted for him and I am 71 years old.
That's how this country and our politics are supposed to work!
The man he was will be severely missed.
R.K. Entrekin, Houston