A Passing Era<\/p>\n
Barbara Pierce Bush, First Lady of the United States with President George H.W. Bush and mother of President George W. Bush was buried yesterday.\u00a0 She was ninety-two and, in keeping with her lifetime of strong decision making, \u00a0chose palliative care in the last few days of her life. \u00a0\u00a0She was the backbone of the Bush family of six children, fourteen grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n
She was the last of the \u201cGreatest Generation\u201d to serve as First Lady.\u00a0 Her death marked the passing of an era.\u00a0 The funeral echoed an earlier time, when our nation could check partisanship at the Capitol or White House door.\u00a0 \u00a0While the Bush family has produced many Republican officeholders, former Presidents Obama and Clinton and other Democrats and Independents were invited to the ceremony.\u00a0 The current First Lady, Melania Trump was present as well.<\/p>\n
George H.W. Bush served only one term as President.\u00a0He was defeated in a hotly contested 1992 election by Bill Clinton.\u00a0 The on-again, off-again candidacy of Ross Perot as a third choice impacted the outcome. \u00a0Yet when Clinton\u2019s term was over, it was Bush and Clinton who came together for disaster relief, starting with the Tsunami in Indonesia.\u00a0 Clinton became a \u201csurrogate son\u201d to the Bush\u2019s, not only in public settings, but also with the family at their Maine vacation home in Kennebunkport.\u00a0\u00a0Despite the electoral contest, two former Presidents were able to work together, improve the world, and build a friendship.\u00a0 Barbara Bush was a huge part of the success in that relationship.<\/p>\n
Comity: defined as, \u201ccourtesy and considerate behavior towards others.\u201d\u00a0 The funeral, filled with laughter and tears \u00a0and memories of a life well lived, echoed the comity of a previous era, when there were clear lines of behavior that weren\u2019t crossed.\u00a0 Granddaughter Jenna Bush quoted from Romeo and Juliet:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she shall die take her and cut her out into\u00a0stars\u00a0and she shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Some will reach a conclusion that Jenna meant the \u201cgarish sun\u201d to be someone specific (just as many accused Robert Kennedy of attacking President Lyndon Johnson with the same quote in 1964.)\u00a0 But in the Bush spirit of comity, I think she was speaking more of her \u201cGanny\u2019s\u201d plain speaking style, \u00a0as a woman of grace and strength.<\/p>\n We are not in a time of comity \u2013 and certainly the fact that Jenna works for NBC will be the subject of Tweets and columns, as will the smile that Barack Obama elicited from Melania Trump.\u00a0 But for those of us who had the opportunity to watch or listen to the celebration of Barbara Bush, it brought back a more settled world, where every statement and decision didn\u2019t feel like life and death.<\/p>\n Robert Kennedy also had a quote that fits our current situation:<\/p>\n