A farewell to ‘41,’ former President Bush
President George Herbert
Walker Bush passed
away on Nov. 30, at the
age of 94. Many in Brooklyn
will never forget the former
president — just like he never
forgot some of us.
Let me explain.
In 1988, rookie New York
City Police Department offi cer
Edward Byrne, who graduated
from Bay Ridge’s Xaverian
High School, was assassinated
on the orders of a drug
kingpin. Byrne’s father gave
Bush his son’s badge, and the
life-long statesman carried
it with him while campaigning
for president that year,
and later kept it in his White
House desk.
Bush — a class act in his
personal, military, and political
lives — never forgot Byrne.
And the borough will always
remember him for that.
Much like his presidential
predecessor Ronald Reagan,
Bush inspired a new generation
to join the GOP because of
his leadership. When Reagan
died in June 2004, I vividly remember
talking to my friend
Nicole Malliotakis, now a Republican
Assemblywoman, on
the telephone for hours while
we both teared up watching
his funeral services on television.
She and I refl ected on
Reagan’s signifi cant positive
contributions to our nation
and world, and his impact on
us becoming Republicans.
This week, following Bush’s
death, there are many Americans
with similar stories and
wet eyes as well.
Bush was a beloved husband,
father, and grandfather.
He was married to his
COURIER L 26 IFE, DEC. 7–13, 2018 DT
wife Barbara for more than
seven decades before she died
in April. Many say that when
someone loses his or her life
companion at an older age,
that person is soon called to
join their loved one in the after
life. So, perhaps it should
not be surprising that only
seven months after Barbara
passed away, former President
Bush joined her for eternity.
Bush, or “41,” served as
Reagan’s loyal vice president
for eight years before becoming
the fi rst sitting vice president
to assume the presidency
since Vice President Martin
Van Buren succeeded President
Andrew Jackson in 1836.
And Bush and his son, former
President George W. Bush,
were only the second fatherand
son pair to occupy the
Oval Offi ce, along with John
Adams and John Quincy Adams.
One could easily make the
argument that Bush Senior
was the most successful oneterm
president in our nation’s
history. After all, who can forget
his “This will not stand”
declaration following Saddam
Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait
— or, more signifi cantly,
his forging of one of the most
impressive international military
coalitions to carry out
that promise. Bush also managed
the successful end of the
Cold War, and oversaw the fall
of the Berlin Wall, in his four
years in offi ce.
The elder Bush understood
he was about to lead a new
world order when he said in
his 1989 inaugural address,
“For a new breeze is blowing,
and a world refreshed by
freedom seems reborn; for in
man’s heart, if not in fact, the
day of the dictator is over. The
totalitarian era is passing,
its old ideas blown away like
leaves from an ancient, lifeless
tree. A new breeze is blowing,
and a nation refreshed by
freedom stands ready to push
on. There is new ground to be
broken, and new action to be
taken.”
Indeed, Bush took those actions
in Kuwait, as well as in
Panama, when he gave the order
to remove that country’s
then dictator Manuel Noriega
from power during “Operation
Just Cause,” and in the
Soviet Union, by developing a
new relationship with its then
leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The 41st commander-inchief
always had the respect
of those he led, because he was
one of them. On his 18th birthday,
Bush enlisted in the U.S.
Navy — despite his family’s
wealth and the cushy private
life it could have bankrolled —
and went on to serve in World
War II as one of that military
branch’s youngest aviators.
He also reminded many
folks of a time when politics
was not just us versus them
and a zero-sum game between
political parties.
His character and patriotism
can be gleaned in the
traditional note an outgoing
president leaves his successor,
when Bush wrote to Bill Clinton
in 1993, “You will be our
President when you read this
note. I wish you well. I wish
your family well. Your success
now is our country’s success. I
am rooting hard for you.”
May we hope that Bush’s
legacy is a reminder to all
Americans that patriotism
should always come before
party politics.
Bob Capano is the chairman
of the Brooklyn Reform
Party and is a professor of political
science.
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Bob Capano
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