Bush shares views from politics to religion in a Q&A session
Elizabeth Sudduth
News Editor
Former U.S. President George Bush addressed stu
dents, faculty and staff in a question and answer session. An
intimate group of about 500 gathered in Elon College’s
Whitley Auditorium at 2 p.m.
Bush was asked questions about foreign policy issues
faced during his administration, his fears during the Gulf
War Crisis and even more personal questions based on his
own personal faith.
Bush served as the nation’s 41 st president from 1989 to
1993. During his term in the Oval Office, Bush witnessed
the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of Germany, the
Gulf War, the collapse of the Soviet Union and negotiation
of the North American Free Trade Agreement, (NAFTA).
Sophomore Jordan Olsheski asked the President if he
shared a similar experience of faith as his son, the current
President George W. Bush.
Bush said he did have a strong faith, but kept it more
private. “I of thought myself as Abraham Lincoln, not that
I could compare myself to that great predecessor, but you
couldn’t be president without spending some time on your
knees in prayer,” Bush said. He sees faith as something
personal but did remark that his son had a better sense of
articulating his faith so not to mix church and state.
“When you’re president, you know everyone thinks of
you as some big shot, a big deal. You have got to believe
there is some force bigger than yourself”
Junior Kim Rogers asked Bush what he would have
done different in his presidency had he to do it all again.
Bush said that he would have expressed differently and more
convincingly to the American people that the economy was
not in a recession in the fall of 1992.
“I wasn ’ t a good enough communicator like my predeces
sor, Ronald Regan, in convincing the American people not to
think things were better than they actually are, but that they
were as good as they were,” Bush said.
He said the recession had ended the spring of 1991,
prior to the 1992 election and maybe by explaining this he
would have had a job for four more years. “I think commu
nication was my biggest short coming; there were others.”
Martin Baker, an athletic trainer, asked the former
president what were some of the personal traits that drove
policy successes.
“I think what drove me more was getting people around
me that know more about it than I did,” he said. “Getting
good, smart people in the arms services, some my cabinet
secretaries, but through them and my experiences of eight
years as vice president, with the UN, the CIA and living in
China, I had a concept.”
Bush also added that you cannot do everything by your
self; you have to have help. “I have learned you can’t take
credit for everything,” he said. “You have to leam to care
about other people, you have to go the extra mile and care
about the little guy along the way.”
One of the final questions of the session was with all the
accomplishments Bush has achieved, what was the most
important thing he had learned.
Bush looked at the audience and said subtly, “my kids still
come home.”
“Some people might think that is a little weird,” Bush
said. “But we have a strong family and it means everything
to us.”
To former President Bush, his family has been his greatest
impact. He credits his mother, who taught him to be a team
Adam Waterson / Photography Editor
Former President George Bush addresses
students, faculty and a staff in a Q&A held in Whitley.
player when her son called home to brag about scoring three
goals in a soccer game, ‘George, how did the team do?”’
f ft f o r at ( o g 1 s E 4 o f? C M g a C m a n i t ^
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History in the making
High atop the
future bell tower, a
construction worker
hurries to finish the struc
ture by opening season. The
57 foot bell tower will have
four bells tuned to the sound
of the classic Westminster
Chimes.
Photo by: Adam Waterson / Photography Editor