Posted on 02/18/2004 12:42:31 PM PST by Dubya
Bob Ray Sanders - In My Opinion
On hearing the radio news or seeing the morning newspaper headline "Bush pardons ex-mayor for role in bank fraud," no doubt many of the president's critics immediately put on their cynical caps.
I can imagine them saying, "There he goes again, protecting his rich buddies while turning his back on the little people."
Not this critic.
I knew there had to be more to the story. There had to be something other than patronage that would prompt the president to make such a potentially controversial decision in this highly charged election year.
Without knowing all the facts, I was convinced that Bush had taken the action for the right reason, regardless of how it may play out politically.
You see, even though I'm among the first to question Bush on many of his administration's policies, I have never doubted his sincerity on some issues and in certain situations.
Recalling a week in September 1999, I had a chance to observe then-Governor Bush as he exhibited the quality that would endear him to many voters and, as a result, become part of the marketing formula for his presidential campaign.
Compassion.
Bush was campaigning and raising funds in Michigan for his first White House bid that fall when he got news of a tragedy in Fort Worth.
A gunman had walked into Wedgwood Baptist Church and opened fire during a youth rally. He killed seven worshippers and wounded seven others before turning the gun on himself.
Bush interrupted his campaign activities and came to Texas.
When he arrived, he insisted that his presence not become a media event.
There were no cameras and reporters around when he visited some of the victims in the hospital, talked with students and teachers at an area high school and met with the church's pastor at his home.
Then-Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr, who accompanied the president on those rounds, said that Bush fought back tears as he met with a young Brewer High School football player who had been paralyzed in the shooting.
At Pastor Al Meredith's house later, the presidential candidate could no longer repel those tears. He couldn't help but cry, Barr said.
That following Sunday afternoon, at a citywide memorial service at Texas Christian University's Amon Carter Stadium, Bush would not speak at the event, nor did he take a place on the giant rostrum. He chose instead to sit in the stands with the more than 15,000 others in attendance.
When I asked why he had taken such a low profile, he put his arms around my shoulder and said, "Because I thought this was a religious ceremony, not a political event."
At that time, in that place, he had made all the right decisions for the right reason: compassion.
So when I heard this week that Bush had pardoned a man convicted of bank fraud, I suspected he had done that, too, for the right reason.
Former Plano Mayor David B. McCall Jr. pleaded guilty in 1997 to participating in fraudulent loans -- worth more than $25 million -- at his Plano Savings and Loan Association. The S&L failed in the 1980s.
Although he was 72 at the time, he was given a five-year sentence but was ordered to serve only six months of that in prison. In addition, he had to pay $100,000 in restitution.
When Bush pardoned him this weekend, McCall, 79, was dying from cancer. He was already in a coma when the president informed the family of his decision, wire reports said.
According to The Dallas Morning News, the family ordered a reduction in McCall's drugs Saturday, allowing him to regain consciousness long enough to be told of the president's call.
"They read him the pardon and told him to blink if he had grasped the meaning," the newspaper said.
"Mr. McCall blinked."
This is a decision I will not criticize.
The president did it out of compassion, and for that I can find no fault.
I do wish, however, that we saw that compassionate side a little more often.
You won't find Bob Ray Sanders writing a similar column praising Bush for the rest of the election season.
And what does he think he sees? There are dozens of private stories about the President's compassion and probably a lot more because he won't make them into campaign tidbits like all those who want him out would do. Just about anything he does, that makes others mad at him, revolves around compassion, whether it be going in harms way for Thanksgiving, parying and crying with wounded soldiers or dead sodiers' families, immigration, prescription bills, you name it and he does it for the right reason. The problem is that too many people either don't get it or don't value it.
I had forgot about that. Thank you for posting it.
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