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Most Value-able Player Bush Sings "America the Beautiful"By Rick Horowitz
Me and the missus, we read the newspapers, we've got cable and the computer, and we like what we're seeing lately. Our president values values -- and isn't it about time somebody did, and said so right out loud? You bet it is, and our president has been saying it right out loud every chance he gets. We couldn't be happier. The way we look at it, if America's president won't stick up for America's values, who will? President George W. Bush sees it exactly the same way, which is why he's been making such a big deal out of values during this whole vacation of his. For starters, it's not even a vacation, not really. The White House calls it "Home to the Heartland," so you know it's more than just some guy sitting on his duff down in Texas for a month. George W.'s been working, too, and whatever he does, wherever he goes, that's the one thing he wants to talk about. American values, which everybody knows are heartland values. Farmers, for instance. When George W. signed that farm bill the other day, he talked about how "farm families represent the best of America." He said they "represent the values that have made this country unique and different -- values of love and family, values of respect for nature." (I stuck the article right on the refrigerator.) Then he went up to the Rocky Mountains and talked about it some more, only this time it was how the mountains were what reflected our country's spirit. And "the spirit of America is found in the character of our citizens," our president said, "the value base that makes America, I think, such a different kind of place, a country that values family and friendship, a place where people learn values and character." He hit the nail right on the head both times, if you ask me. You think anybody else in the whole world values families the way we do right here in America? You think the Belgians do? Or the Japanese? How many Nigerians do you know who even have any friends? Have you ever heard anyone talk about Brazilian character? Not a chance. But George W., he knows that Americans are just oozing character. In fact, that's something else he was saying when he was up in the mountains. He said, "When I try to describe America to somebody who has never been here, I say, 'We're a country stitched together by communities of character.'" He took the words right out of my mouth! That's the exact same thing I always say when anybody asks me about America, like on an airplane when I'm sitting next to some foreigner. "We're a country stitched together by communities of character," I say. They always look at me with admiration and envy, and I don't blame them one bit. It's like that other thing George W. was talking about in the Rockies. He said there's "a grand vision embodied in these mountains. And the vision is that we can teach our children right from wrong." Isn't that what you think about when you see all those beautiful peaks? Teaching our children right from wrong? We certainly do. Of course the media doesn't see it that way. They're not from the heartland to begin with, so they're not going to give our president a fair shake when he talks so much about how great it is. So they've been asking him, if the heartland is so great, is he saying that Americans who don't live in the heartland don't have all those values? And he's had to backtrack a little, even though everybody knows the closer you live to an ocean, the worse you are as a person. "Listen," George W. told them, "the values are very prevalent throughout America. It's just that my house is not on the coast. My house is in Texas." And he even said, "There's a lot of people, wonderful people that live on the coast of the country. They've got great family values, they care just as much about teaching children right from wrong as anybody else. California is one of the huge agricultural states." Me and the missus, we couldn't have said it better ourselves. Posted 8/16/01. See
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Rick Horowitz
