A day in the life of President Bush (photos): 2/1/03

yahoo.com, netscape.com, whitehouse.gov

[rintense]

For the second time in two years, President Bush spoke to console and grieve with the rest of the nation in remarks regarding the tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia. Bush left Camp David early this morning and returned to the White House as he followed the events over the Texas sky. In his speech, Bush succinctly expressed the fears of by stating, 'The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors.' The President exchanged condolences with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as the first Israeli astronaut lost his life with six other Americans. All federal flags have been lowered to half-staff.

God bless the families of the brave souls who have joined the heavens they so willing chose to explore.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Oh, Mike....that's beautiful.

HOW did I miss the Dose yesterday?????????????????

[rintense]

Thanks for your very kind post, MS.B.

[Pippin]

Good evening, Rintense!

God bless you for putting up the thread on Saturday. It is comforting to know we have a President who care deeply for this nation. And I thank God every day for all His graces.

[Pippin]

I thought I saw you post here earlier?

[Brad’s Gramma]

Thank you.

[Pippin]

Good evening, Baseballmom!

Thanks for the kind words, I didn't read this whole thread but I suspect I'd have to have a box of kleenexes by the computer as all the posts I've read keeps a lump in my throat.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Thank you for your service to our Country, and WELCOME aboard!!!

[Brad’s Gramma]

the truth of Jesus' promise to those who mourn: they SHALL be comforted.

God bless YOU, milagro.

[Pippin]

Hellow, and welcome to the Dose!

I see by your screenname you must be a Marine.

My brother was in the Marines in the early eighties so I have a respect for all in the USMC.

I salute you,sir, and thank you for your service to this country.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Thank you, all of you, for your posts.

[nicmarlo]

I join you in praying that our God will hold him up and keep him protected.

He is amazing; I have heard that he often says, he feels and senses the prayers of God's people for him.....and I truly believe he must. We are so very lucky to have him as our President.....truly we are. and ty for your kind words, but it's easy to write when it's written from passion or love or admiration....and how can one not admire our President? He's a good man, and we are lucky for it.

[Pippin]

About your post at # 43, It's funny you should post this as I was thinking about this same thing after a rare news conference if his, Some one asked about VP Cheney being his running mate in '04. W answered that should he choose to run for a second term that Cheney would be his running mate. now, I don't know if he meant if Cheney chooses to run or if he, W, chooses to run, but, I sure hope he does go for a second term.

Though if he shouls decide to call it quits at the end of his first term, who would blame him?

But I'm betting he runs in '04!

[Republic]

Guido-I was able to speak with our minister before our church service today. I told him exactly what was in my heart. I asked for a moment of silence for our astronauts and their families, for our President because of the tremendous weight he is carrying, that is so evident these days upon his countenance and that I felt so deeply grateful to our Father that we had a good man of deep and unwavering faith in the Lord guiding our nation and who is unafraid to quote from scripture to our nation.

And guess what? We had the moment of silence and our minister made the remarks about our President and the church was so quiet during the silence that is was almost other worldly. After our minister then went into his prayer...speaking of the tragedy of the Columbia's crew and their families and co-workers and speaking of our President....many said AMEN outloud-no usual for our church. I know, without a doubt, a tremendous prayer of love and concern for our nation, the tragedy of the crash yesterday and our President went straight to God's ears today. I felt it. Thank you so much for the idea.

[Brad’s Gramma]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834504/posts


Guess what? WE FREEPERS were mentioned by Wall Street Journal....our live thread, of yesterday, and how we were on top of things. I "think" it said we beat out the news wires!!!!

[nicmarlo]

Thank you, Brad's Gramma. As you do, and as you know, I do love and admire our President.

[Republic]

I also sent an email to our President today-went to the Whitehouse.gov website and followed to the link.

I know the chances are slight that our President will ever read it-but as we drove home from church, my hubby asked me to do it. I also spoke of this website by way of a P.S. at the end of my note---I figure, if any staffer at the WH does happen on this daily thread, that person might be motivated to inform someone close to President Bush-that placing a copy of it everyonce in awhile before our leader might 'lift' his heart. Let's hope this happens!

[Brad’s Gramma]

I just received this, via email.......



02 February 2003

"ILAN RAMON - IN MEMORIAM"

* * *

HonestReporting joins the people of Israel in mourning the tragic loss of
Col. Ilan Ramon and his Columbia Shuttle crewmates.

We wish to share the following inspirational tribute, "Shattered Dreams,"
by Dina Coopersmith of http://aish.com/.

HonestReporting.com


====== ILAN RAMON: SHATTERED DREAMS ======

The mind reels in disbelief as reports come in about the explosion of the
Columbia space shuttle.

We in Israel have become accustomed to announcements of terror attacks. We
have even attuned ourselves to hearing the nuances of seriousness in the
voice of the radio announcer as he or she introduces the hourly news so
that we can steel ourselves against receiving the inevitable tragic
information. Particularly on Saturday night, after spending an entire
Shabbat disconnected from the outside world, the first moment of the
post-Shabbat news is fraught with a special kind of tension.

But nothing prepared us for this.

It was just not possible.

After 16 days of almost constant news coverage about Ilan Ramon, Israel's
first astronaut, we all felt we knew him. He was family. He represented us
all -- our country, our people, our past and our future. He was our hero
at a time when we sorely needed one.

The son of Holocaust survivors, he expressed all that was characteristic
of the proud Israeli Jew. As a pilot in the Israeli air force, he was a
war hero who bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, as well as fighting
in the Yom Kippur and Lebanon Wars.
Although not religious, Ilan felt compelled to keep some significant
religious observances in space to fulfill his dream of uniting the Jewish
people and representing our nation. He took a book of Psalms and a picture
drawn by a 14-year-old Jewish boy who was killed in Auschwitz; he ate only
kosher food and made Kiddush Friday night and recited Shema Yisrael as the
shuttle flew over Jerusalem.

He said he wanted to "emphasize the unity of the people of Israel and the
Jewish communities abroad."

Among my friends, we spoke about him creating a Kiddush Hashem --
sanctification of God's name.

How could he be gone?

How could all our hopes and dreams disintegrate into the thin layer of
atmosphere that protects the earth?

We anxiously awaited his landing, to celebrate the triumph of our new
national hero. The possibility of mishap was very far from our minds.

"It's much more dangerous to drive in a car in this country that to travel
in space," Ilan's brother, Gadi, said of his attitude. "Not in our wildest
dreams did we imagine that there would be any problem."

Ilan's father said early Saturday morning, as he eagerly anticipated the
imminent arrival of his son, "The only problem might be in the weather,
and that might only delay the landing by a day or two."

The tragedy brought home to us once again the fragility of human endeavor.
We are shocked when the frontiers of science and technology, in which we
place our unflagging trust, reveal themselves to be so shaky and limited.

Colonel Ramon took great delight in taking a "surprise" with him to space
-- a Torah scroll that survived the hell of the Holocaust. The scroll
symbolized for him his dream of a unified people under God, with an
indomitable spirit.

That Torah scroll exploded along with Ramon and his fellow astronauts at
an altitude of 200,000 feet over a Texas town called Palestine (did I hear
that correctly?).

The Midrash tells us that "the Jewish nation will not be redeemed until
they are one unit." Ilan Ramon was a devoted husband, father, pilot, and
scientist. But his greatest legacy is that he brought healing to a wounded
nation.

Our hearts and prayers are with Ilan Ramon's parents and his wife, Rona,
and their four children. Our nation mourns with you. Unfortunately, it is
in grief that we have fulfilled Ilan's dream of unity.

Ilan commented this past Thursday on what the world looked like to him in
space. "The world looks marvelous from up here, so peaceful, so wonderful
and so fragile."

Now we can turn that comment eerily around and say to Ilan, "You looked so
marvelous from down here, so peaceful, so wonderful... and so fragile."

[Republic]

Yesterday must have been a very emotional, very rough day for you . God Bless you, I am so glad you are part of this forum.....we really are a family. (We laugh, cry, rant, argue, laugh some more, and share a great love for our Father in Heaven and our leader and nation!

[Pippin]

Thanks, Republic!

I hope he does read it!

[reDublican]

I first want to say what a privilege it is to be able to be in the company of such kindred spirits each and every day on this thread. Your sincerity and drive, your determination and compassion, your merciless wit and generous fellowship all make A Day in the Life a welcome respite from the cynical venom and bitterness that so otherwise dominates the national debate. And when tragedy strikes, whether national or personal, we all know that this is a place that we can come to seek and find solace and comfort. What a marvelous gift.

To Rintense: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Secondly, I thought I'd offer a few words about the president. Nothing original. You've all said it before in one way or another. From the elegant prose of MJY to lawgirl's thud, we've pretty much demonstrated how we feel about our Dubya.

But now, the sentiment that we feel toward our president is beginning to spread into the hearts and minds of people who once had been ambiguous about and uninspired by the notion of leadership. The tough sells, that is.

I bring this up because I have a close family member who was just one of those tough sells. He was always quite knowledgable about foreign and domestic affairs, frequently teaching me a thing or two about the subjects; very well-learned in world and American political history; well-traveled (in fact, he just came back from overseas and assured me that we aren't the only ones who hate France); and ideologically conservative, to boot.

But he was so dissolusioned by the three ring circus of debauchery and scandal that was the Clinton Administration that he couldn't bring himself to participate in the political process. He felt as though the man embodied lies and corruption, and that his halo of dirt was not only typical of politicians, but a standard feature of their character--regardless of outward appearances. He turned his back on the whole show and let the 2000 election come and go without casting a vote of confidence to a single candidate. It was a double loss, that his vote had gone uncast and that someone so smart, so prepared to participate in the system had given up on it so early in life.

What a difference two years makes. I just got off the phone with him yesterday and he was commenting on how remarkably touching and profound the president's words had been, particularly the line The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names...

The praise came forth like water from a spring. He said he's never before felt so much respect for a leader as a man, he's never before felt so confident in a leader's sincerity and conviction, that it's been such a long time since he could trust someone to this extent, that it's been so long since a public figure has demonstrated such personal integrity. I swear he went on for a half hour. And then...

"I will proudly vote for him in 2004. And I wish I could vote him into a third term after that."

This may not seem remarkable to us, given that we are generally of the same opinion. But it is. It is so very remarkable. George W. Bush is speaking to the people without saying a word, and his humanity, his strength of character and of faith is resonating far beyond the political arena, into the hearts and minds of people who either didn't know or couldn't believe that real leaders do, indeed, still exist.

George W. Bush is a leader in every sense of the word. I sometimes worry, as you do, when events just seem to pile on and wear on him like a lead blanket, but then I remember. He believes in God.

And God believes in him.

There is no trial, no stress, no decision that can ever overcome that kind of strength. Ever.