Bush’s Enduring Legacy

8 posted on January 8, 2009

POSTED IN: Blog Posts, Social Justice

There’s an unusual amount of emotion surrounding this month’s Presidential turnover. President Bush’s approval ratings have fallen to an all-time historical low as people have actively voiced their frustration with his administration. Web sites such as BushsLastDay.com have spawned the ‘1.20.09 – Bush’s Last Day’ campaign that includes bumper stickers, t-shirts and even a song.

With over two-thirds of the country stating they disapprove of Bush’s job performance, it’s not difficult to find someone who is quick to rake him over the coals. After all, criticism is so much fun, especially when there are so many people who agree with you.

That’s why I was pleasantly surprised at Cameron Strang’s, editor for RELEVANT Magazine, recent editorial called The Untold Story. In the column he highlighted a different side of Bush’s term, one that has gone largely unreported in the news. Here is an excerpt,

The Untold Story

excerpted from Strang’s column in the Jan/Feb Issue of RELEVANT Magazine

Recently, I was reminded of one of the most significant untold stories of our generation, and it happens to center on our outgoing president.

December 1, 2008, marked the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. To commemorate it, Pastor Rick Warren hosted a Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health in Washington D.C., gathering non-profit and faith leaders in the fight against AIDS. The guest of honor was President Bush, to whom Warren presented the International Medal of PEACE from the Global PEACE Coalition in recognition of his contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

“No man in history, no world leader, has done more for global health than George W. Bush,” Warren said when giving him the award.

For many people, that’s not what first comes to mind whey they think about President Bush’s administration, but the long-term ramifications of his global health efforts cannot be understated.

It was at the 2003 State of the Union address that Bush announced the formation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). At the time, only 50,000 people living with AIDS in Africa were able to receive anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs. PEPFAR’s ambitious goal was to increase that number to 2 million in five years – a milestone that they’ve actually now surpassed.

Those people getting treatment and education have actually led to another 8 million people not contracting the disease who otherwise would have. Ten million lives saved. And of those 4 million are orphans, the majority of whom where orphaned because both parents died of AIDS.

As we look at these closing weeks of the Bush administration, it’s easy to see the challenges our country is facing and forget monumental, positive initiatives like PEPFAR. I want to publicly applaud President Bush for taking a stand when others hadn’t, and doing so without the motive of political benefit. He has stood up for those who have no voice, and he did so because it was the right thing to do.

I don’t think any of us would have a difficult time listing the ways we disagree with our current, and even our incoming, president. We’re quick to point the finger at faults but not so quick to praise accomplishments. Regardless of your political leanings, ten million lives saved from the devastation of AIDS is a resounding success worthy of our recognition.

President Bush, thank you for all you have done in the fight against AIDS. Regardless of what everyone is saying about you in your final weeks, that is something to be proud of.

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17 Comments

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1 Jared Woodard said:

Very cool story. Had no idea he had that much impact in africa.

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2 Abbey said:

That is pretty stinkin’ awesome. =)
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3 Cherith said:

I will be the first to agree that it kills me to see people bash President Bush. It makes me want to throw those people in office and see how they do.

I personally agree that he is a great man and has done many great things for this world that no one has seen or will even recognize. Although I am not politic savvy… I can’t believe American’s would stoop so low to Punch Bush in the face for things. Anyways, I think it’s awesome what he did for People in Africa! He has more love for people then some people deserve.

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4 Pat said:

Great article. I hadn’t read that and I think that says a lot about President Bush’s character. I’m really disgusted and have grown tired of all the political liberals vs. conservative bashing that has gone on and I think this younger generation is to. Websites that question President elect Obama’s Alligence to America and those that countdown to the end of Bush Administration are of no benefit to United States.

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5 Jim Hunt said:

President Bush defended America after an attack; no attacks since. He liberated the people of Iran from dictatorship; they are on the path to democracy. He oversaw economic growth until the cancerous ill-effects of poor regulation of the financial industry finally took its toll. The healthcare support to Africa speaks for itself. He just signed legislation to protect the largest expanse of the ocean in history.

Perfect? No, none of us are. His heart in centered on God and he let it show often.

Partisan bashing is one of the greatest threats to our nation. History will show the Bush legacy survived this battle too.
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6 Curtis said:

Bush has done some great things in the arena of fighting AIDS. I think that looking at the bigger picture of the state of the U.S., people will remember Bush for mostly negative reasons.

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7 Juli Jarvis said:

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Look how much one person can do to prevent infant and childhood death, if given the opportunity.

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8 Gennaro said:

I’m glad to see that Africa is getting more attention in terms of its needs. The continent needs a lot of help and fighting AIDS will help them and the rest of the world.

I’d love to see our politicians spend time working on issues they agree on. There will always be disagreement, but there is common ground too.

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9 joseph said:

Great story.

I think we unfortunately live in a media driven society that LOVES to focus on the negative.

Although I am not a huge fan of Bush, I hate the fact that much of what has nothing to do with him, he gets blamed for.

Kudos to President Bush. This is one fine accomplishment.

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10 alece said:

he’s funded a lot of great stuff in Africa. i know; i’ve seen it. everyone there refers to it as “bush money”.

thank you for writing this. we can be so dishonorable, and i appreciated your honorable post.

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11 sTim said:

I won’t claim to be a fan of the man’s political decisions in general, and can point out plenty where even *I* could have made a better choice, but there’s no question that this should go down as one of his great accomplishments. Very little had been made overall of this, but I can tell you that I’ve seen feature stories in the likes of ultra-liberal places like Rolling Stone that have acknowledged it as well. It’s never completely good or bad in politics – the totally incompetent don’t get in offices this high. This doesn’t change my overall feelings, but its good to highlight something so significant that did go right.
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12 Dave Carrol said:

I wrote about the very thing the last couple of days. Being a leader is tough… and like him or not, he led the free world for 8 years through very difficult times and allowed his own rep to be put on the line for others.

He at least deserves a Thank You

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January 10, 2009

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13 Nate said:

huh…I never heard of Bush’s AIDS work till now. It’s good to know. Your post reminded me again that as a people, we tend to focus and talk about the negative rather than the positive.

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14 Aaron said:

It is easy to focus on the negative because there is a lot to choose from, but either way, being the leader of the free world is one of the toughest gigs going. I don’t think any one of us would ever want it.

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15 Jenni Catron said:

Thanks for posting this. You are so right… we all have a tendency to jump to criticism and forgot the positive.

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January 13, 2009

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16 Zach Younkin said:

Isn’t it funny how we so often point out the negative in everyone else?

Thanks President Bush, for your work in Africa.

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17 Paul said:

Unfortunately, AIDs relief is only part of the picture. Many African countries are very much in debt to first world countries. Some countries spend 40% of their revenue on interest payments for this debt. How did the debt originate? Mostly through loans to the countries to build advanced infrastructure they often didn’t need (prompted by false promises the world bank, IMF and 1st world economists).
That is a much larger issue, if African countries didn’t have so much massive debt to manage they could in fact afford to medicate their populations themselves.
Sure this makes Bush good, but when viewing the larger picture, he needed to provide debt relief ore than anything.
Learn more: http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/whatwewant/debt.shtml or google it. Also read ‘economic hit men’ to understand how many of these countries wound up with debilitating debt.
As for Bush, 100′000 dead in Iraq, economic collapse and Bin Laden still on the loose is his legacy in my eyes.