Laura Bush: NEWSMAKER Speaker is Safe and Secure

For someone who is the first to tell you the world of a First Lady is paved with peril, Laura Bush’s Nov. 14 appearance at the Lesher Center’s NEWSMAKER Speaker Series was smooth and secure.

“I hope y’all know you’re in the safest place in the Bay Area,” joked host Steve Lesher.

Secret Police and Walnut Creek police officers stationed at theater doorways and entrances testified to the truth of the comment.

KTVU anchorwoman Tori Campbell introduced the First Lady, calling Bush’s 2006 Gallup poll approval rating of 82 percent a Washington high-water mark and Bush’s twin daughters a one-and-only record in presidential history.

The First Lady immediately charmed the crowd by sharing her love of libraries and pleasure at the night’s featured partner, Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall’s libraries.

“I do a lot of speaker series and this is the only one that features a non-profit,” she announced.

A rapid report on the Bush family followed, drawing chuckles from the sold-out crowd as she recalled her mother-in-law’s response to word that George Bush Sr. was planning to celebrate turning 85 by skydiving into a churchyard.

“That’s convenient,” she remembered her mother-in-law saying, “if anything went wrong, we could just wheel him into the church!”

Although not related by blood, Barbara Bush’s spirited quip is a style the second First Lady in the Bush family has adopted. After updates on everyone else, she whipped out a Laura Bush bobblehead doll and said living in the White House often felt like being “a bobble head in a bubble.”

Life after leaving the Presidential residence has meant new ground rules.

“Turmoil in the Mideast is no longer an excuse to not pick up your socks,” she has told her husband. In response to an audience question later in the evening, she said, “Everyone misses Air Force One. I miss the chef. And George really misses the chef.”

Her first night in the White House was one of surprising peace.

“Almost everyone I love was safe, under one roof, tucked into bed,” she recalled.

Her initial challenge as the nation’s leading lady was finding an identity. She believed every child should learn to read, that literacy was the essential foundation of democracy, and that books had shaped the nation’s journeys. Championing education and women’s rights became her cause.

A book festival she organized, attended by 30,000 people on Sept. 8, 2001,  stands out in her memory as “the last time people could gather without looking over their shoulders or up into the sky.”

The tragedy on 9-11 shaped the remainder of her stay in the White House.

“Like all of you, we woke up on Sept. 12 to a different life,” Bush said.

The plight of women in Afghanistan moved to the top of her agenda, she noted, before stating her firm belief that countries where women are leaders in health, education and prosperity will be the only ones to thrive in the global marketplace.

Criticism of her husband’s performance bothered her, but it didn’t get to her.

“I know who I am. This is America,” she said, in explanation of how she weathered the daily storm. Calling public grumbling “sacred music, or at the very least, clanking gears of democracy,” she modeled a resilience the audience applauded.

The last several years have provided rich, warmly appreciated opportunities to reconnect with old friends. She has had time to read, and named a list of current favorites: Cutting For Stone, Remember Ben Clayton, In the Garden of the Beast, and The Great Upheaval. Penning her memoir, Spoken From the Heart, and continuing to advocate for women in the Middle East and African nations has made the departure from Washington an occasion for solemn pride.

A final audience question, about the Texas Rangers’ World Series loss, drew an honest reply: “George and I are still in mourning, but maybe one more time … ” she ended hopefully.

The road ahead, Bush told the audience in the closing portion of her presentation, is the same for her as it is for everyone.

“The challenge to all Americans is to get on a personal mound and [to ensure democracy,] face failure, humiliation, or even mortal danger.”