.Laura Bush
At press time, pro-gay marriage group had been asked to replace advertisement that included former first lady, Laura Bush, speaking on gay marriage, with a new one. This was at the heels of Lady Bush’s words that she did not want to be part of the campaign.
According to Associated Press, on Thursday, The Respect for Marriage Coalition had said that it appreciated Bush’s previous comments, “but are sorry she didn’t want to be included in an ad.”
America’s national advertising campaign of print, television and online ads that launched last week featured part of a Bush interview on Cable News Network (CNN) in which she says: “When couples are committed to each other and love each other, then they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has.”
The coalition made up of more than 80 organisations supporting gay marriage said the ad was part of “a public education campaign that will now move to new and different voices that reflect the depth and breadth of our support”.
The ads that began running Wednesday also included clips of President Barack Obama, former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defence, Colin Powell, talking favourably about same-sex marriage.
The former First Lady’s spokeswoman, Anne MacDonald, said Mrs. Bush asked to be removed from the campaign after learning that she was being featured. She added that Bush “did not approve of her inclusion in this advertisement nor is she associated in any way with the group that made the ad.”
After the coalition released its statement on Thursday, MacDonald said Bush would have no further comment.
Cheney, whose daughter, Mary, is reportedly gay, said in a speech at the National Press Club in 2009 that he supports gay marriage but believes that states, not the Federal Government, should make the decision. The Respect for Marriage Coalition’s ad campaign featured a clip of Cheney telling the National Press Club that “freedom means freedom for everyone”.
Powell was shown in a clip from CNN saying, “Allowing them to live together with the protection of the law, it seems to me, is the way we should be moving in this country.” Obama’s quote came from his inaugural address this year during which he said: “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law.”
Well, the above would not surprise those who know that Obama’s Democratic Party is ‘accommodative’ to any view expressed by any segment of the society. So, they also accommodate the ‘right’ of deviants like homosexuals, because their instincts want them to. Don’t be surprised that one day, they will accommodate armed robbers’ instinct to rob, kill and maim. After all, Sigmund Freud said in his Personality Theory that the id pushes one to act without control – be a sexual pervert, be greedy and be violent. Sorry for the deviation.
The new ad features former Marine Cpl. Craig Stowell, who says that after finding out that his brother was gay, he “wanted the same rights for him”.
“He was the best man at my wedding and I want to be the best man at his,” said Stowell, who notes he is a Republican.
I don’t know how the Republican Party is accommodating people like Stowell, because that seemed to be part of their campaign against the Democrats.
I use this column this week to hail Mrs. Bush because it is not easy to toe the path of morality in a society everyone’s seems to have gone gaga and good morals becoming old-fashioned.
If Mrs. Bush were a Nigerian, she would naturally want to align with the President, no matter how wrong the policy. In fact, if she refuses, she would be ostracised from the league of former first ladies, because the First Lady would always support her husband.
Laura Lane Welch Bush, wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George Walker Bush, was born on November 4, 1946. She was the First Lady from 2001 to 2009. She graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in Education and soon took a job as a second grade teacher. After attaining her Master’s degree in Library Science at the University of Texas, Austin, she was employed as a librarian. She met Mr. Bush in 1977, and they were married later that year. The couple had twin daughters in 1981.
Her political involvement began with her marriage. She campaigned during her husband’s unsuccessful 1978 run for the United States Congress and later his successful Texas gubernatorial campaign. As First Lady of Texas, she implemented many initiatives focused on health, education, and literacy. In 1999, she aided her husband in campaigning for the presidency in a number of ways, most notably delivering a keynote address at the 2000 Republican National Convention, which gained her national attention. She became First Lady after her husband defeated Democrat, Al Gore, in the 2000 election, even as Gore received over 500,000 more votes than Bush.
Do you still wonder why she is anti-gay?