The image I created above is beautiful. Can we attain it? My idealistic answer is that it’s possible. We can work together to improve our country and work for the good of everyone. In truth, we can create our own Utopia, our own Heaven on earth. We can still have the prospect of accumulating vast wealth in such a vision, but we will be tempted to give much of it away to help our fellow man. And we won’t even care about having a bridge or a building named after us. We will be glad to give this service.

The vision above is not where we are though. Our nation is in a very different place. You see, by definition, we can only define a problem when we know where we are in addition to where we want to be. The problem itself is the gap between those two points. In solving any problem, it is critical to choose a vehicle that can move you from the first point to the second as well as removing obstacles that are in the way.

Your desire and mine to re-create and reconstruct not just a great nation, but a good nation, is the beginning of my argument that we must forgive George W. Bush.

But we resist! Oh we resist! I don’t blame us either. We are angry. We are hurting. Things are bad. Very bad. Gas is expensive. The dollar is losing its value. People are losing their homes. Many of us blame George W. Bush, at least in part. And I would even add that I am personally convinced that some of each of these problems is his fault. But that doesn’t matter.

What??? You ask. It doesn’t matter? Don’t get me wrong, I have spent a lot of time in anger at our president. I have felt that he did not really care about the people. I sometimes think he just doesn’t care about anything in his office and that his ego is more precious to him than families that can’t pay their mortgages, and that might be true. But let’s look at two elements in this equation that we tend to miss. First, where is George W. Bush coming from? Second, what is to be gained at our anger at him?

After you finish reading this section, close your eyes and picture yourself as George W. Bush and everything that comes with being this man. Your parents are George Sr. and Barbara Bush. You grew up wealthy and you were well educated. You got away with everything that you did wrong. You didn’t have the grades to get into a good MBA program, but your father took care of you. Everyone told you how great you are, how intelligent. They loved your parents and you.

In addition, you always knew that you could do well in politics with a family history that you have, and you took advantage of that because you wanted to succeed and make your parents and friends proud of you. You genuinely wanted to do good things for your people, and you went to church every Sunday. You’re a devout Christian, and you have a very specific understanding of God that you were taught from birth and have never questioned because you have never needed to. You’re poised, likeable, and self assured. And someday when you get into a political office, you’re going to do some amazing things.

When you’re Governor of Texas, you make connections. People like you very well. You start aspiring to bigger and better plans, and you want to expand your influence and ambition as your parents, teachers, and friends have taught you to do from the beginning. You make connections, you court the people that are like you because you know this is a good strategy for becoming president.

When there is a question about whether or not you won the presidency, you take it seriously. You want to help people, lead people, and you know you’re the best person for the job. Everyone has been telling you that for your entire campaign. And you’re ambitious! You are a go-getter and always have been. You’re going to do whatever you can to secure the presidency so you can make everyone proud of you, lead the country into a great time of economic stability, and make the country even greater than it was under Bill Clinton. You have visions in your mind of what posterity will say about you. They will praise you forever as one of the greatest presidents that ever lived. You’re excited. You’re ready.

You have a few months in office before the 9/11 attacks. You take the attacks VERY personally. You are an American! And you are the President! How could you not? And people are counting on you. You take the decisive action that you have always been good at, and you decide to attack our enemies.

Your goals have changed. This is a new time, and you know it. You also know it’s your responsibility to define how we as Americans will respond. You declare War on Terror, and people praise you lavishly. We will not falter! We will not fail! You know the people love you, and that motivates you to work even harder for them.

To add to your hardship, you get word that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. You remember Saddam Hussein from your father’s administration, and naturally you take him personally too. After all, you’re only human. You decide to add another theater to the War on Terror, and you attack Iraq. People still applaud you. You’re the man that goes after things and gets them done. You’re not afraid! You’re going to bring these enemies of your country to justice. You’re going to be a hero, and you’re going to have served your country well.

Then, something happens. People start complaining about the war. They’re tired of it. But… but… they don’t understand. After all, you said we were all in this for the long haul. They rose and applauded when you said that, but… now they’ve changed their minds. But you’re not wrong. You’ve been taught in your upbringing to stick by your decisions, make them quickly, change them slowly. You’ve been taught how smart you are. How competent you are. And you’re going to prove them wrong. You’re still going to make history as a great president.

Your approval ratings drop. You don’t know what to do. You become angrier, more bitter, you’re angry at an ungrateful nation, one that doesn’t understand you. And yet you love the United States so much. You will protect its people in spite of its people if you have to. And how can they say you’re wrong? You’re not wrong very often… you’re really not. Really. You’ll show them. You still desire to be great, but you do not understand how strong your ego is… but you’re only human.

People make jokes about you. Lots and lots of jokes. Cruel jokes. They get your daughters involved and your wife. They sell t-shirts that talk about how stupid you are. And you’re appalled. You’re angry. This is the very first time in your life that anyone has ever even insinuated that you could be stupid. It doesn’t make sense.

You continue business as usual. You don’t know how to get out of the mess you created. Your dreams of going down in history as a great president start to fade, and you’re bitter. You fight the urge to even entertain the thought that you could have failed. You see all the soldiers that have died, and you know that you’re responsible for it. You know that you sent them to die under the pretense of circumstances that turned out not to be true.

And you hurt. You really really hurt.

I wrote the previous few paragraphs as my interpretation of what Bush has gone through. It is not easy to defend him, believe me. I feel anger too. I feel anger when it costs $35 to fill my tank when it used to cost a little over $10. I am angry at all the lives that have been lost in Iraq. I am angry at what I perceive to be a cocky and unaccountable president that I didn’t even vote for. I am angry at what I perceive to be a lack of remorse for what I perceive to be great errors in his post.

And I hurt. I really really hurt.

We all hurt. We all really really hurt.

I think sometimes in the process of constructing articulate and highly logical arguments that we forget that we have raw emotion that always comes into play in our ability or inability to accept another’s ideas. We forget that we hurt. We forget that the Presidency of the United States is not just some sterile academic office that we can debate and say, “If I were the President, I would never have done that…” Or, “I think Bush was out of his mind when he said… instead of…”

But here is my question: What good is this dialogue going to do us in the long run? Yes, I can think of 100 reasons or more why Bush is a bad president, why he failed in his office. But that’s not the point. We have all done important jobs in our lives. Even those that work in fast food have to ensure that the temperature of the meat is healthy and that there are no dangers in the restaurant. We have to use good sense and judgment in any job we work. But if you’re like me, there are sometimes that you fail. And if you’re like me (and many of you will not be able to relate to this I’m sure) you might have had a few jobs that you were just not very good at. You might have really botched a job. You might have failed.

If you failed in a job at some point in your life, I forgive you. I hope you will forgive me for my failures, and they have been numerous. That’s not just a theoretical statement either. I worked in nursing homes and even now I sometimes cringe at the memories of the times that I didn’t give adequate care to my residents because I was tired or bored or didn’t feel like it. I hope they will forgive me too.

In that respect, I can understand on some level what the President is going through. He must live with the fact that at the height of his career, he failed. He failed. He failed. But I forgive him. We all fail sometimes.

We elect a President every four years in the United States. Some of them are good, and some are not. It would be nearly impossible to have a really great, competent President every single time. My argument is that it’s not worth our time to worry about what he should or should not have done. It’s not worth our time to worry about whether he really won the presidency to begin with after all the votes were counted in Florida or Ohio. It’s not worth our time to worry about many of the things that we worry about with regard to Bush.

Why? Because we’re trying to create the vision I presented at the beginning of this article. We are trying to change the world and re-create a great country. I have said that George W. Bush has failed as President, and I have said that I forgive him. I will take that a step further and say, “Thank you for trying.” I am convinced he did a better job than I could have done. I appreciate his ambition and bravery in accepting - indeed, pursuing - such a responsible position. I don’t envy that responsibility and I don’t envy Bush’s lack of popularity. But I do appreciate his attempt, and I wish him well in his retirement.

I hope that we will all be able to forgive President Bush. Not everyone can be a great President - or a great anything for that matter. But in order to create and re-create and continue to create a great and a good nation, we must move past our anger and move on to love, acceptance, and forgiveness.