W.

Last night (Thursday) Don and I were privileged to attend the Wichita Chamber of Commerce's annual meeting. Every year they have a "big-name" speaker. Over the years we have heard George H. W. Bush, Tony Snow, Mary Matalin and James Carville, Britt Hume, Gene Krantz, and Doris Kearns Goodwin. This year's big name was George W. Bush.

I didn't know what to expect. The man that was always portrayed on television was a rather bumbling speaker full of malapropisms and incorrect grammar. As a president, he did some things I liked and some I didn't - pretty typical for someone in that position. But I didn't have a strong opinion either way of him.

What we heard last night was an intelligent speaker, funny, humble, and very interesting. He was self-depracating, making fun of some of the things he said and did. He said he didn't think his job was to tear down what President Obama is doing, which I sincerely appreciate. He spoke of some of the reasons why he did some of the things he did, and he emphasized what he felt good leadership entailed.

What I most appreciated about his talk was his optimistic feeling about the future of our world. Rough patches are to be expected, he admitted, but he honestly feels that the Middle East situation is going to improve because its people are experiencing freedom. He has seen what freedom does for people, asking whether anyone thought in 1945 that we and the Japanese would be close enough for the Japanese Prime Minister to declare after 911 that his country would stand beside us to fight terrorism. He went on to ask if we knew that 25% of the new Iraqi parliament was composed of women. The taste of freedom is what is going to make our world better, and his optimistic outlook for the US and the world was just the message I needed to hear.

Don and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, and I feel like I understand more about the man who was our leader for eight years. I feel lucky to have been able to attend.