A Dignified First Lady

Last night at the patriotic service for America's Freedom Festival in Provo, Utah, former First Lady Laura Bush gave a wonderful keynote address.  She described what it was like to be the matriarch in the White House, and how best to respond to inescapable public ridicule.  In fact, she was unexpectedly granted the opportunity to exemplify what she had learned in the White House when a heckler in the crowd, claiming to exercise his right to "freedom of speech," began hurling insults at both her and her husband.  To her credit, and as evidence of her gracious character, the former First Lady maintained her dignity and composure while the police promptly escorted the heckler out of the building.  After the applause, Mrs. Bush explained why she and her husband had been able to endure such unpleasantries: "For one thing, I know who I am and I know who George is.  For another, this is America. And America hangs on the proposition of what those of us in the White House sometimes receive as a chorus of complaint (when it) is in reality a kind of sacred music, or at least the clanking of gears of democracy."