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DALLAS—Faith and family are foundational elements guiding a visitor through the newly dedicated George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. Just a few feet into the exhibit area is the testimony to the 43rd United State president’s faith in God that turned his life around in 1986.
“At age forty, I finally found the strength to [quit drinking], a strength that came from love I had felt from my earliest days, and from faith that I didn’t fully discover for many years,” Bush wrote. “Faith changes lives,” he said. “I know because faith changed mine.”
The excerpt appears in a series of biographical panels portraying the strength of family, power of faith, call to service and a campaign of character.
Located at the entry to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the 226,000-square-foot facility houses the library and museum, as well as the George W. Bush Institute. The surrounding grounds are a 15-acre urban park that recreates a historic native prairie landscape, Former First Lady Laura Bush told reporters the Texas rose garden outside the museum provides “a chance to refresh” after walking through the Sept. 11th portion of the museum.
Not one to shy away from controversy, President Bush encouraged museum planners to give the public a look into key decisions during his two terms between 2001 and 2009, including the War on Terror, the response to Hurricane Katrina, the surge in military troops in Iraq to combat the insurgency and management of the financial crisis.
“One of the things George really wanted was for people to realize and know how many decisions come to the desk of the president,” explained Laura Bush during a news conference with media previewing the museum April 24. “Nearly every world problem comes to the desk of the president of the United States,” she said, crediting Bush Foundation President Mark Langdale, former ambassador to Costa Rica, with recreation of an interactive “decision points theater” where visitors consider options based on facts and advice offered.
“The idea was to show people what it’s like to have to make decisions quickly with the press hounding you on when you’re going to decide and what you’re going to do and rely on information given from every source, from his own advisors and many other sources as well.”
Bush Center Senior Editorial Director Brendan Miniter told the Southern Baptist TEXAN, “President Bush provided guidance for us in developing this, of course. The museum is constructed not necessarily as a tribute to him, but to the principles that guided him in public life and from that you tell the stories,” he explained.
“So he set the final goal and guiding principles, and the rest of it we built around that,” Miniter said.
That goal was pursued from the opening biographical orientation, he noted. “If you know anything about the Bush family you know that family is very important to them and how important faith was in President Bush answering the call to service to run for office.”
The next section features the faith-based community initiative, a theme woven through the introductory film as well. “One of the things he wanted to do in his presidency was to help shape the culture in a way to lead people to engage their community. His faith helped guide him in public life to policies that were characterized as compassionate conservatism,” Miniter said.
Winding down the exhibit area, visitors see the priorities Bush intended to be the hallmarks of his presidency, including education reform, tax relief, an enhanced relationship with neighboring Mexico and care for AIDS victims around the world. As the chronology is told, the upsetting events of 9/11 arose on the heels of a state dinner with the president of Mexico and the first lady’s bright red ball gown is overshadowed by a towering beam from the ruins at Ground Zero in New York City.
The 13th presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) was signed over on April 24. The extensive collection of 43,000 artifacts include a full-sized Oval office, the bullhorn President Bush used to encourage first responders working in the rubble of the Twin Towers on Sept. 14, 2001, and a custom-designed dress worn by Mrs. Bush for a state dinner honoring Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
Permanent exhibits in the entry feature just a few of the gifts to the president from every continent, as well as a handful given to him by U.S. citizens. Those artifacts are as diverse as a steel dog bowl with paw-shaped feet to an eagle sculpture to an artillery shell casing passed along by an Air Force lieutenant general commemorating a successful operation.
Hands-on displays are geared to every age with a kid-friendly finale that draws upon the worldwide appeal of the Bush family dogs, Scottish Terriers Barney and Mizz Beasley, as well as Millie, the English Springer Spaniel of Barbara and George H. W. Bush when they resided in the White House.
President Bush’s conviction that “each individual is equal and equally important” is communicated in displays honoring volunteerism and neighborly concern. “We followed a principle rooted both in our Constitution and the best traditions of our nation,” he declared at a 2008 conference recalled in one panel. “Government should never fund the teaching of faith, but it should support the good works of the faithful,” Bush reminded.
Describing his West Texas roots, Bush wrote, “My background leaves more than an accent. It leaves an outlook–optimism–impatient with pretense, confident that people can chart their own course.”
He noted, “Laura and I share the same basic values. We share a West Texas upbringing that taught us that each individual is equal and equally important, but also that each individual has a responsibility to be a good neighbor and a good citizen.”
