Bono's Op-Ed Article: Africa

The other day I took one of those stupid Facebook poll/quiz things. This one asked me to vote for the worst president out of a short list of five presidents. The five are not important, but I happened to pick Jimmy Carter as the worst, and, it just so happens that one of the other choices was our president just before Obama: George W. Bush. I immediately had a friend comment on the quiz and ask, "You really put Carter behind Bush #43, really?" My answer was, "Yes. I would. Talk to me in 25 years."

Today I read an op-ed article written by Bono and published in the New York Times on July 9, 2009. The title of the piece is "Africa" and you can read it by clicking on the title there.

I'm not one to give a lot of credibility to musicians' or actors' political opinions. I have been ignoring Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Striesand for years and they're two of my favorites. However, Bono isn't playing politics. Instead, he's trying to love well. As a result, I feel he is honest, no ax to grind.

One line in one paragraph of Bono's article about President Obama's visit to Ghana in particular drew my attention. Here is the paragraph: "The not-so-good news — that countries like Italy and France are not meeting their Africa commitments — makes the president’s visit all the more essential. The United States is one of the countries on track to keep its promises, and Mr. Obama has already said he’ll more than build on the impressive Bush legacy."

The sentence that I would actually love my friends that have a vitriolic opinion of our 43rd president, Bush to reread is this: "The United States is one of the countries on track to keep its promises, and Mr. Obama has already said he’ll more than build on the impressive Bush legacy." Did you catch that, "the impressive Bush legacy" part? What an honest guy to actually stick his neck out there among all the Bush haters to recognize that Bush's leadership with regard to Africa was important and admirable.

As for that Facebook poll I took, I can't recall ever reading somebody using the line "the impressive Carter legacy" to talk about something President Carter did while actually in office. Perhaps something he did as an ex-president, yes, but the poll wasn't asking about that. Who knows, maybe we won't have to wait a quarter of a century for history to present a realistic view of President George W. Bush.