It was an amazing day this past Sunday for one of my daughters, and her husband, when they met a former president of the United States.
When I wrote that it almost didn’t sound true. What? Did one of my daughters actually get to meet a former U.S. president and his wife?
You betcha, she did, and as my wife said this week, we will look back on this in years to come and realize it is actually a historic event for our family.
I can remember doing many interviews where the individual was discussing some aspect of their life, and suddenly said to me, “and when I was 32, I was in Korea, and got to meet the president of the United States.”
Meeting a president is a big deal, regardless what political party you support. The president of the United States is arguably the most influential person an American citizen could hope to meet in their lifetime.
This past Sunday it happened for my daughter Jennifer, and her husband Zachary, all thanks to the magical world of Facebook.
The story began at the first of the year when Jenny decided to start a Facebook campaign to see if she could meet a president she had always admired.
Jenny sees George W. Bush as a kind man who has displayed his love for our military troops. Please don’t turn this into a political debate now by questioning any decisions Bush made in the past that may have put our troops in harm’s way. Every president is faced with those most difficult decisions and Bush faced them too. This story is not the time to make a political point.
Even though I am not an Obama supporter, and I was not a big Bill Clinton fan, I can still appreciate the incredible difficulty for any president to be faced with a decision of sending our troops around the world to defend freedom. And they all have to make those decisions.
I would never believe for a second that any president would want our troops to face danger, but defending other weaker countries is part of what keeps the reputation of the United States as the strongest nation on the Earth.
So back to the story. Jenny always wanted to meet George W. Bush to simply tell him she appreciated him as our president. Jenny’s husband, Zach, is a Wounded Warrior who served 10 years with the Army before being medically discharged last year. Jenny had seen other individuals use the power of Facebook to achieve dreams, so she decided to try it herself.
Zach held up a sign and Jenny took his picture. The sign essentially said that he was hoping to help his wife achieve her dream to meet George W. Bush, since she had stood behind him during his years of service.
It took a few months before Facebook started working, but sure enough, as a few people shared and liked the picture it then turned into a dozen people which turned into 100 people. The request began to get all around the country, and finally to the right people.
A few months ago, Jenny heard that Jake Tapper from CNN had retweeted the picture and was trying to get in touch with them as Presiden’t Bush’s office was in contact with him. He assured her she would receive a phone call very soon from President Bush’s office.
Another month went by and Jenny was contacted by Bush media, who said there was an event coming up in New Orleans on Sunday, April 27, and they wanted Jenny and Zach to attend—so they could meet George W. and Laura Bush.
Was my daughter excited? I don’t think “excitement” is a strong enough word, so you get the picture.
They had to be at the Roosevelt Hotel on Sunday for 8:30 in the morning and since I was the only one available, I had to be at their house at 7 a.m. on Sunday to babysit. My wife was in Oklahoma, visiting our son, so I assured them I would take care of the kids, no matter what.
Jenny bought a pretty new dress, got her hair done and was beautiful for the meeting. Zach had a nice suit on with a tie that was red, white and blue and he looked like the strong soldier he always was.
I plan to run a story in our news pages once we get a picture sent to us from the event, where Jenny and Zach had their picture taken with George W. and Laura. But it was so much more than getting their picture taken and saying “hello.”
George W. seemed to be the exact kind-hearted man Jenny thought he was. At first they just met the former president and his wife, but a few minutes later, Bush was apparently informed “that was the couple from Facebook,” so he and Laura walked back to my daughter and son-in-law, beginning a full-fledged conversation.
Bush gave Zach a presidential medal and Jenny was given a presidential pin that is clearly only given to special people who Bush wants to show his appreciation to.
Jenny said the president joked with them just as she thought he would, and on several occasions he gave her a hug and kiss on the cheek. Of course he thanked Zach for his service and talked about the challenges faced by all soldiers and the difficulty of going to war, which Zach did on four different occasions.
The full story will be seen in the pages of this paper in the coming weeks, but clearly it was a dream-come-true for my daughter, and also for my son-in-law.
And it happened thanks to today’s technology called Facebook. As Bush said to them at one point in discussing how the meeting occurred, “only in America!”
Kevin Chiri can be reached by e-mail at kevinchiri@gmail.com.