by Ora Shay Ed. Note: Ms. Shay, our token Republican, agreed to write
for us only with the stipulation that no editorial hands touch her words. Thus we publish
this, her twenty-fourth column (see bottom of page for complete list), exactly as it came
in over our email transom. We would remind the reader that Ms. Shay apparently never wrote
a run-on sentence that she didn't like. Now, overcome by the events of January 20, 2009,
Ora takes her columnar leave. Apparently Ms. Shay can survive everything--sandstorms, $30
oil, hybrid Escalades--but not the end of the Bush mis-regnum.
Following President Bush and Laura’s for-old-times-sake return to Midland on Jan. 20 and the rousing welcome they received from their old hometowners, I feel a great, blessed, and significant chapter has closed on our nation’s history, and mine as well. In these columns I have tried to share with you the pride we felt in adding to the munificent bounty that West Texas has given the world in the form of uncounted millions of barrels of precious oil from beneath our very feet by giving the world our most favorite of favorite sons. With him off the stage, I feel I have nothing more to say. What a day January 20, 2009, must have been for him and Laura--saying goodby to their lovely home of eight years, then sitting for all the world to see on that mighty platform as his successor lambasted him (have you ever seen anyone comport himself with such dignity?), then mounting the steps for one last time into Air Force One, and finally deplaning in his old West Teas hometown. Quel jour indeed. Many were the tears among the 30,000 Midlanders assembled in Centennial Plaza as the President bade them one last farewell. Many were the digital camera flashes as he with his ever-present graciousness accepted our bounteous applause and told us, "Laura and I may have left Texas but Texas never left us." Truer words were never spoken. Misty-eyed, he went on, "This guy who went to Sam Houston Elementary School stayed the night in Buckingham Palace." To think, the little boy whom Jenny Sue Blanchard, my third cousin twice-removed, dated in sixth grade once slept with the Queen... I’m sure you can see, dear, dear Reader, why I can’t go on. I mean, why bother, with that bunch of left-wing baby-hating, gay-loving, atheist socialistas in charge in our besmirched nation’s capital. We hard-core Permian Basinites shudder to think what mischief they are already up to as they shackle the once-free Market, release the terrorists that our now-departed leader kept contained in Cuba, and put half the nation on the dole the bill for which the rest of us up-standing, hard-working taxpayers will have to foot. Ever the thoughtful, philosophical member of the President’s core staff, the great Karl Rove, standing beside his chief in Centennial Plaza assured us that George W. Bush will be remembered internationally as a liberator, domestically as a reformer and mostly, as a man who did what he thought was right. Teardrops keep falling on my keyboard. I cannot conclude with better words than the ones messaged by a very perceptive local housewife to the Midland Reporter-Telegram following the President’s homecoming:
"The greatest family that ever graced the White House END All of Ora's Columns:
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