A Visit to the George W. Bush Presidential Library

Another rainy day called for more in door activity so we decided to drive into Dallas to the Southern Methodist University (SMU our daughter's alma mater for her Masters) to visit the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

He is the second son of a president to also become a president himself - John Adams and John Q Adams being the first.  Here I am with the two George Bush's.

Lots of artifacts, documents, audiovisual and interactive components made for an interesting day. Major issues that arose during his years as president made up a good part of the displays from 9/11 to Afghanistan and lots of places in between.  Social issues like No Child Left Behind and the devastation of AIDS were also prominent.

One area we both thought was impressive was the Decision Points Theater where each visitor sat in front of a screen and had the opportunity to hear arguments from many view points concerning one of the problems he faced.  We then had to make a decision ourselves as to what he should do.  It was an eye opening experience seeing the real difficulties involved in doing just that.  In our case the issue was of Hurricane Katrina and how to handle all of the problems that arose both immediately and then making policy for how to handle such events in the future.  In general, our group chose a much more severe policy than he did.  Then looking back realized how devastating our selection would have been at that time and for the future.

The other "fun" exhibit was a whole view of the White House and its importance in the life of the US.  How it is used and what that means to the world and its leaders.  There was an exact replica of the Oval Office that we could walk around.  Ken was even able to sit in the president's chair and "take a call".