Former President George W. Bush told high school seniors in Artesia on Thursday that being out of office is “a liberating feeling,” according to the Roswell Daily Record.
He told them a story about walking his dog Barney in his new neighborhood in Texas. The dog stopped to do his business in a neighbor’s yard.
“And there I was, former president of the United States of America, with a plastic bag on my hand,” Bush said. “Life is returning back to normal.”
Bush was speaking at a reception for high school seniors who are winners of the 2009 Chase Foundation Scholarship.
Bush didn’t delve much into politics during his speech, but, according to the Record, did tell the story of Staff Sgt. Christian Bagge, who lost both legs fighting in Iraq.
“He went into combat because his commander in chief sent him into combat, for a reason I still know is a noble and necessary reason,” Bush told the high school seniors.
From the newspaper:
“Bush used the story to encourage the scholarship recipients. When he visited Bagge in the hospital, Bush told him that someday he would get out of his bed and run, and when he did, he should give the White House a call. Then, one day, an aide went into Bush’s office and said that Bagge was waiting on the South Lawn and wanted to go running with the president.
“If Bagge could do that, Bush said, ‘You can go to college.’”
Bush’s central theme, according to the Albuquerque Journal, was “to encourage the Artesia High School students to make the most of every opportunity they were given and then give back to their communities.”
“My call to you is to give it your all,” the Journal quoted Bush as saying.