Today I read a great article on President George W. Bush by a long time friend and sometime confidant. In it, he describes the intelligence of the 43^rd president and his understanding of past and current events. He also details Bush’s voracious appetite for books and the knowledge that he gained from them. In this, I feel a little vindicated because I have tirelessly defended George W. Bush’s intelligence from those who would launch ad hominid attacks. I, like the former president, stutter and am tongue-tied in front of an audience. This does not mean that I am any less intelligent for having this problem. The author, Walt Harrington, succinctly sums up our perhaps most debilitating political issue when he writes, “It baffles me that grown people must convince themselves that those with whom they disagree are stupid or malevolent.”

In moments of weakness, I have chosen poor words describing our current president. This is not over the belief that he is an idiot or evil. I believe that we see the world in different spectra of light. I in red and he in blue. The pun was intended. Joking aside, I need to work on how I voice my dissent and not fall in the same trap that has befallen those I opposed.