Looking forward to heal the past: Could Bush library banish Davidian stigm

[norml]

Looking forward to heal the past: Could Bush library banish Davidian stigma?

By Bill Whitaker Tribune-Herald city editor

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Some proponents of plans to place the George W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum in Waco say the facility would help banish the Branch Davidian stigma that has loomed over the city since 1993.

But the city's chief rival, Dallas, has had its own ghosts to exorcise, mostly involving the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 – and a Bush library might put a different spin on presidential figures for the sprawling city of more than a million.

The two tragic episodes are scarcely mentioned in the campaigns mounted by Baylor University and Southern Methodist University to win the Bush library. Yet, to an extent, the cities where those campuses are rooted have been defined by the incidents, themselves 30 years apart.

Dallas emerged as a particularly strong contender for the library this month when a presidential library committee headed by former Department of Commerce Secretary Don Evans narrowed the field of competitors to four finalists – Baylor, SMU, the University of Dallas and Texas Tech University.

Author Marshall Terry, a longtime SMU faculty member who has lived in Dallas for more than half a century, says a Bush library would be a boon to Dallas, even though it will never obliterate the stain of the Kennedy shooting.

"That'll always be there," he said.


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http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2005/10/23/20051023wacwacovsdallas.html

[niyad]

1. just as a matter of curiousity, WHAT would be in the library, since the

boyking seems to have a penchant for secrecy and keeping records OUT of the public eye?

how many copies of "my pet goat" will be for sale?

and WHAT is going to remove the stigma of his lying, murderous, thieving, corrupt and evil administration?

[norml]

12. Framed photo of him with the fireman, The Mission Accomplished suit in a

Plexiglas case, a Walmart sized gift shop, and of course a 10 ton Ten Commandments monument, that's what will be in the Dubya library.

[MADem]

2. I really think they should consider renaming WACO

Before the Branch Davidian thing, there were always the WHACK-O jokes. There surely must be an historical reason for the name, but the question is, is it worth keeping?

Of course, they'd probably name it BUSH City, Bushtown, Bushville or something idiotic like that if they did change the name, leading to even more jokes and snarky comments...

[mark11727]

5. I drove through Waco about 12-13 years ago...

...right about the time of the Branch Davidian standoff, and aside from the then-current events concerning the Davidians, they (Waco)had a pretty nice museum of the Texas Rangers, and I think something to do with Dr Pepper.

I was staying in Temple, TX on work assignment at the time.

[MADem]

6. Ranger, Texas

Has a nice ring, if it isn't already taken...!

[chalky]

3. And replace it with a whole NEW stigma.

n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Bush Library Architect's Model

[madeline_con]

9. Will "My Pet Goat" be in the stacks?

:eyes:

[melody]

10. lol - good one. I'd say the Bush Presidential Video Shelf might be closer

I can't see Georgie ever having read a whole book (right side up anyway).

[sandrakae]

7. Do Impeached President's get libraries?

[saltpoint]

8. It would be blasphemous for Dubya to even HAVE a library.

The little fool hasn't read a book in his entire life, if you don't count MY PET GOAT.

[Crunchy Frog]

11. A Bush library will just compound the humiliation

of whichever city gets it. If either city gets it, it will just reinforce whatever bad reputation it already has. Can these people really be so dumb as to think that history is never going to catch up with W when it's already happening?

[baldguy]

13. Duhbya's "library" should be in Guantanimo.

No actual books, of course.