Laura Lane Bush
With the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, less than nine months after assuming the First Lady role, Laura Bush found her visibility much higher and with more demands made upon it than she had initially assumed it would be. Scheduled that day to become the first incumbent Republican First Lady to deliver Congressional testimony to a Senate Education Committee, in the weeks and months that followed, she frequently spoke in public forums on techniques that adults could use to comfort children who were traumatized by the changes wrought by the attacks. As the U.S. undertook an invasion of Afghanistan to free it of the extremist Taliban that had overtaken it, Laura Bush met with Afghani women to hear their stories of the harsh repression the women of their country suffered. She discussed their plight as the topic of her radio address on November 17, 2001. It was the first time a First Lady spoke in lieu of the President during one of the weekly radio addresses usually made by the Chief Executive.
Before she entered the White House, Laura Bush already had an interest in American history. As a young woman, she had grown up reading American Heritage magazine. Laura Bush lobbied to continue much of the work of Save America's Treasures, the federal funding for which was not scheduled for further appropriation. The new program, "Preserve America," communities were recognized for protecting and celebrating cultural and natural heritage, using their historic assets for economic development and community revitalization, and encouraging people to experience and appreciate local historic resources through education and heritage tourism programs. As part of the program's encouragement of citizens to keep the environment regionally indigenous, Laura Bush replanted native grasses at the presidential Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford to preserve the Texas landscape. In January of 2004, she announced the creation of a new Preserve America History Teacher of the Year award, again fusing the issue of education to an outside issue she has supported. In 2004, she revealed her effort with the White House Historical Association to renovate the Lincoln Bedroom, suggesting its original use as Lincoln's Victorian Cabinet Room. While entertaining in the Bush White House has been more limited than recent Administrations, one venue the First Lady had an special interest in combined her love of literature with the educational salon-type gathering sponsored by First Ladies Hillary Clinton, Rosalynn Carter and Lady Bird Johnson: Laura Bush has hosted the series "White House Salute to America's Authors," to celebrate our country's great literary works. Featured authors have included Mark Twain, Women Writers of the West, authors of the Harlem Renaissance, and three classic American storytellers: Truman Capote, Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty.
While a strong defender of the President, Laura Bush has also felt free to express political opinions of her own: she did not believe that Roe vs. Wade should be overturned, felt that the issue of gay marriage should initially be a matter of public decision and not judicial; and agreed with the President's opposition to stem cell research. In the first months of the second Bush term, Laura Bush continued to enlarge her public role. She fulfilled her promise to visit Afghanistan, where she promoted a new teacher-training institute for women in Afghanistan that is being established there with U.S. support and her personal commitment. She accepted the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) honorary Ambassadorship for its Decade of Literacy, raising awareness and support for global literacy for children, women, and men around the world. In this capacity, she delivered the International Women's Day to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women on March 8, 2002. In May, 2005, Laura Bush made one of her most politically overt forays, traveling to Egypt, Jordan and Israel. At the World Economic Forum, she emphasized the link between providing education to all genders and socioeconomic groups within a society and the fostering of democracy. During her Middle East trip, she visited religious sites sacred to Jews and Muslims and encountered spirited protestors among members of both faiths there. She also declared what proved to be a disagreement with the President in regard to the Secret Service not notifying him of an aircraft that violated a security zone near the White House and, as she returned from the Middle East, observed that democracy might take a longer time than initially anticipated to root itself in some cultures. To what degree she has exerted influence in the way of policy has not been fully disclosed by the White House, although the President acknowledged in May of 2005 that there were times they disagreed in private, suggesting that they certainly discussed many of his decisions. Just as it was acknowledged that she had a great personal influence on his earlier decision to stop drinking alcohol, the President later disclosed that she also successfully urged him to reconsider his rhetoric regarding the Al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden after declaring that he would find the man "dead or alive."
In the fall of 2005, Laura Bush hosted a White House Conference on Helping America’s Youth to promote public awareness of the problems facing at-risk youth, gathering policymakers, research experts, foundations, faith-based and volunteer organizations, educators, coaches, and parents to exchange programs and methods that have already proved successful and consider new venues to the same end. Each spring of her tenure, Laura Bush has also supported a public awareness campaign regarding women's heart disease. She partnered with the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to share "The Heart Truth," a public service information campaign to get out the word that heart disease is the leading cause of death among American women. In her speeches on the subject, Laura Bush has emphasized the importance of healthy eating, exercise and preventive screenings. As part of her public awareness campaign to alert women to issues of heart disease and heart care, she highlighted an exhibit of red-colored gowns worn by the living former First Ladies and herself in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and in southern California at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, joining former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the latter event in March of 2007. Laura Bush dedicated the National First Ladies’ Library Education and Research Center on September 4, 2003. In her dedication speech, she stressed the need to better understand the role played by our nation’s women – not just First Ladies, but all generations of women.
