PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

There have been a lot of good quotes lately, especially in relation to the passing of former President George H. W. Bush.

I was impressed with many of the comments, so, as director of this department, I choose to list some of them here, but, at least because I already have written two blogs about Bush 41, this blog won’t be limited to that subject.

• In the Texas memorial service for Bush 41, one of his grandsons, George P. Bush, delivered an eloquent eulogy when he spoke of the grandfather he knew as “Gampy.”

He described how his grandfather loved to spend time with his family, catching bluefish, tossing horseshoes, eating barbecue, tacos and tamales, and motivating his young grandchildren to go to bed each night by offering “the coveted ‘first to sleep award.’ ”

But he said he instilled his credo of “duty, honor, country” in all of the grandchildren.

“He left a simple yet profound legacy to his children, his grandchildren and to this country: service. George Herbert Walker Bush is the most gracious, most decent, most humble man that I will ever know. It’s the honor of a lifetime to share his name.”

Comment: Great comment from another Bush who puts things very well when he said, “it’s the honor of a life to share the Bush name.”

• Or, consider remarks by James A. Baker, now 88, who served Bush 41 as chief of staff in the White House and also served as Secretary of State.

“We’re here today in the house of the Lord to say goodbye to a man of great faith and great integrity, a truly beautiful human being,” Baker said. He was one of Bush’s closest friends, who was with him, holding his hand and massaging his feet, in the moments leading up to his death last Friday.

Baker spoke of Bush’s “noble character, his life of service and the sweet memories he leaves for his friends, his family, and for our grateful nation.”

At the end of his remarks, Baker became choked with emotion as he paraphrased the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, saying, “Our glory, George, was to have had you as our president and as such a friend.”

Comment: Well said, James Baker! You, too, like your best friend, devoted your life to public service.

• From Michael Gerson in the Washington Post: “Given the social and demographic trends of the country, it will soon be impossible to win a presidential election with an ethno-nationalist appeal. But we aren’t there yet. Meanwhile, Trump commits political vampirism — sucking the last remaining life from a dying coalition.”

Comment: Gerson uses excellent words when he says Trump is committing “political vampirism.” If you are looking for a contrast to Bush 41, this is a huge one.

• From Daniel Henninger, deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, describes, at the time of the passing of George H.W. Bush, the duplicity of the media which criticized Bush deeply and personally, then, now, has lauded his performance and style. Most of the Bush values, Henninger writes, can be found on any list of what are called—or used to be called—virtues. “It is telling that these same simple virtues are now being praised by a media that has done so much in the past 30 years to undermine them.”

Comment: Henninger, a member of the Fourth Estate himself, scores points for me when he skewers the duplicity of the media. For an excellent, though imperfect, president like Bush 41, the media goes after him because he, Bush 41, was not adept at some of the communication arts of being president. They failed to assess anything near the virtue of his even-handed leadership at a time of potential peril for this country, the end of the Cold War.

What we need in the Office of the President is someone who will conduct himself with an appropriate sense of humility and decorum. Bush 41 had it.

• I love the quote from former Senator Alan Simpson, who at the national service for Bush 41, said this: “He never hated anyone. He knew what his mother and my mother always knew: Hatred corrodes the container it’s carried in.”

Think of the excellent use of a word “corrodes. It sort of flows off the tongue, though its meaning is very specific and jarring, as indicated by this dictionary definition:  “To eat or wear away gradually as if by gnawing, especially by chemical action; to impair; deteriorate.”

Hatred does just that – in political life and in real life.  Too much to hope, I guess, that the current occupant of the Oval Office, gets it.