Wonder if Laura Bush ever thinks about the kid she killed?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/07/earlyshow/leisure/books/main591951.shtml

<snip>Laura, they learned, had been speeding blithely out of town about 8 P.M., east on Farm Road 868, her high school friend Judy Dykes in the passenger seat. She never saw the stop sign. She never saw the other car. She plowed right through that stop sign and slammed hard into the 1962 Corvair coming south and with the right-of-way, on State Road 349, the La Mesa Highway. She was fine, really, the officer assured her parents, but bruised and banged up, and awfully upset. Judy was shaking but unharmed as well. But the boy in the other car, well, the force of the broadside impact was so severe that, well...He never had a chance. Michael Douglas, golden boy of Midland, high school track star, was dead on arrival at Midland Memorial Hospital. The two girls were taken there, too, in another ambulance. Mike Douglas's father had been driving another car behind his son. He saw the entire horrific scene, the explosive beginning of a nightmare that haunted him his whole life.

The front-page story in the Midland Reporter-Telegram was blunt and nonaccusatory. "Police said death was attributed to a broken neck," the paper reported, using that passive voice peculiar to newspaper writing. But the news flew through Midland about whose actions had caused that death.

Killing another person was a tragic, shattering error for a girl to make at seventeen. It was one of those hinges in a life, a moment when destiny shuddered, then lurched in a new direction. In its aftermath, Laura became more cautious and less spontaneous, more inclined to be compassionate, less inclined to judge another person.

What made the crash even more devastating was that the boy Laura killed was no stranger but a good friend of hers, a boy from her crowd. Some said Mike Douglas was her boyfriend. Or had been, or maybe she wanted him to be. ...

[Catherine Vincent]

1. I'm sure she does.

That's probably what drove her to drink.

[freetobegay]

2. I thought Georgie did that to her.

eom

[DrWeird]

3. Probably not.

She probably wasn't thinking about him when she drove right past the stop sign and hit him head on either.

[meegbear]

4. If Hillary stole a lipstick at 16 and was caught ...

there'd be 3 "expose" books, 2 "exclusive" video documentaries, and countless calling of her "The First Theif".

Mention the above, and you're rude for "digging up the past to smear a innocent woman". Her actions ended someone's life and they treat it like it's a 'Davey and Goliath' lesson.

Funny how that works.

[trotsky]

13. Ah yes, so very true.

Kinda like how when Chelsea is in public with a boyfriend and a picture happens to catch her in an "aroused" state, it's a scandal worthy of endless coverage. The Bush twins being busted for underage drinking, eh, that's private. Leave them alone.

[Ripley]

5. No mention of DUI?

Why was she speeding through a stop sign? I guess teens do that, but I also know most of the teen deaths in auto accidents around here are due to alcohol.

[Loonman]

6. You need a brain to do that

Natch.

[sniffa]

7. from murderer to Librarian

way to pick yourseLf up by the bootstraps.

[carolinayellowdog]

10. Got something against librarians?

what?

[sniffa]

26. yeah

it's a more dignified job than murderer.

[LyleNews]

8. The Locals Have a Saying......

You raise hell in Odessa; You raise your family in Midland....

9. he who is without sin

I'm absolutely no fan of George Bush, but I think it's obvious Laura Bush thinks about it.
Have you ever done something that you seriously regret in your life?
I have.
It's impossible not to have it somewhere in your consciousness even on a very low level every day & some days are worse than others.

These people may be political "enemies" but they are still human.

Show a little compassion.

Don't be a ....

Don't be guilty of what you think your political opponent is guilty of.

[atreides1]

11. You're Assuming...

...the Laura Bush has a conscious. Have you ever heard her on one of those commercials where she talks about hungry children, she does this while her husband and his Republican controlled Congress does everything it can to cut funding for programs that feed and assist the poor.

How does someone with a conscious do that?

I personally think that she, like her husband only regrets that a record of this incident exists, and that every so often it will come up. Does she regret what happened, no one knows, except her!

15. I'm assuming

she has a conscious and a conscience, yes, because she is human.

She might be completely confused about the political realm, I'm with you on that; but I seriously doubt anyone could be in an accident of that sort and not have it weigh on their mind and heart.

[Rainbowreflect]

24. Thank you!

Yes she caused the accident, but chances are good that it was just a stupid young driver mistake. I would not wish having to live with something like that on my worst enemy. And Laura Bush is not my worst enemy even if she may be related by marriage to a few at the top of my list.

[Puglover]

12. Sorry 56kid....

It's that kind of thinking that will lose us an election in Nov.
I doubt that there is a person on this board (lurking freepers excepted) that would not show someone compassion in her circumstance. However, when turning the other cheek simply results in having the other cheek smacked what exactly do you suggest is the answer?

edit to remove that stupid compound last sentence and make it two
that are understandable.
:eyes:

14. give me a break

That kind of thinking will lose us the election?

What are you 15 years old?

I'm sorry this is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read on this board.

Having compassion for someone's personal pain will lose us the election?

Tell that to the Iraqis.

Maybe you'd like to explain how.

I don't get it at all.

[Caution]

16. Always nice to see the voice of reason

It's a fine line we sometimes walk when trying to stop what is happening. This was a tragic mistake and Laura Bush should not be held accountable for the actions of her husband nor should a mistake from 30 years ago be used as a political toy to attack her husband.

[Puglover]

19. Yeah, I'm 15....so let me spell it out for you.

What will lose us an election is to take the luxury of taking the moral higher ground over the Repugs like Al Gore did. When they called him a liar he said nothing. He did not get down and fight them. Please don't put words in my mouth. Nowhere did I say that "having compassion for someone's personal pain will lose us the election. You closed your post with the pithy "don't be guilty of what you think your political opponent is guilty of" and that's what I take issue with. Given that as a rule I think we may walk away with the moral higher ground but not with the presidency. I'm sorry if I was unclear.
Why not rather then attack and insult next time you ask someone you disagree with to clarify. Works just as well really.

20. sorry

Your first sentence in your previous post just really set me off.

I actually do agree with what you're saying here about the necessity of being tough and not allowing Repugs to call people liars etc.

The reason I ended it so pithily is because I really did think that what I was saying was to have compassion for someone's personal pain. Maybe I wasn't clear either. So when you responded that that kind of thinking would lose the election, that's why I responded the way I did.

the higher moral ground issue is complex, I don't think we should back down the way Gore did, but I do think it is important to maintain a higher moral ground, if possible .

Sorry if I went into attack mode earlier.

[Puglover]

23. Your gracious comments

are greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[grasswire]

17. what a piece of crap..

..this book is.

"She was seventeen, a few days past her birthday in her senior year, a girl with her daddy's car keys. There was a party, on a weeknight. That wasn't much the sort of thing Jenna and Harold Welch let their girl do, go to a party in the middle of the week. But really, Laura was such a good girl, this only child of theirs, an angel, a love. She had never given them a moment's trouble. She was steady and smart and quiet, and her friends were the Brownies she knew from grade school. She always laughed at her father's jokes; he was a cutup, easy and friendly and open. She always sat by her mother, though. On visits to her grandmother some hours away, Laura and her mother would take turns reading in the car out loud to each other, the huge sky of West Texas arching out before them, vast and familiar, Manifest Destiny beckoning in the shimmering of the nighttime stars."

>And then she drove drunk and killed a boy.

[genius]

18. They were engaged. It's one way to break off an engagement.

I wonder if she was a role model for the woman who ran down her husband.

[tom_paine]

21. No. That Stepford is prescription medicated to the eyeballs

How else could she climb into bed with the AntiChrist every night?

[Puglover]

22. ROFL...

good one!

[Blasphemer]

25. I think she should speak out...

I know she's supposedly a private sort but if she would speak out about her past, I'd have more respect for her. Many people deal with tragic accidents like this and they have a lingering affect on their lives. She could talk about dealing with grief, counseling, support groups, etc. At least, it would a way for her to finally reach out to the people, emotionally connect in some way and make a lasting contribution to the country. She supposedly doesn't like being likened to Mamie Eisenhower but it's within her own power to change her image.

[jobycom]

27. First

She grew up around there. Midland is small. She SAW the stop sign. She knew it was there. She just ran it.

Second, I've not heard the story told that innocuously even by her supporters before. I've always heard she was driving irresponsibly, and goofing off. Maybe drinking, but if that's been proven, I haven't seen it. Her behavior was questionable, her honesty (as it still is) was flexible, but murder is a stretch.

Third, the kid's father was behind him and witnessed it. Tragically sad. IF there had been anything deliberate about it, as some have implied here, the father would have said that. If anyone knows where the father has said it wasn't an accident, please post a reference.

Fourth, that was a long time ago, in another life for her. Holding that against her now for political reasons is just sick (unless it was deliberate, but I've seen no proof). It may say something about her choices then, but they are irrelevant now. She's done enough now to anger us legitimately, we don't have to go looking stupid by digging up ancient history on our opponent's wife. I'd rather not become them just to defeat them.

This tragedy could be used to point out press hypocrisy, or the hypocrisy of our juvenile justice system (many people are not given second chances, especially when they don't have the money and prestige her family had), and that's fair. But to seriously blame the modern Laura Bush for what happened when she was that young is wrong.

[bhunt70]

28. She probably does, people make mistakes...

We shouldn't be petty, taking another human life is a huge deal, not a political weapon to be used against her for her idiot husband.

[linazelle]

29. Its crass and tasteless to hold this accident against Laura or anyone

Bringing this argument up politically is nearly as stupid at the republicans throwing in /Saddam's mass murders from 15 years ago to justify a war today.

I don't hate many people--in fact the only people I hate at at BushCo--but that doesn't make this accident by a teenager no less, ripe for political fodder.

[slackmaster]

30. Let's please not try to make a Willie Horton out of her

Bad politics to dwell on an accident that happened early in someone's life.

We should focus on the poor leadership and ineptness of her husband.

32. slackmaster, linazelle, bhunt 70, jobycom

Thanks for saying in a less charged way what I said earlier in this thread. (I got really angry at the mentality of the question):crazy:

[Skittles]

31. I am sure she does

and I believe it was a terrible accident caused by an inexperienced driver.