This week, the George W. Bush Presidential Center is hosting its annual "Forum on Leadership" this week. The forum is described as a "landmark event that develops, recognizes, and celebrates leadership by bringing together notable voices for in-depth discussions on today’s pressing issues."
"The theme for this year's Forum on Leadership is 'The Heart of America,'" says Bush Center Chief Executive Shilo Brooks. "At the Bush Center, we proudly use the words, 'heart' and leadership' in the same breath. President and Mrs. Bush led our country with heart. Our work embraces their legacy to promote values-based public policy and civic education."
During a speech at the start of the forum, Brooks said some may believe "the heart of America doesn't beat with the same vigor it once did."
"I want to challenge the premise the disagreements we have necessarily imply the disfunction of heart," he said. "To the contrary, when disagreement is done well, it's vital for our nation's survival. The American people do and will continue to disagree fervently. This is an essential feature of our republican form of government, not a drawback."
Brooks said disagreement may be "America's current problem," but he said disagreement has also been a "savior" to guide the Founding Fathers during the Constitutional Conventions, the debate over slavery and when the United States should enter the two World Wars.
"Pursuit of the common good requires that reasonable and charitable people be allowed to engage in civic disagreement to pursue what is just and right. May the best arguments win on merits alone," he said.
In the 1800 election, Brooks described Thomas Jefferson beating John Adams "in a hotly contested presidential election filled with polarizing partisanship and bawdy political insults."
"Did you know Adams' supporters called Jefferson a 'hideous, hermaphroditical character?' Did you know Jefferson's supporters called Adams a 'mean-spirited low-life?'" Brooks said. "At the time of the election, prices were surging across the country because of a major war in Europe and a second, undeclared war called the 'quasi-war' had recently broken out with France. Name-calling, trade tensions, quasi-wars, sound familiar?"
But Brooks said Jefferson's victory over Adams marked the country's first peaceful transition of power between parties.
"Those parties were bitter rivals," he said. "In Jefferson's first inaugural, he urged his fellow citizens to set aside their disagreements and 'unite with one heart and one mind.'"
David Kramer, executive director of the George W. Bush Institute, says the museum will highlight the path leading from the Revolution to today.
"A large part of our mission is to enlighten and educate people, not just about President Bush and Mrs. Bush, but also to provide a platform to inform and educate our fellow citizens about our country, our nation's history, the progress we've made, the challenges we still face," he says.
Kramer says the Institute focuses on policy issues. Leading up to America's 250th, he says other parts of the Bush Center will host events to celebrate. Next week, Journalist Walter Isaacson will talk about "the greatest sentence ever written," referring to the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence.
A current exhibit, Game Changer, looks at the role sports can play "in bringing our country together at pivotal moments." Next month, he says Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch will speak at the library.
Kramer says the Bush Center is installing artwork outside to highlight the country's history, and the National Archives will put records on display at the library including the deeds for the sale of Alaska and Statue of Liberty.
He says the library and museum will offer free admission from July 3 through July 6.
"Our Constitution is the oldest one in the world. The fact it has lasted this long and is at the core of who we are, the values we represent, with amendments that have come along over 250 years recognizing what was viewed as the right thing in 1776 or 1787 weren't necessarily going to be the right thing in 2026," he says.
Kramer says the Civil War, civil rights movement and 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote all show the country is continuously changing.
"We have had a number of challenges, we have had a pretty good track record of overcoming those challenges, but the phrase that is so important is striving toward a more perfect union," he says. "That means we are not a perfect union, but we have to continue to strive toward it."
Last year, the George W. Bush Institute launched "Democracy is a Verb," posting new parts in the series each week.
"The point of that phrase is in order for our country, our society, our system to work effectively, people have to be engaged, they have to be informed, they need to be part of this process whether it's voting, serving on a local committee, volunteering, serving in the military," Kramer says. "There are a whole range of activities people can do to get involved. Run for office if you want to. That is at the crux, it highlights the values and institutions that are at the core of our country."
More information about "Democracy is a Verb" is available here. More information about the George W. Bush Center's Forum on Leadership is available here.
