President George W. Bush’s holiday card is filled with a message of hope for the New Year
CNN has one of his cards. The card has an image of Bush’s painting of the Statue of Liberty. It has the title “Beacon of Hope” and is a part of his new art collection that celebrates immigrants.
The card’s message reads: “May the light of the holiday season shine bright in your heart now and throughout the New Year.”
The former president was one of the first Republicans to congratulate Joe Biden. His choice of the Statue of Liberty is symbolic as it is one the first sights seen by immigrants entering through the New York Harbor. It has these famous lines by Emma Lazarus:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.”
This iconic poem was targeted in 2019 by a Trump administration official who said that it should be changed to include only immigrants “who can stand on their own two feet.”
This holiday card, from the only former Republican president alive, is indeed a beacon of hope as President Trump and some his GOP allies, refuse to accept his election loss, despite the Electoral College’s affirmation of Biden’s win.
Although Bush has mostly stayed away from politics in 2017, he condemned bigotry and white supremacy in a speech at the George W. Bush Institute in New York City.
“Our identity as a nation, unlikely other nations, is not determined by geography or ethnicity, by soil or blood….This means that people from every race, religion, ethnicity can be full and equally American. It means that bigotry and white supremacy, in any form, is blasphemy against the American creed.”
He added that “bigotry seems emboldened,” but didn’t expand or explain further.
