It’s a political year (as if you hadn’t noticed) so I thought I’d write about politics – sort of. Ok, really about a politician – George W. Bush – the younger – U.S. President number 43.
It was April 2006. Donald Rumsfeld was the United States Secretary of Defense when eight U.S. and other NATO-member retired generals and admirals called for his resignation because of his “abysmal military planning and lack of strategic competence.” More generals and admirals piled on after that and it was reported that their opinion “mirrors the views of 75 percent of the officers in the field, maybe more.” There were a lot of good reasons for Rumsfeld to resign or to be fired, but he didn’t resign and Bush didn’t fire him. And when asked why he wasn’t listening to so much military expertise, President Bush said this:
“I am the decider.”
He got ridiculed for that one. It sounded so juvenile. (Just goes to show you how a few years can change the light in which we see. Doesn’t look so juvenile now compared to some other things we’ve heard later presidents say, does it?)
But it stuck with me. Why? Because even though he didn’t mean it in the same way I do, George W. Bush spoke a fundamental truth. We are the deciders – always.
This world is uniquely set up to be a world of choice and we come here specifically to learn to choose. And our very first lesson is learning that we are always the decider.
“Your holy will establishes everything that happens to you.” (CE, C10, S1, P3, L1)
“As you decide, so will you see, and all that you see but witnesses to your decision.” (CE, C12, S10, P13, L8)
George W. Bush was right. I am the decider.