How My Mother Made A Statement About The Power Of Family Ties

You can like former President Bush or not like him.  I liked him.  I had friends who did not.  I did not always agree with him and sometimes we had sharp differences on policy, but he was always respectful and considerate even when he found my votes unhelpful to what he was trying to accomplish.

But this is not about Mr. Bush, or the Presidency, policy or any of the Washington hoopla.  This is about my Mom.  If any of you have a mother, I think you will get the drift pretty quickly.  You may have a story of your own about your mother to share.  Send it to the campaign at steve@peopleforpearce.com and we will post a couple of them.

In the late summer of 2004, I got a call from the White House wondering where the President should visit in southeastern New Mexico if he got a chance to visit.  I immediately said Hobbs.  The White House staff responded that this was out of the question; the Presidential 747 was too heavy to land at the smaller airports.  I was pretty sure at this point that they felt the 5 electoral votes of New Mexico might decide the election.  They kept asking over the next week, I held out strong for Hobbs.  They were just as adamant that it could not work.  Finally, they worked it out for the 747 to land in Midland, then the President flew to Hobbs in the Gulfstream G-5.

For a kid from Hobbs to meet a president of either party is a big deal.  I met President Johnson in 1967.  I remember it clearly and fondly.

To have the president to come to your hometown is an even bigger deal. 

So, I invited my mother to come.  She excitedly drove from College Station, Texas to Hobbs to attend.  As always, I was to be backstage and meet with the President for a few minutes before he spoke.  The Secret Service let my wife be backstage with me.  That was rare.  They also allowed me to have one other person backstage to shake hands before we went out to do the public event.  That was unprecedented in my experience.  I immediately said it should be Mom.  Bob Carter who was my Chief of Staff, got himself back there to "handle" Mom's wheelchair.

President Bush was always punctual.  But with all Presidential visits there is a lot of waiting.  Large crowds all have to be processed through security.  This day was no different.  It was icy cold which never happens in Hobbs in the early fall.  Still, some in the crowd had waited since the early morning hours.  Right on time as the crowd began to buzz, I stepped out of the tent and the G-5 was flying overhead.  A few minutes later the crowd was at a fevered pitch, and the Presidential motorcade came into view. 

The Secret Service, as always, reminded all of us to keep it short, do not approach the President.  It was a standard briefing.

The President came into the tent, briskly shook hands with all of us, gave Cynthia a hug as he always did, introduced himself to Mom and Bob, then said, "Let's get this thing moving."

At that point, I heard Mom's voice, "Young man, young man."  She always referred to nonfamily members that way.  The whole murmur in the tent went silent.

I quietly said to Mom that we were on a schedule or some inane thing.  She paid about as much attention to this as she did to my weak explanations in high school when I would get home late, blaming a flat tire or empty gas tank.  She persisted

"Young man!  We are not going anywhere until I get a picture."

The President looked at me, over to her and back to me.  The Secret Service agents were ready to intervene but something held them back for just a second, I suspect each of them had a mother at some time or other.

I reacted to the President looking at me with a weak "no" shake of my head, raised eyebrows and a shrug of the shoulder which all women will realize is the universal male signal of, "I give up."  The President gave the same signal back as he said, "It's ok Steve, I have a mother just like her back home."

Then he looked down at Mom and said "Mrs. Pearce, you have all the time you need."

At this point, Bob Carter gave the biggest laugh of the decade in Hobbs.  He gave a White House level laugh because he knew if there were an incident, he would have to be the one to straighten it out.  With a wave of the Presidential hand the Secret Service guys stood back.

The White House photographer had seen the commotion and snapped the picture.  It is one of my favorites because it was so out of place and so real among all the photos that have been made in my political career.  It is also a moment just when fairly large tension has been released by a gracious comment from the commander-in-chief.  He could have made the moment a problem or a blessing.  Bob's laugh in the photo lets you know which way it is going.  Mom has hold of the President's jacket, which is the only time I ever saw any contact allowed with the President except a handshake or a hug for the women.  Mom also has the look of surprise that she has just pulled this off and is imagining how she will tell it to her friends.  The hand on the jacket, well, it is just not allowed in the Secret Service handbook.  I am relieved and Cynthia, as always is by my side.

The Secret Service and all the Presidential protocol are not better than the tenacity of a mother.  The challenges of raising children to adulthood gives mothers a lifetime of training to know what the situation is and how to respond.  Mothers have honed a decisiveness and determination that comes only from day-to-day, life changing decisions that they routinely make.  Mom had not lived over 80 years and raised 6 kids to be denied, she was going to get that photo.  So she did what any mother would do, she took charge of the situation.  Everything and everybody, including the President deferred to this lifelong understanding.  No matter who you are, every one of us has a mother.  This is a universal knowledge that trumps everything else. 

One of my wife's favorite quotes is: "The hand that rocks the cradle steadies the nation."

The moment captured on film is one where the nation is being steadied, where even the President of the United States, in all his power defers to power of a mother.  It is a testament to the goodness of this nation and to the importance of mothers to any nation. 

May God bless all mothers as they do their jobs, as they steady the nation.