Chapter 130: Conventional Wisdom

August 2, 2000

We were sitting in the green room behind the stage at the Union Center. It was the four of us, five if you included Stormy, and she seemed to be getting a kick out of jumping from lap to lap. I was looking forward to spending a night at home with her locked in the laundry room. It wasn’t like I had never had a dog sleep in bed with me, but this idiot critter seemed to prefer sleeping in between Marilyn and me, and under the covers no less! It wasn’t exactly the crazy nights away in a strange hotel I had been looking forward to.

John Boehner had been with us until a few minutes ago, when he had been summoned forth. He was about to do his introduction of the bio. We had ABC on the television and were watching as he appeared on the screen, smiling and tan. How the hell any human could be that shade always amazed me and gave me endless opportunity to tease him. Marilyn was seated next to me and holding my hand. I wasn’t sure who was more nervous, me about the speech or her about the bio movie.

“I first met Carl Buckman in December of 1990 during Freshman Orientation Week. We had both just been elected to Congress, and we happened to be seated at the same table. Everyone at that table knew about the cocky young billionaire who had just bought himself a Congressional district, and there he was at the table with us. Guess what? He wasn’t all that cocky, or at least no more than the rest of us at the table were. In fact, he was a pretty nice guy.”

John had started to speak, and I looked over at Marilyn and said, “You wouldn’t believe how much he charged me to say this stuff. His original speech started out, ‘Carl Buckman is a real asshole!’”

She gave me a nudge in the side and said, “Behave! I am going to tell him you said that!”

“Go right ahead!”

“It turned out that Carl Buckman hadn’t bought his seat. He simply had managed to make a whole lot of money, and was now giving it back to the community he loved and lived in. He had been donating for years to every fire house, police station, ambulance squad, and emergency room in northern Maryland. He never thought twice about it. It was where he had grown up and where he had moved back to after getting out of the Army. I once talked to a fellow Maryland Congressman, Wayne Gilchrest, who said that at a dinner party he asked Carl if he would donate to charities outside of his district. Carl simply said, ‘Sure, how much?’ Since then, the Buckman Foundation has given out well over $50 million to first responder and emergency groups in his home state and across the nation.”

John went on for another ten minutes, telling about my rise from suburban kid to mathematical prodigy to combat soldier to billionaire investor, and then finally, Congressional leader. He piled horseshit upon horseshit, as all the while I made snarky comments to Marilyn quietly. She laughed at me as I did this.

When John finished, we went to the video, where Tom Selleck and Marilyn said the same damn thing all over again, this time with pictures. I had already seen it a few times, using it to set up some of what I wanted to say. The girls, however, hadn’t seen it and they were properly impressed with their mother’s speaking. I even got a few ‘You really did that, Dad?’ remarks out of them, after which I simply rolled my eyes at my wife.

About halfway through the video, a staffer knocked on the door and came in. “It’s time to go, Congressman.”

I nodded. I looked at the girls and said, “Take her outside and let her do her business in the parking lot quick. We do not need her peeing and pooping on national television!”

“She just went half an hour ago!” protested Holly.

“Go!”

The girls scrambled out with Stormy on a leash. Marilyn and I followed the staffer to a place behind the curtains. Two minutes later the twins showed up with Stormy on her leash. I looked at Molly and asked, “Well?”

“She peed.”

Marilyn and I gave each other superior and knowing looks and nods. Then the moment was over. The video ended with thunderous applause from the crowd, and John Boehner’s voice came over the loudspeakers. “Now, please welcome the next Vice President of the United States, Carl Buckman!”

I looked at the others and said, “Showtime!” and headed to where the staffer was pointing.

The lights and flashes were blinding, and the roar of the crowd was deafening. I walked confidently over to the podium, showing a lot more confidence than I felt. The roar kept up as I stood there, so I simply smiled and waved with my right arm. My left was moving okay, but if I stretched, my ribs protested big time.

Finally, there was a slight break in the pandemonium, and I was able to start talking. “Thank you! Thank you for that warm welcome! I want to take a moment to introduce somebody to you, somebody who just was part of that amazing video, somebody who I owe everything to. Please welcome the greatest woman in the world, Marilyn Buckman!”

I turned and motioned her to come out as the audience went nuts. She gave me a look of terror, but then put a smile on her face and marched out. She kept her eyes on me, and moved a little too fast, but nobody else seemed to care. She waved at everybody as well, and then after a moment, I spoke up again. “I have to confess something here. I saw that video just a few days ago myself, and the first thing that I could think of to say to Marilyn was, ‘Wow! You got to meet Tom Selleck!’” Laughter rocked the place as I grinned at the audience. “Then it got worse, because Marilyn promptly told me that she was heading back to Hollywood, because he was a heck of a lot cuter than me and had a full head of hair.” More laughter.

When the laughter died down, I kept going. “I’d love to introduce you to the next member of my family, but Charlie isn’t available. He is currently on duty, deployed overseas and defending our great nation, with the United States Marines.” We were back to cheering again.

“Finally, allow me to introduce the rest of the family, our daughters Holly and Molly, and the newest member of the family, Stormy!” I motioned them out, and they came out. The girls were pretty good at this, nowhere near as stiff as their mother, waving and smiling to everybody. Stormy was loving it. She scampered on her leash ahead of the others, and when I knelt, she jumped into my arms. I held her up and showed her to the audience as she licked my face, and the room went fucking nuts! By now everybody in America knew about the puppy I had rescued in Springboro and adopted.

Finally, I put Stormy in Marilyn’s arms, and kept the dog’s face out of the way while I gave Marilyn a quick kiss. Then I kissed the girls on their foreheads, and they all left, waving at the cheering crowd. It was showtime, so I stepped back to the podium. A printout of my speech was already on the podium, and the teleprompter was cued up. “My family and I thank you all for that wonderful welcome. You really have no idea how much it means to us.” Then it was time to get into the speech.

“As I watched and listened to the video a few minutes ago, the overwhelming thought to cross my mind was ‘Who was this man?’ Many times, I heard how brave I was, how fearless I was, how nothing scared me, and through it all, I kept asking myself, ‘Who was this man?’

I asked this because I have the same fears as every other man, every other woman, every other parent, every other person in this room. When I was standing in the doorway of an airplane, preparing to jump out into the cold and dark, I was afraid. When I had to defend my wife and children from killers and thieves, I was afraid. When I had to stand between a drunken man and the pregnant wife he was beating, I was afraid. And two weeks ago, when I went into the basement of a collapsed house to help an injured mother, her children, and their pets, believe me, I was afraid!

Fear is an emotion. It is basic to all of us, like love, hate, jealousy, trust, joy. Everyone has fears. I am no different than any other man. I have fears as well. However, you can overcome fear, by deciding to be brave. When I was still a boy, I simply decided to have courage, to not let my fears rule me, but to rule my fears. Courage is not an emotion; it is an active decision we can all take. Courage is a choice!

When I went to jump school, and they strapped a parachute on me, and told me to stand in the doorway, I was offered a choice. You can step back and land in the airplane, or you can choose courage, and make the jump. I chose courage! Courage is a choice!

When my wife was robbed in the Bahamas, and the gang decided to go through me on the way out the door, I was offered a choice. I could jump out of the way and let murderers and thieves run loose, or I could choose courage and stop them. I chose courage! Courage is a choice!

When a madman began stalking my wife, when he vandalized her car, when he firebombed our house, when he broke into our home and threatened my life, I was offered a choice. I could run away and hide from a psychotic killer, or I could choose courage and keep my family safe. I chose courage! Courage is a choice!

When a drunk twice my size began busting up a restaurant back home, beating up the owner and a waitress, and then began hitting his pregnant wife, I was offered a choice. I could ignore it and eat my pie, or I could choose courage and save a woman’s life and the life of her unborn child. I chose courage! Courage is a choice!

When a tornado ripped through the peaceful town of Springboro, tearing up people’s homes and their lives, I was offered a choice. I could stand back and let somebody else handle the problem, or I could choose courage, and save a dying mother and her young children, and yes, even the family dog. I chose courage! Courage is a choice!

Moral courage is the most important courage of all. It is the courage to make the right choices, choices that help not yourself, but others. When friends came to me ten years ago and said they had read my books and heard my speeches, they told me to put up or shut up, put my money where my mouth was, and step up to the plate. However you want to put it, the challenge was to stop complaining and start fixing, and run for Congress. This was a scarier proposition than anything else I had ever done! I chose courage! Courage is a choice!

Courage is about the choices we make in everyday life. It is the choice of a pilot staying with his dying plane just a little bit longer, to miss the elementary school even if he won’t be able to punch out. It is the choice of a fireman going into a burning house to search for a child. It is the choice of a Coast Guardsman who says he has to go out, but he doesn’t have to come back. It is the choice of a father who is dying of cancer, but stays on the job just one day longer, so his children can stay in school just one day longer. It is the choice of a mother who works three jobs so that her children will be able to go to college.

And courage is the choice of a leader, a leader who makes choices to benefit an entire nation, choices to benefit not just a voter, but that voter’s children and grandchildren, choices to benefit everyone, and not just those who voted for him. George Bush has that courage! George Bush chooses courage! Courage is a choice, and George Bush has made that choice!”