Letter to the Editor – Did God really talk to President George W. Bush about the Middle East?

It is coincidental that President Bush is the second incumbent US President who claims to have been talked to by God. The last time that an incumbent president of the US claimed to have a "revelation" from God was President William McKinley (1897-1901).

President McKinley said that the Philippines could not be turned over to France or Germany because it would be bad business.

That the Filipinos could not be left to themselves because he claimed that they were unfit for self-government and they would have soon have anarchy and misrule worse than Spain's was.

Then, showing his arrogance and ignorance, he said that there was nothing left for us Americans but to take them all, educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them. After his talk to Methodist dignitaries, he ordered the chief engineer of the War Department to place the Philippines on the map of the United States of America.

Obviously, McKinley was not a very educated and well-informed American. To say that the Filipinos need education is to say that he didn't know about Filipino ilustrados educated in Spain and Germany. To civilize the Filipinos is to be ignorant that the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas and the University of San Carlos in Cebu were not prominent and older than Harvard University. Many Americans then and now do not even know where the Philippines is located. And US history books neglected to cover the Philippines as experienced by this writer when he was a member of a civil rights committee of the San Francisco United School District reviewing "ethnic data" on the textbooks used in public schools. McKinley was unfortunately assassinated in 1901 and could not finish his full term. In the meantime, the Philippines continued to be an American colony till 1948.

What about President George W. Bush's claim? According to The FREEMAN news item of October 8, 2005, Page 12, Bush had a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort by the Gulf of Aqaba in June 2003. Bush boldly stated that "I'm driven with a mission from God". That he was commanded to fight the terrorists in Afghanistan, to free Iraq from tyranny, give Israel its security and establish a Palestinian State. This "historic event" will be aired in a BBC documentary soon to come out in the media.

Is Bush's claim valid? Was he really inspired by divine revelation, as did the late Pres. McKinley? Only time will tell.

After all, it was in the Middle East that God talked to Moses in the form of a "burning bush."

Dr. Jose Lucero Bonpua Jr.
President, CEO
The Museum of Sacred Art, Inc.
888 Calle San Jose
Oslob, Cebu 6025