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OPINION: Welcome, Mr. Bush
Friday, March 15, 2002
The Fayetteville Observer

Enjoy your day in this special place

Welcome to Fayetteville, Mr. President. We’re happy to see you. Your visit is brief, but we suspect you’ll see very quickly that you’re in a special part of America today. This is a city and a region with heart and spirit, a place where patriotism has meaning (and, we like to think, where that virtue makes its permanent home).

It’s a safe bet that Gen. Hugh Shelton, your first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, already let you know that Fort Bragg is the center of the universe. And now that you’ve seen what our Special Operations troops have done in Afghanistan and elsewhere, you know he wasn’t just spouting Tar Heel pride.

We’re proud of them too, and we should be -- they are our sons, daughters, husbands, wives, mothers and fathers. They are Fayetteville.

That’s the special thing about this place. The city, the county and our two military installations, make up one extraordinary metropolitan area, with as much ethnic diversity as you’ll find anywhere in the country. The city has seen hard times, and could have been fairly described as down and out at one point in its not-too-distant past. But a vibrant and tenacious spirit, led by civilians and military working together, is bringing the city’s core back to life and turning Fayetteville into a 21st century success story.

You’ll get a taste of that today, Mr. President. We’re happy to share it with you. And we hope you’ll come back again soon.
(More: The Fayetteville Observer News Source)
2002 © The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer.

Dan