U.S. Presidents are uniting to show solidarity on the tsunami relief issue — and to urge Americans to kick in:
President Bush is asking the nation’s two most recent chief executives to help raise money for the tsunami victims.
The president was joined by his father, the 41st President and former President Clinton at the White House Monday morning to announce the formation of a nationwide fundraising effort.
"In the coming days former presidents Clinton and Bush will ask Americans to donate directly to reliable charities already providing help to tsunami victims," he said.
The president asked every American to do whatever they can to help out. Mr. Bush will also visit the embassies of the countries affected by the tsunamis and sign their condolence books.
This illustrates once again that there are issues on which humanity and compassion trump any political labels.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.