I agree this is a trivial matter. Regardless of how I feel about Bush, he's the bloody president of the United States, and I can imagine he has other, more important things to do than minutely inspecting every gift he has. Would be pretty disturbing actually if he spent valuable time on that. Of course he has people who do such things for him, and so a mistake was made. I'd feel impolite myself too if I didn't appreciate people's gifts, and from here I'd say I'd always try to show my appreciation... but I do understand there are more important things to worry about when you hold an important position in the world so maybe from their position I would act differently.
And Antryg, that's a great idea of yours! Donations to charities as gifts, I like it. [img]smile.gif[/img]
I've actually seen instances of it before, with normal (non-presidential
) people. For instance on a funeral, when the deceased passed away because of cancer, the card will say "instead of wreaths/flowers, please make out a donation to the national cancer research institute". I've always thought that a great idea - some people actually do similar things on their weddings or birthdays (asking for donations instead of gifts) But I'm drifting off-topic now... [img]redface.gif[/img]
[ 07-18-2003, 05:43 AM: Message edited by: Melusine ]