NELA President Jason Dornhoffer of United Private Car (left) with GBTA COO/Executive Director Scott Solombrino
Boston —When the New England Livery Association (NELA) hosted a breakfast meeting at the CD/NLA Show October 14, it brought along a guest speaker who held the rapt attention of the nearly 100 association members and supporters who came from all across the country to fill up the meeting space.
After NELA Executive Director Rick Szilagyi opened up the meeting by thanking attendees and the day’s sponsors (Lancer Insurance, Research Underwriters, and Vehicle Tracking Solutions) alike, he discussed the three primary tenets of the association: advocacy, fostering a sense of community within the industry, and providing education to members for the benefit of the overall luxury ground transportation landscape.
To underscore the education point, Szilagyi then introduced the meeting’s featured speaker Andrew Card, who served as Chief of Staff under George W. Bush during September 11, 2001, and was thrust into the national spotlight after the iconic image spread of him notifying the then-president about the attacks while Bush read to a classroom of second-grade children.
NELA Executive Director Rick Szilagyi
“I wanted to be the Chief of Staff nobody knew, I wanted to be Mr. Invisible,” Card began. “Then September 11 happened, and everyone knows me: I’m the guy who whispered in the president’s ear.”
Card then spoke for the majority of the meeting, detailing what the day was like from the president’s and his perspective, focusing on the lessons he learned about leadership under pressure and effective management in the face of a crisis. He began by recalling the feelings that the terrorist attack invoked in every American that day, then asked the audience to consider what it was like to grapple with that helplessness, horror, and confusion as a citizen while still successfully upholding the duties of the presidential office.
He detailed how the day began unassumingly enough, right on down to a morning CIA briefing that suggested nothing was out of the ordinary—except for news of a plane crash in New York City, the details of which were still vague and seemingly unremarkable beyond a U.S. Navy captain’s report attributing the accident to a small twin-propeller airplane.
What the president and his staff first assumed was a pilot who suffered a mid-air heart attack and subsequently crashed into a New York City building soon crystalized into something far more deliberate and sinister as news started pouring in. Card knew he was obligated to update President Bush on the dire developments, referring to his government-issued “What to do in case of…” card and relying on his experience to inform the Commander in Chief without visibly alarming him or the youngsters in his company, or encouraging a prolonged dialogue that would only rouse everyone’s suspicions that something was horribly wrong.
Members of the NELA Executive Board with the meeting’s guest speaker Andrew Card (center)
“I knew I had to be cool, calm, and collected to do the job right when I walked into the room,” Card recalled. “When the students bent down to retrieve their copies of ‘My Pet Goat,’ I went to him and said ‘A second plane hit the towers. America is under attack.’ Then I walked away. And the president did nothing to scare those second-graders or betray what he must have been thinking to the media present as we figured out how to exit without causing a scene.”
Card, the president, and the rest of the staff and Secret Service soon headed back to D.C., unaware that the reason they couldn’t get in touch with the Department of Defense was because the Pentagon was also hit until they flew over the billowing plumes of acrid smoke in a Marine One that was flying at tree-level zig-zags so as to avoid any possible missile strikes that may be targeting the president’s plane. After delivering a short address on the White House’s South Lawn, President Bush, Card, and others were ushered into a bunker deep below 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., where they would remain until they received the all-clear.
“September 11 changed everything and we’re still dealing with it,” Card said. “But it was September 14 that was my most memorable day as Chief of Staff. That was the day the president addressed each cabinet member before him, reminding them that we are at war but that we still have to govern in these times.”
Three days later, Card accompanied the president on a trip to Ground Zero after President Bush demanded that everyone who attended that morning’s CIA briefing detail how they were going to prevent another attack on American soil, as that would also be the FBI’s new mission. In New York City, Card described a scene of hope amid chaos, with families of missing medical professionals, firemen, police, first responders, search crews, and civilians crowding the Wall Street area for any shred of news that would allay their fears. Card recalled how the president refused to treat the scene like a press opportunity or be sheltered from the full scope of the tragedy, as President Bush “took pictures with anyone who asked, pet every search-and-rescue dog, and thanked everyone he spoke with during those two hours of hugs, prayers, and tears.”
Andrew Card, former Chief of Staff for President George W. Bush, was the featured speaker at NELA’s breakfast meeting at the CD/NLA Show in Boston October 14
But it was an intimate moment between President Bush and a hopeful mother that stayed with Card and, in his eyes, exemplified what a leader is supposed to do in emotional times.
“As we’re getting ready to leave, a woman who had been one of the first people the president greeted when he approached him, looked into his eyes, and held out her hand. ‘Mr. President, this is my son’s badge. His name is George Howard. Don’t ever forget him.’ And with tears streaming down his cheeks—everyone was crying—the president took George’s badge, squeezed it, looked at this small, courageous woman, and said, ‘Mrs. Howard, America will forget. They’ll start to move on. But don’t worry about me. I will never forget George Howard’,” Card remembered.
He added that when they returned to Marine One at the end of the day, Card and the president sat across from each other and Card mused that President Bush “did everything a president is supposed to do in just one day: He changed the mission of the FBI, governed in a time of war, prayed with citizens, told the world they’ll hear us, and comforted the victims.”
Card then turned the topic to the politics of today, an environment he called “toxic” but not without hope. He left his audience with a message of how anyone can stand up and be a leader, role model, and catalyst for positive change even in the most difficult times.
“If you’re a cynic, chances are that you’re not listening,” he observed. “Our democracy is THE democracy for the world. Our democracy is tarnished right now, and it’s up to you to polish it.”
The next NELA meeting will be its December 10 holiday meeting.
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