Wash. gala honors Bush 41

WASHINGTON, March 22 (UPI) -- Stars from Kid Rock to Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire joined every living former president at a Washington gala for former President George H.W. Bush.

Bush, suffering from Parkinson's disease, was rolled on stage at the Kennedy Center Opera House in a wheelchair Monday evening, Time magazine reported. The audience cheered when he managed to stand and walk a few steps to his seat between his wife, Barbara, and Bill Clinton, his former adversary and new friend.

The gala was sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation, designed to perpetuate Bush's call during the 1988 presidential campaign more volunteerism and for a "thousand points of light" coming from private organizations.

Former President George W. Bush turned over most of his speaking time to Ichiro Fujisaki, the Japanese ambassador to Washington, who spoke about conditions in his homeland.

Clinton, who has become so close to the elder Bush that Barbara Bush sometimes joke about his being her "black sheep son," talked about how he and the 41st president bonded when George W. Bush asked them to head an effort to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

"I literally came to love him, and I realized all over again how much energy we waste fighting with each other over things that don't matter," Clinton said. "He can do no wrong in my eyes."