We believe that one’s life is like a scorecard or balance sheet — filled with both positives and negatives. And when one dies, others (perhaps even God) will look at the ledger and add up both sides.

Even the ancient Egyptians believed that one’s heart would be weighed in death against the single feather of Ma’at that represented the ethical and moral principles (think Ten Commandments plus some) with which daily life was to be conducted. If one’s heart was found to be lighter or equal in weight to the feather, then the deceased had led a virtuous life and would go on to a heaven. A heavy heart would condemn the person to remain in a purgatory-like underworld.

So it is that we weigh the life of former President George H.W. Bush, who died last week at age 94. We want to remind readers of what we view as positives and negatives of his time in office.

At first glance, President Bush comes out a clear winner, particularly when we compare him to the current occupant of the White House. But that easy comparison doesn’t get at the true character, actions and impact of the late president, who served as commander in chief of this nation from 1989 to 1993. We need to look deeper.

President Bush was a young Navy pilot during World War II and now is the last president to have served on active duty in the military during wartime. Before being elected as the 41st president, he served sequentially as a member of Congress representing a district in Texas, ambassador to the United Nations, chairman of the Republican National Committee, chief of the liaison office in China and director of the CIA. After being knocked out of the Republican nomination for president in 1980, he wound up as Ronald Reagan’s running mate and served as vice president from 1981 to 1989.

We believe several positives arose from President Bush’s tenure in the Oval Office, chief among them the Americans with Disabilities Act. He signed into law the ADA that provides major civil rights protections for people with disabilities, including banning discrimination in employment, public accommodations and public transit.

Because of the ADA, we now have ramps, elevators, automatic doors and lifts making buses, restrooms, workplaces, public facilities and environments more accessible to people with disabilities. It has made a major difference in the lives of individuals and the families of people who depend on a wheelchair or other assistive devices for mobility and inclusion.

On the environmental side, President Bush also reauthorized the Clean Air Act to boost air quality and reduce acid rain by limiting emissions from coal-burning fuel plants.

He signed a bill into law providing compensation to cancer victims who contracted the disease from harmful exposure to products of uranium mining and nuclear weapons testing by the United States during the Cold War.

His signing into law the Immigration Act of 1990, which was sponsored by Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, increased by 40 percent the number of legal immigrants that entered the United States.

 He increased federal spending for education and childcare and put a temporary ban on the import of certain semiautomatic rifles. He supported advanced technology research, including endorsing space travel to explore the moon and Mars.

He also drew attention to the importance of volunteerism and the contributions of private individuals to the good of the whole through his Points of Light recognition program.

But President Bush also was the man who vetoed job discrimination protections in the Civil Rights Act of 1990; nominated Justice Clarence Thomas, an alleged sexual harasser and self-loathing African-American, to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace the outstanding Justice Thurgood Marshall, a “race man” and the first African-American on the nation’s highest court; and used the dog-whistle of race in his 1988 presidential campaign against Democrat Michael Dukakis by running ads about Willie Horton, a black man convicted of murder who walked off during a weekend furlough from a Massachusetts prison during Mr. Dukakis’ tenure as governor and raped a white woman and carjacked and stabbed her fiancé.

He pushed the war on drugs by having federal agents arrest an African-American high school student who was set up by authorities in a crack cocaine deal in Lafayette Park across from the White House. President Bush held up the bag of crack during a nationally televised speech about the nation’s drug problem.

Despite his self-professed love of the environment, President Bush refused to sign an environmental treaty generated by the Earth Summit in Brazil in 1992 and lobbied to remove binding targets to limit global carbon dioxide emissions.

As vice president, he claimed to be “out of the loop” when revelations broke that administration officials had secretly arranged weapon sales to Iran during the Iran-Iraq War and then used the money to fund the Contras fighting the government in Nicaragua. The International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that such actions, in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair, were a violation of international law.

As president, he sent troops into Panama to wrest control of the government from Panamanian President Manuel Noriega, who refused to step down after losing a democratic election. He also sent U.S. troops into the Gulf War when Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded its oil-rich neighbor, Kuwait. It was the start of what has been the complex and controversial issue of U.S. involvement in that region’s affairs since then.

He also gave us his son, President George W. Bush, the nation’s 43rd president, who was once described as “an empty vessel” into which conservative and imperial forces could pour their ideas of militarism and desire for U.S. world domination.

Seventeen years after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. troops continue to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

As funeral services continue for President Bush, how does the ledger of his life stack up?

On Wednesday, one observer noted, “He wasn’t a good president, but he was a good man.”

We will let you, our readers — and a higher power — decide.