Remembering President Ford - 12.27.2006.1

I send out my condolences to the family of President Ford, as does the entire nation.

President Ford was a good President, especially as he had no intention of running for the position of Commander and Chief. Unlike any President before or since he rose to this position without being elected by the people. Not bad for a man who had a difficult early life. If there is any legacy that will be seen by historians on his Presidency I think it will be that he was a unifier on the level of perhaps President Lincoln.

President Ford was born in 1913, and lived through the great depression. He went to the University of Michigan and became a football star. When I say a star I mean that he had offers to join 2 professional football teams but turned them down to attend Yale law school, where he graduated in the top 3rd. Even earlier in his life there were trials for the President-to-be. His parent divorced shortly after his birth, a radically unusual fact at the time, and his meeting with his father was less than a classic fairytale. Later in his youth he joined the Navy to fight in WW II and became a Lt. Commander.

While President Ford may be best known for his pardoning of President Nixon it is not the thing he should be known for. He made in roads to improve the automobile industry, reduced inflation by half, and ended a war that had taken thousands of American lives for a decade. In virtually every way President Ford unified the nation and placed it on a better path. While some have worried about politics and partisanship, he sought unity and improvement of the average man’s life. He achieved these things without fanfare and little acclaim at the time he did them.

President Ford was a man from moderate roots, that followed a path to keep America whole. He was honest and direct, in a time when the nation needed exactly those things. Much like the advice parents gives their children, his actions weren’t appreciated then but are better understood today. For that we must be thankful. Too much is taken as a given, or overlooked today, by the government and the media. President Ford is a reminder that there is another path and it is effective.

I am reminded of my earliest political thought. In the election of ’76 I recall coming home from school. The nation was abuzz with the fact that President Carter had just won. A family friend was over and discussing the election with my mother. When I was asked about school I mentioned we had a mock election and I had voted for President Carter. I was asked why him, and I said because he was a democrat. I was scolded for making a choice for a silly reason, and the family friend chided me opening my eyes with the statement, “Do you realize that he [President Carter] wouldn’t let you go to church with him on Sunday?” It was my first lessons in politics. Lessons I remember to this day.

Change just to change is not worth it, you may not like what is the best thing being done for you today, doing what a crowd does for no reason beyond being in a crowd is worthless. These facets President Ford held, and guided the nation by. He led us in the same way as he raised his family, as best as I can tell, with compassion and an eye to our betterment. That defines a great President. Unifying a hurt and disillusioned nation is a task few would want, or have faced. It’s a testament to the man and the American people that he succeeded and did so well.

This is what I think, what do you think?