All the President's Men

This week is the funeral of Gerald Ford, our 38th President.

I wasn't a fan of his, really, but I've been thinking a lot about his life, his legacy, and his family. Here are some random musings, maybe or maybe not in any logical progression. Just stuff I've been thinking about.

First, let's set the record straight so there is no confusion later. His pardon of Richard Nixon 1974 is unforgivable. What Nixon did to this country was both shameful and criminal and he should have been punished for it. Ford's "full and unconditional" pardon smacked of cronyism and shady insider dealings. It was wrong. Period.

Had Ford not pardoned Nixon, we may not be in the state we're in today. As Nigel so adeptly put it, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Hastert, et. al.--they key players coming up under Nixon--would have been "relegated to the dustbin of history." Sadly, that wasn't to be and look at where we're at today under their "leadership" and influence.

My friend Scott posed this question yesterday by email: "Has ever a good man had so many genuinely evil people speak at his funeral?" That's a good one and it prompted a lengthy email conversation between Scott, Richard, and me. Look at the Who's Who of speakers over the last few days. None of them, save Jimmy Carter, are anyone I'd want speaking at my funeral. It seems like such an odd dichotomy that a decent man had so many friends who appear to be so hell-bent on fucking up this country.

Let me clarify. I don't think most of them are out to deliberately fuck it up, but that is the result of their greed and short-sighted neo-Con policies and politics. But I digress.

I don't think Gerald Ford was a bad man. On the contrary. A person is not the sum of one dead, they are the sum of all of their deeds, and all-in-all, Gerald Ford was a decent human being. On the scale of past Presidents, I actually put him on the side closer to Jimmy Carter than to any of the other more recent ones. Both made better past Presidents than sitting Presidents.

Was Ford a naive man? Perhaps. Was he a saint, as the revisionist brush of the 24 Hour News Cycle would like to paint him? No. Note: the same media who used to vilify and wait anxiously for him to stumble--literally or figuratively. I get paying respect to someone who served our country as he did--from the Presidency to the Vice Presidency, to the House of Representatives, Gerald Ford gave himself to our country. That is a major sacrifice. I'm not so sure about the pageantry of it all, and spreading it out over four days, but my ramblings are going on long enough as it is.

In closing, I just want to reflect a moment on the style and grace that is the Ford family. I cannot imagine four days of funerals and ceremonies, pomp and circumstance. A funeral for a family member is a raw and emotional time, and having cameras in your face non-stop, and the public wanting to pay their respects, has got to take a toll. Yet, Betty Ford and her children have faced it head-on with dignity and grace. The shots of President Ford's adult children greeting the pubic earlier in the week were moving, and the shots of Betty Ford during yesterday's funeral are heartbreaking. For their sake, I hope all of this public pageantry ends soon so they can return to mourning in private and healing their hearts.