A few thoughts on Ford...

I watched a bit of the services for President Ford on Saturday night. Bummed I missed them today. The 21 gun salute on Saturday night got me choked up. It's been interesting learning a bit about him. I was born in '71. One of my first memories is being in a voting booth with my mom in '76 as she voted for Ford (strange which memories get filtered out and which remain). Other than that, I didn't know much about the guy other than he took over for Nixon and lost to Carter.

I knew he played football in college (he once said that even in the white house he bypassed the front page of the newspaper for the sports page), but I didn't know he won two national championships and turned down an offer to play for the Green Bay Packers (in hindsight, a good decision). Didn't know his highest political aspirations were to be the Speaker of the House, but I have a lot of respect for that. Didn't know he only got into the vice-presidency because of a scandal involving Spiro Agnew. I always figured he was just Nixon's VP and thought that made the pardon pretty shady. The fact that he wasn't elected with Nixon makes the pardon a gutsier move and everyone says he probably lost the next election because of it. There is an article in Time that talks about his faith and the role it played in his decision to pardon Nixon. Here is an excerpt:

Ford told the nation he was pardoning Nixon in a statement that invoked God's name six times. "The Constitution is the supreme law of our land and it governs our actions as citizens," he said. "Only the laws of God, who governs our consciences, are superior to it." He invited the congregation to think of the Nixon family: "Theirs is an American tragedy," he said. "It could go on and on and on, or someone must write 'The End' to it... Only I can do that. And if I can, I must."

The article talks in general about the depth and development of his faith and how he refused to use the label 'born again Christian' to his benefit in the 1976 election even though he considered himself a born-again Christian and Carter used the term a lot. It definitely would have gotten him votes but he didn't think it was the right thing to do. I have a tremendous amount of respect for that. I would strongly encourage you to read the article if you have a few minutes. It's only two pages long.

In any case, it seems a great man has left. I thought a couple things as I watched Saturday night. I thought the contrast between his demise and that of Saddam Hussein was very poignant. And I thought we should take the time to honor everyone's life the way we honor this president's. It would take a whole lot of time, I suppose, but something seems right about the reflection, the commentary, the deliberate nature of the events surrounding his funeral. It seems right that we should honor a life departed like this, and it makes me wish that I did a better job of honoring lives present.