Monday, January 01, 2007

The Last Boy Scout

Last week we said a final farewell to President Gerald Ford. I was just a little kid when he was president, so all I know about him and his presidency I had to learn after the fact. Everything I read has led me to believe he was a good guy sucked into the machine.
An accomplished athelete, after a couple of televised slips and falls he was typecast as a bumbling clutz. Chevy Chase made his career by portraying him as all thumbs and two left feet. (how many of you out there are glad there aren't cameras following you around?) Through it all he grinned and bore it.
His congressional record is one of a man of integrity, and the programs he tried to introduce as president (as well as the spending bills he vetoed) scream of good intentions. Even his pardoning of Nixon (however decried it was) was the act of a man trying to do the right thing.
He wasn't elected either to VP or to POTUS, but by most accounts he performed adequately and steadfastly. I think it's a shame that in today's partisan political scene a good man's passing will be marred by insults and slurs simply due to the party with which he was affiliated.

Goodbye Mr. President.

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1 Comments:

At January 02, 2007 11:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This morning while watching the State Funeral for President Ford I observed Boy Scouts and Scouting Leaders in uniform sitting in the pews of the National Cathedral. A fitting tribute to an Eagle Scout who never forgot the words and meaning of the Scout Oath and Law. A Scout who applied those words throughout his entire life and who clearly brought all of them together as he assumed the Presidency of the United States during one of our darkest periods and restored the office and the country.

As one Eagle Scout to another let me render one last salute.

Peter S.

 

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