Plum Crazy

I was 10 years old when Gerald Ford took over the office of President of the United States. My first national memory is of Watergate. I was as happy as a 10-year-old could be about matters political when Nixon resigned. Therefore, I was happy when Gerald Ford became President.

I always liked him. He seemed, to my 10-year-old mind, to be a nice man. I've had no occasion to revisit my first assessment of him. I didn't understand, at the time, why people hated him so much for pardoning Nixon. I thought it was quite sensible and the right thing to do. How horrible would it have been for the country for the former President to go to jail? As I got older, I understood more why people were so angry, even though I also have never changed my first assessment that Ford was right. Perhaps it would have been better to let Nixon stand trial, be convicted, and then commute the sentence. I'm not sure even of that, though, given the shape the country was in at that point. There were just other issues that needed to be dealt with. A trial would have been a circus, distracting the government from dealing with the potential financial collapse of our cities, the energy crisis, and a number of other items of national importance.

When I was in college, I went to a conference in Georgia. Appearing at that conference were Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, who were good friends and were working closely together, as they continued to do. Watching the two of them up on the dais, it struck me again that Ford was a nice man who really wanted to help people. One might disagree with how he went about helping people, but you would be hard pressed to argue that he didn't want to help. It would really just be untrue. (Ditto for Carter.)

So here's to you, Gerald Ford. Rest in peace.