Ren Momma's Musings

Normally, I shy away from anything political but I needed to get this out.  If you don't want to read it I totally understand. 

I was so struck by the death of our former President, Gerald R. Ford. I have been crying like the Sob Sister that I am, and remembering what he brought to our country. When we were suffering so terribly from the lingering effects of the Nixon Administration, this man of God came along. He is a lesson that other men could learn from. He lived by his faith without thrusting it upon the rest of us. As a result of this, I respected him even more. Faith is extremely important to me. Whatever it is, it shapes us and molds us. I just don’t want it shoved down my throat, because it’s your opinion. He lived his life as a man of God and did not burden us with his opinion of the right way to practice it, for that I respect him more now than I did then. I did not realize the impact that he had on my life and the lives of our future generations. In my memory, he was the last Republican President that my life did not suffer under.

Due to the fact that my mother was an active campaigner for any Democratic candidate, even, a Catholic, John F. Kennedy. She was very antithetical towards Catholics for reasons I little understood as a child. I did come to know these reasons later on in my life but it was only after her death that they became clear. That is not a story for this time, however.

Growing up, I shook hands with John F. Kennedy and will never forget his kindness to a little girl in distress. I feigned illness to stay home because Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated (although, I think that I was really was wanting to stay home to watch the baseball finals). I sobbed uncontrollably when Martin Luther King was killed. This, because my "first boyfriend " was black (I was ten and we didn’t even kiss) and I knew what we went through as a result of being a MIXED couple. I primarily grew up in Swarthmore, PA, a town built up by Quakers, which in my opinion should have made some difference, but... An old lady beat upon ‘my boyfriend" with an umbrella because he was holding my hand as we walked down the primary main street. I was amazed and dismayed as I was not taught to be that WAY. My mother’s best friends were a black Baptist preacher and his wife from Chester, PA. My mother and sister were in Washington as part of the masses for Dr. King’s "I Have a Dream" speech. I went to the National Cathedral in Washington, DC upon a visit to D.C. and went to tour the Cathedral and pray for whatever. I was born a Unitarian, so... Little did I realize this was the site where Martin Luther King gave his last Sunday sermon before his death. Life is funny that way...

As a result of my mother’s influence I was also a campaigner for Democratic candidates. I stuffed envelopes, knocked on doors, managed phone banks, put up posters among other things. I actively campaigned for Jimmy Carter, who ran against Gerald Ford when he ran his campaign to be President in his own right. Because of my mother’s activism, Jimmy Carter, Tom Hayden, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were guests in my mother’s house when I was younger. I was an active participant in the anti-war movement, going to Washington to march in the demonstrations. This was admired by my parents, but it dismayed my father's parents as my grandfather was a career Army member.

As we all know Gerald Ford assumed the office of President after having it thrust upon him. Richard Nixon’s choice of him to replace Spiro Agnew after Agnew’s bribery and high jinks scandals led to his resignation was inspired. Nixon named him Vice President after consultation with the House of Representatives among others, he was told that Gerald R. Ford was the best person for the job. He then had to assume the office of President after the resignation of Nixon as a result of the Watergate Scandal. His was one of the shortest Presidencies in our nation’s history, but history will now tells us that he managed to make his mark. He also pardoned Nixon as a way to heal the nation. We needed to heal, we were so divided by the war in Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. It seems almost impossible for us to ever come together again as a common nation with a working democracy. Ford did what he could to heal our great nation, whatever else can be said about the US of A, it is a great nation!

As President, he enacted the legislation that allowed woman to enter our military academies. I had known one of the original members of the entering female included in the classes at West Point. She told horror stories, as the men in command had no clue as to what the differences between women and men were given the training regimen at boot. However, she was extremely proud to be a cadet and did graduate in the inguraral class.. He also voted for anti-segregation legislation as a member of the House of Representatives. That came about long after a teammate’s request that he play the game between the team from Georgia and his team in from Michigan. The Georgia team had refused to play the game because there was a black teammate. The black teammate requested that the team and particularly important to Ford, that they play the game in spite of this. Gerald Ford never forgot the indignity of emotion at that time and voted for the anti- segregation laws. Laws which shape our nation today. This, I was not aware of until just yesterday. He also named one of the better justices, in my opinion, to the Supreme Court of the United States. He also participated in the Helsinki Pact that led to the fall of the Communist Soviet Empire. This was a very unpopular stance at the time, however it led to the end of the Cold War, as we know it. This is an event that shaped so many of our lives as children. But for, "duck and roll", a required monthly exercise in our schools as children is no longer practiced.

There is much more I could say about this man, his faith, his family. The support he showed his wife during her breast cancer fight and recovery from addiction was something to be greatly admired. We can talk openly about cancer today because of this man and his family. Being a survivor of breast cancer myself, this has had a huge impact on me personally. My grandmother died of breast cancer in the Sixties, it wasn't discussed then, although for me, it was something I needed to be aware of from a genetic standpoint. Addiction can be spoken about openly and the stories are useful to those that need them.