Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Our Ford Who Art in Heaven
As an aspiring historian, I would be remiss in my academic duties if i did not write something about Gerald Ford, who passed away yesterday morning--and not just because he and I share the same birthday. Ford is one of those presidents who will never be ranked as highly by future presidential scholars. His administration was marred in many ways by the tainted legacy of his predecessor and the general sense of accident associated with his inauguration. He was lampooned in the media; some would say that Chevy Chase's impressions of Ford helped secure Saturday Night Live's satirical legitimacy during its first few seasons. His seeming clumsiness and proclivity for malapropisms has led him to be mocked everywhere from The Simpsons to Watchmen.
But Gerald Ford was an ordinary man placed in extraordinary circumstances, and I think he rose to the occasion. His decision to pardon Nixon will probably be his best known act in the presidency, but he also negotiated the Helsinki Accords, oversaw the evacuation of Saigon, and perhaps most importantly for educators, passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which created special ed classes in our public schools. He did all this with a forthright honesty that contrasted sharply with Nixon and stood as a model for later leaders to follow.
I'm not out to blindly lionize Gerald Ford. Based on what I've read and what the media is saying, he would be among the first to admit that he was not a perfect person. But I think he deserves a more nuanced consideration than scholars of the future are likely to give him. I wonder if they'll be more inclined to look at Ford's presidency for what it wasn't-all the missed opportunities and mistakes--rather than what it was, a tough situation for any president.
As an aspiring historian, I would be remiss in my academic duties if i did not write something about Gerald Ford, who passed away yesterday morning--and not just because he and I share the same birthday. Ford is one of those presidents who will never be ranked as highly by future presidential scholars. His administration was marred in many ways by the tainted legacy of his predecessor and the general sense of accident associated with his inauguration. He was lampooned in the media; some would say that Chevy Chase's impressions of Ford helped secure Saturday Night Live's satirical legitimacy during its first few seasons. His seeming clumsiness and proclivity for malapropisms has led him to be mocked everywhere from The Simpsons to Watchmen.
But Gerald Ford was an ordinary man placed in extraordinary circumstances, and I think he rose to the occasion. His decision to pardon Nixon will probably be his best known act in the presidency, but he also negotiated the Helsinki Accords, oversaw the evacuation of Saigon, and perhaps most importantly for educators, passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which created special ed classes in our public schools. He did all this with a forthright honesty that contrasted sharply with Nixon and stood as a model for later leaders to follow.
I'm not out to blindly lionize Gerald Ford. Based on what I've read and what the media is saying, he would be among the first to admit that he was not a perfect person. But I think he deserves a more nuanced consideration than scholars of the future are likely to give him. I wonder if they'll be more inclined to look at Ford's presidency for what it wasn't-all the missed opportunities and mistakes--rather than what it was, a tough situation for any president.
