Our Opinion: Americans mourn loss of Ford
Published 1:40 am Wednesday, January 3, 2007
By Staff
Americans have been mourning the passing of Gerald Ford during the past week.
Eulogies given Tuesday during the funeral services regarded Ford as a man with a big heart and a man of good virtue and values.
President Bush called the nation's 38th president “the best of America.”
Doing the right and decent thing was only one part of the man who was this nation's leader. Although he has often been referred to as an interim president, he carried out his duties with uncommon toughness when necessary and with a big heart.
Those values are hard to come by in the common man, but to find that in the leader of a nation is like finding a needle in a haystack.
He was a man who had the heart of the nation on his mind when making decisions that would mold the world's view of America forever.
Ford, who was 93 at the time of his death, will be buried today in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he got his start in politics some 60 years ago.
The passing of Ford leaves three living former presidents among us. Jimmy Carter, George H.C. Bush and Bill Clinton remain in our midst. None, including our own Southern-born Carter, will be remembered in such a way as Ford.
We join the nation in our mourning and sending our condolences to his family. America has lost a great, however brief, leader.