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December 27, 2006
A President for Christians, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, and Atheists
Yesterday evening President Gerald Ford died. In his August 12th, 1974 Address to a Joint Session of the Congress he made this pledge.
To the limits of my strength and ability, I will be the President of black, brown, red, and white Americans, of old and young, of women's liberationists and male chauvinists--[laughter]--and all the rest of us in-between, of the poor and the rich, of native sons and new refugees, of those who work at lathes or at desks or in mines or in the fields, of Christians, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, and atheists, if there really are any atheists after what we have all been through. [emphasis added]
While we may debate how well he kept this pledge, I think his definition of the diversity he sought to serve cannot be faulted. We might not say it exactly that way today and his questioning of the possibility of there being atheists in troubling times is still an all too common error of many people of faith. But that said, is there a politician today willing to explicitly address his or her pledge to atheists as well as to those who adhere to various religious beliefs? If there are any, they are few indeed.
And from the same speech:
I know well the coequal role of the Congress in our constitutional process. I love the House of Representatives. I revere the traditions of the Senate despite my too-short internship in that great body. As President, within the limits of basic principles, my motto toward the Congress is communication, conciliation, compromise, and cooperation.
I wish we had a President now who believed these words.
And here is what President Ford told that Joint Session of the Congress about his Middle East policy:
To the nations in the Middle East, I pledge continuity in our vigorous efforts to advance the progress which has brought hopes of peace to that region after 25 years as a hotbed of war. We shall carry out our promise to promote continuing negotiations among all parties for a complete, just, and lasting settlement.
Would our current President support such a statement? His actions today are a resounding NO!
I did not agree with many of President Ford's policies and actions, but I never questioned his intentions.
There is something else that President Ford said more recently, this during an embargoed interview with Bob Woodward on July 2004. Here is part of what the Washington Post has on that interview.
"Well, I can understand the theory of wanting to free people," Ford said, referring to Bush's assertion that the United States has a "duty to free people." But the former president said he was skeptical "whether you can detach that from the obligation number one, of what's in our national interest." He added: "And I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security."[snip]
Describing his own preferred policy toward Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Ford said he would not have gone to war, based on the publicly available information at the time, and would have worked harder to find an alternative. "I don't think, if I had been president, on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly," he said, "I don't think I would have ordered the Iraq war. I would have maximized our effort through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer."
Give the whole Woodward piece a read.
Posted by DuaneSmith at December 27, 2006 08:40 PM | Read more on Current Events |
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