Editorial

Nebraska can be proud of Gerald Ford

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Gerald R. Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr., in Omaha, but lived there only a couple of weeks, until his mother left his abusive father and moved home to Michigan.

After the turmoil of Watergate, his home state repaid him by voting for Ronald Reagan in the 1976 Nebraska primary.

That "really hurt, because Nebraska was the state of my birth," Ford later wrote in his autobiography, "A Time to Heal."

The longest-lived president, Ford died this week at 93, just slightly older than his one-time nemesis and long-time friend and political ally, Reagan, who also reached 93.

Gerald Ford carried attributes that Nebraska feels comfortable with -- nothing flashy, just solid dependability; rolling grasslands, not breathtaking mountain vistas or spectacular seashore sunsets.

"I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln," he said when he was sworn in in 1973, replacing Spiro T. Agnew who resigned in disgrace over a bribery scandal.

But he was the right person in the right place when his country needed him, and his biography touches a number of remarkable points of history.

He was the last surviving member of the Warren Commission, which concluded -- and Gerald Ford agreed -- that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating John F. Kennedy.

He survived, unscathed, two assassination attempts on his own life, by Charles Manson follower Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme and activist Sara Jane Moore, both in September 1975.

He cost himself re-election, but spared the country continued turmoil by pardoning Richard Nixon in 1974. And, he joined the ranks of statesmen like McCook's George W. Norris, winning the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2001 for the Nixon pardon.

Ford was on watch when the Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, and was president when his nation celebrated its Bicentennial on July 4, 1976.

Gerald Ford was center on two national champion University of Michigan football teams, and but turned down professional football offers to study law at Yale University.

The brunt of numerous Saturday Night Live skits and jokes about playing too much football "without his helmet," Ford good-naturedly took what life gave him, worked hard and did his best.

Sen. Chuck Hagel put it well:

"The death of Gerald Ford is a sad moment for all Nebraskans and all Americans. History will remember President Ford for holding our nation together during a time a trauma and division. He earned the trust and the confidence of the American people through the force of his will and his common decency."

Nebraska should feel kinship for, and can be proud of, its only native-born president.

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