How My Uncle Came to Have a Drink with President Ford

[Wetzelbill]

My latest column at www.opednews.com -Bill

How My Uncle Came to Have a Drink with President Ford
by Bill Wetzel

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bill_wet_061227_how_my_uncle_came_to.htm

[displacedtexan]

1. Fascinating story.

I've yet to read even one endearing personal anecdote about Ford.

I find that weird. Maybe I've just missed all of the Happy Happy Joy Joy Ford stories.

Then again, maybe not.

Thanks for posting this.

[Wetzelbill]

2. glad you liked it

one of my biggest disappointments about DU sometimes is the negativity. Mention some person's name and you don't know if a thread will get flamed or what. I saw some disgusting threads when Steve Irwin died. Aaron Spelling too. I just do not feel right bad-mouthing a person on the day they died, or even that week. Sometimes, like say in the case of Ronald Reagan, I have very strong beliefs against nearly every policy that person stood for or every myth they helped perpetuate, but like I say in the the Ford article, that person is also somebody's loved one. I'm an American Indian, where I'm from speaking ill of the dead like that, even if they are a vile scumbag, is an extremely low thing to do. Valid critiques are fine, no doubt about that, but sometimes people are so angry they go too far, imho. Now I haven't seen anyone do that regarding Ford, I've been doing other work off of DU, but those things happen, and I just think we all should be above that negativity. We aren't the party of fear and hate, so I don't think we should act like it. :)

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Thanks for making that point

Politically speaking, Jerry Ford may have been "The Enemy", but I think a lot of the Ford-haters have gone looking for reasons to say something bad about him just because he was a Republican. Ford was very much a caretaker president, and seemed to be aware of how he came to his position as our only completely un-elected president.

And then he lost the election to Carter, who most liberals and progressives also hated for over 20 years.

We should avoid promiscuous displays of negativity; rather, we ought to keep it in reserve, fresh for those who really deserve it, like the current squatter in 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue. Jerry Ford was hardly in the same league of infamy.

Similarly, the outpouring for hatred for people like Donald Trump, Tom Cruise, and Britney Spears -- each of whom, incidentally, oppose Bush -- seems like the Two-Minutes' Hate from 1984. The afore-mentioned people, at the worst, occasionally act like ninnies, but have cameras on them 24/7. As difficult as it may be to believe, there are actually rich people, actor/Scientologists, and Southerners who revile Bush and his agenda. That so many of us vilify them does not speak well for us at DU.

--p!

[EFerrari]

4. I agree but there is this problem: our respect is exploited.

Do you remember the week after Reagan died? I don't know another American president whose hands were so bloodied (well, Lincoln) but you'd have never known it listening to the coverage that week.

They change the story and then, as you know, that story gets repeated.

Somewhere between "Ford was a decent man who started the EPA" and "Ford protected Pinochet and Nixon" there is the truth.

At this point, I'm just trying to hang on to what actually happened to consider it quietly at some later point. Hatred, no. Truth, yes.

edit: s

[FreeStateDemocrat]

6. Backlash against the MSM's exploitive coverage and deification of the ruling class.

These events have turned into a 24/7 media sideshow that goes on far too long to the exclusion of more immediate and important news. In the end he was just another man who fell woefully short when presented with a momentous opportunity to actually help make this country a far better place. Some people who watch this coverage are repelled by the distorted demagogic hypocrisy and may desire to present another more realistic perspective with valid criticisms. I mostly ignore the MSM coverage because I have very little respect for the ruling class or the media and am quite willing to accept the right of people to present counter opinions on this forum without condemning their motives or in most cases the veracity of their viewpoint. Forget sacred cows, I love freedom of speech and different opinions when they are factually presented that's why I read DU.

[EFerrari]

7. Why do we keep saying 'the ruling class and the media'

when "the media" is just their outlet? :)

[mnhtnbb]

5. Cute story.

[DemoTex]

8. Reminds me of my dinner with King Gustav of Sweden in 1991.

I (and 1200 or so other people) dined with the King and Queen of Sweden in a gigantic aircraft hangar at Saab's aircraft plant in Linköping. Rubber chicken, bad wine, and horrible acoustics .. but, OH!, such an intimate dinner with the King and Queen!