Posted on 12/28/2006 6:47:47 AM PST by AuH2ORepublican
Life lessons From A President
Gerald Ford is best known for pardoning Richard Nixon. His extraordinary early life is too often ignored
Brian Kalt, National Post Published: Thursday, December 28, 2006
Unusually for a presidential library, Gerald Ford's is in a simple, unassuming building, tucked away in a remote corner of the University of Michigan's campus in Ann Arbor. Gerald Ford and his presidency often seem tucked away, as well. His service was the briefest in the last 125 years. The most prominent parts of his presidency -- the parts mentioned in the first line of every obituary -- were spillover from the man he replaced, Richard Nixon. Looking back at Ford's early adulthood, though, there is much to learn from and admire about this simple, unassuming, and decent man.
SCENE ONE: The Great Depression in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ford, a star high school athlete, is working behind the counter at a cafe, trying to earn a little money to help support his struggling family. A well-to-do wool trader from out West named King, on his way back from buying a luxury car in Detroit, stops into the cafe, tells Ford that he is his real father, and leaves. Ford's mother, it seems, had been married to King, only to find out the hard way that he was a vicious and abusive drunk. Soon after Ford was born, Ford's mother was granted a (then-rare) divorce on grounds of extreme cruelty. King never paid the alimony or child support that the court ordered. If American daytime talk shows are any indication, people in Ford's position often sink into depression -- if they don't go on crime sprees -- over much less than this. Ford does neither; he rejects his biological father's example and later becomes a loving husband and father of four.
SCENE TWO: Ford is a student-athlete at the University of Michigan. His sophomore and junior years, Ford is a second-string centre, and the team goes undefeated and wins national championships. In 1934, his senior season, Ford becomes the starting centre and is voted the team's most valuable player -- quite a distinction for someone playing such an unglamorous position -- but the team loses every game but one. The most memorable game that year is against Georgia Tech. Tech refuses to play if Michigan fields its star -- and Ford's close friend -- Willis Ward, who is black. Over protests from more enlightened students and faculty, Michigan's coaches bench Ward. Ford has considered refusing to play if Ward was kept out of the game; but at Ward's urging, Ford suits up and helps lead the team to its only victory of the year. In his later political career, Ford remembered this affront very well, and he followed a moderate path on civil rights.
SCENE THREE: Ford would like to go to law school at Michigan, but he has no way to pay for it. His coach at Michigan introduces him to Yale football coach "Ducky" Pond, who offers Ford a job as an assistant football coach. Ford figures that if he takes the Yale job, he will be able to go to law school there and have enough money to pay for it. He turns down offers from two teams to play football professionally, and heads out to Yale in 1935. Unfortunately, the law school will not admit him while he is working full time. For three years, Ford coaches football and boxing and tries to get into the law school. Eventually, the administration relents, and Ford graduates from Yale Law School in 1941 in the top quarter of his class. Rather than go to New York or Washington, D.C., Ford returns home to Grand Rapids, Michigan to practice law. For Ford, sports were a means toward an end. He wanted to be a lawyer, and even if he was better at football than he was at law, he knew which was more important.
As Ford once recalled in a speech, he "grew up in a household where there were three rules: Work hard, tell the truth, and be sure to be home at dinnertime." Ford said of his three rules, "It is not a very sophisticated philosophy, but it has gotten me through a lot of tough, tough times." Note that Ford had no rules about winning at all costs, about maintaining his self esteem or about rewarding his friends. With his simple, decent values, Ford got the country through tough, tough times as well.
kalt@law.msu.edu
- Brian Kalt is a professor at Michigan State University College of Law.
If one looks at Carter's history, it looks like he worked to avoid service IN the war.
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