YDA Remembers President Ford
With 93% of the 3,000 troop causalities being young Americans in Iraq and the anticipation of President Bush sending more young people to war, the passing of our 38th President Gerald Ford provides a fitting opportunity to reflect on Ford’s lifetime of public service from his youth as an Eagle Scout in 1927 and football star to his career as a politician in Congress and the Oval Office.
On Independence Day in 1976, Ford said that “all our heroes and heroines of war and peace send us this single, urgent message…a nation survives only so long as the spirit of sacrifice and self-discipline is strong within its people.”
As the American public, including young Americans, increasingly speak out against the war in Iraq; and leaders from both sides of the aisle question President Bush’s “surge” in escalating troop deployment, similar to Johnson’s in Vietnam, it’s important to reflect on those words Ford used on our Bicentennial birthday. At what point does our sacrifice of brothers, sisters, friends and family become too much for us to bear?
Ford worked to “heal the scars of divisiveness” as he granted amnesty to many Americans who fled the US to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam. Hopefully President Bush won’t let his work die in vain as he considers his next move. And the very least maybe Bush should read Ford’s introspective interview with Bob Woodward about Iraq.
