Farewell, President Ford

The passing of President Gerald R. Ford may be the prelude to a watershed moment in American politics. For this weekend, as we close this year, the last, best hope for civil American discourse is remembered and buried. Americans, and for that matter citizens of the world, would do well to pause and examine those tumultuous months Gerald Ford occupied the Oval Office. Here was a man who sacrificed his own political career in the best interest of a nation. Here is a man who rose above politics to stand by his friend, Richard M. Nixon in his darkest hours.

A new generation of Americans has come into the American political landscape devoid of the civility and integrity Gerald Ford espoused. Tonight, as his body enters the Nation’s Capitol one last time, members of Congress would do well to recall a time when bipartisan discourse was civil. This week, as a nation remembers President Ford and his impact on history, let us ask ourselves, “What can I do?” Gerald Ford reluctantly left his beloved Congress to serve as Vice President. He reluctantly assumed the cloak of the Presidency in our nation’s most uncertain moment. He solidly lived behind his decision to grant pardon to an embattled, broken predecessor. Gerald Ford is the last of a dead breed. Honor, integrity and American pride are all but dead.

One cannot help but imagine Gerald Ford entering the Gates of Heaven being greeted by Mike Mansfield, Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan. One can easily imagine that as they greet each other, they express disdain on what we’ve become in America. What happened to honor? What happened to integrity? What happened to reasonable, unbridled civil discourse? What can we do, as individual Americans, to get us back to that point? Is it too late? Has technology and big business so overtaken our senses that we’ve forgotten the human condition? And to the party he so loved, one must ask, “when will we stop this nonsense?” When shall we return to the roots of the Republican cause? The party of Gerald R. Ford is not as it was and that, my friends, is an insult to the service Gerald R. Ford delivered to America.

Mr. President, thank you. You were the first candidate for the presidency for whom I voted back in 1976. For 40 years many of us have believed that you were short changed by politically driven harlots dressed in the patriotic red, white and blue. Republicans in the heartland and in the urban centers Across America, remember. Take a lesson from the Ford playbook and take this Grand Old Party back. Let us gather at that city on a hill and proclaim that we will no longer stand for the divide in our Nation’s Capitol. Let us proclaim from the wheat fields of Nebraska to the oil fields in Alaska that we will not stand for this derision any longer. Let us, guided by the quiet grace of Gerald Ford’s example, rise up and take America back -- if not for the memory of Gerald R. Ford, but for ourselves.

Mr. President, Godspeed on your journey home. This is one American who is eternally grateful.

A reading From Pope Silas on love: Damn.

I'm not questioning any longer.
I won't sabotage what we've got.
I know I'm lucky.
I know I'm loved.
I know you're lucky.
And you know I love you.
It's gonna be a bumpy ride, you know.
But in the end we'll make it.
Damn.

A reading from Pope Silas on love: We are timeless...

Our love will never grow old because it is timeless...

Go to sleep, may your sweet dreams come true
Just lay back in my arms for one more night
I've this crazy old notion that calls me sometimes
Saying this one's the love of our lives.
Cause I know a love that will never grow old
And I know a love that will never grow old.

I said once that we were Brokeback Mountain and every day I see more and more that we are. We've got such a great thing. I'm grateful for you. I'm grateful to God for bringing you into my life. Your eyes. Your smile. Your body. I slept so long until you. I am alive. I have worth. I have a purpose. Not because of you but thanks to you. You opened my eyes, my ears, my heart, my soul. Years went by with me believing that he was the love of my life. I've learned that one has an opportunity to have more than one. You are the ultimate love of my life. Our love will never grow old because it was here long before we connected in this life as it will be here long after we depart.

When you wake up the world may have changed
But trust in me, I'll never falter or fail
Just the smile in your eyes, it can light up the night,
And your laughter's like wind in my sails.
Cause I know a love that will never grow old
And I know a love that will never grow old.

I think I've pretty much said all that. But, just so you get it, I'll say it again. I've never trusted myself until you. Somehow you broke through that wall I built so long ago. Others thought they broke through. I even thought so. As crazy as a day may get, as frustrated or sad I may become, all it takes is you to stop the drowning. I look into your eyes and I have hope. I see your smile and my cold veneer is thawed. I hold your hand and I feel safe. I share the air and I feel loved. My heart is yours now. You own that which others have touched. I enter the twilight of my life but my world is brighter than ever, you illuminate my path.

Lean on me, let our hearts beat in time,
Feel strength from the hands that have held you so long.
Who cares where we go on this rutted old road
In a world that may say that we're wrong.
Cause I know a love that will never grow old
And I know a love that will never grow old.

Lean on me as I lean on you. Let me be your rock as you are my foundation. How can one so young be so wise? How can one so young know my every reaction? It's because we've been here before. I regret not what we have. I regret not what we've sacrificed for each other. When I'm departed and you remain behind remember I am but a whisper away. As your angel I will sit on your shoulder offering you counsel, harbor and hope. You are my angel, let me
return that to you now while we have the time. The world won't understand. It doesn't need to. We do. That's all that matters.

A Love That Will Never Grow Old, from the movie Brokeback Mountain.
Music by Gustavo A. Santaolalla, lyrics by Bernie Taupin. Sung by Emmylou Harris.