Empty Mailboxes Salute Ford

All federal facilities, including post offices, will be closed on
Tuesday in honor of former President Gerald R. Ford.

Not getting mail for two days in a row will certainly cause Ford to be
remembered, though not necessarily in a good way. One man suggested a
better way to honor Ford would be to allow everyone to mail letters to their
friends and relatives free on Tuesday. This, he said, would be in line with the
Republicans' concern for "Family Values".

I'm thinking of those, especially some of the older folks, for whom going to
the Menlo post office every morning is a highlight of their day. They may get
only a bill or an advertising circular, or nothing, but that isn't the only reason
they go. They see other people, exchange greetings, stop to chat awhile.
Some will not have heard and will go anyway, stare blankly into their empty
boxes, try the inner door, even though it will be covered by a blind, the lights
off. I saw folks reading the sign on the outer door on Friday, shaking their
heads in dismay.

Most already remember Ford as the Man Who Pardoned Nixon, and many
believe he would never have become president had he not agreed to the
pardon in advance. I'm sure all the young people drifting through the county
jails because of various petty crimes remember that a president who
masterminded breaking-and-entering, burglary, sabotage and worse was
pardoned, while they had to serve time.

For children who have been told that any child can grow up to be elected
president, Ford means that some children can grow up to be president- and
vice president- without being elected.

The business of pushing hero worship is getting harder in this age of
information. People are making their own heroes, as witness the accolades
to James Brown. When the man had been dead three days, he was packing
them in at the Apollo, capacity crowd. And the tears shed for him were real.

I think of those who waited for hours along the route to glimpse the train
carrying FDR's body from Georgia, and can't imagine such a scene for
either father or son Bush, Carter, Clinton, or Ford. The last mass
outpouring of grief over a president's death was when Kennedy was
assassinated. But that was before we knew he'd tried to have Castro killed,
approved the clandestine bombing of North Vietnam, and instigated the
assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. Seymour
Hersh in his book, The Dark Side of Camelot, told how reporters shielded
from public view JFK's sexual escapades that included having law
enforcement officers in various cities bring to Kennedy's hotels high-priced
call girls, two at a time for Kennedy and one apiece for other members of his
entourage, and other such activities that could have made Clinton, with his
blow job in the White House, look like a choirboy.

But the reporters were following tradition. Voters never knew the terrible
extent of Franklin Roosevelt's infirmities. He was never photographed in
the wheelchair to which he was confined, and only those present saw what
an ordeal it was for him to pretend to walk, with his son dragging him along,
what agony to stand while he gave speeches. If the voters had know how
unfit he was to serve, they may not have re-elected him.

Nixon and Watergate punctured the media conspiracy to perfume and
powder our nation's great leaders before allowing the public to view them.
Now a new book which I must read: A Century of Media, A Century of
War, by Robin Andersen. Publicity about the book states that it "traces
media gullibility, official deception and propaganda through the years. It's
a reminder that the media's role in making the case for the Iraq War is part
of a larger story, that of a press corps that regularly cheers on American
military action while shielding readers and viewers from its consequences."

I hope it lives up to its promise. Shine a little more light this way, please.