Betty Ford's death makes us recall what it was like in Washington when her husband was president. She has made a request that will make that even more pointed.
Journalist and news commentator Cokie Roberts says that fives year ago Mrs. Ford asked her to deliver one of the eulogies at her funeral -- with a specific request for the content.
Cokie (Boggs) Roberts' father, Congressman Hale Boggs (D-LA) was the House Majority Leader when Gerald Ford was House Minority Leader, and they worked together amiably and as friends. Mrs. Ford asked her to talk about the time in Washington when Democrats and Republicans were friends.
That's the good.
Unfortunately, members of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church, will supply the bad and the ugly. They plan to picket at her funeral in California, as well as the service that will be held back in her former home in Michigan.
They will be exercising their rights of free speech, upheld by the Supreme Court in a case arising from their picketing at a dead soldier's funeral. It may be legal, but it doesn't make it right.
Betty Ford deserves to be laid to rest without such trash and such perversion of Christianity -- as did the returning soldiers, and gay men like Matthew Sheppard, whose funerals were picketed by the WBC crowd.
Ralph
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
An Op-Ed piece in the New York Times today said that, in the long run, Betty Ford may have had more influence on our country than her husband -- because "she taught us not to be ashamed."
ReplyDeleteShe talked about having breast cancer when cancer was still spoken about in whispers; she admitted to getting treatment for alcohol and prescription drug addictions, and she helped found the Betty Ford Center, which became almost a badge of honor among celebrities to have spent time there in rehab; and she was an outspoken advocate for honesty about sexuality and, even, although it's not well documented, was an early advocate for gay rights.
In all this, she set an example of honesty and candor and humility about one's problems and about the need for accepting others.