Just a few thoughts now that that our long national funeral has ended. There’s a lot to be said for loyalty. However, one must always question what they’re loyal to: is it to their ‘school,’ or to their ‘tribe,’ or to their nation? It might seem an odd question, but bear with me.

After Gerald Ford died, we found out that he had not supported the war in Iraq. He told this to Bob Woodward in an interview 2 years ago with the caveat that it not be revealed until after Ford’s death. So, where was his loyalty, in the end? Was it to the country? Or was it to his school, his tribe?

Do you find it odd that I call the Republican Party a tribe? Well, what do you call it when someone puts his loyalty to his party above his loyalty to his country? When his voice was needed in the national debate, he chose to remain silent. He didn’t support the war, he thought that it was wrong from its premise to its execution; but he said nothing. Now, we have his hollow ghostly voice speaking up too softly, and too late. When he could have made a difference, he chose silence.

There are those of us who don’t find this out of character for Gerald Ford. For all of the revisionist tributes to the 38th President, he was always true to his tribe. His pardon of Richard Nixon was the principal example of this. Pardoning Nixon did not end “our long national nightmare.” It only left us with unanswered questions to the end of time. Rather than looking at the pardon as a sign of guilt, Richard Nixon spent the rest of his life attempting to keep us from hearing the tapes he illegally made on our nickel and trying to re-write his own history. Just as Spiro Agnew claimed that his pleading ‘nolo contendre’ was not a plea of guilty, when it that’s was exactly what it was; so Richard Nixon pretended that the pardon was in no way an admission of guilt on his part. Well, you can’t pardon an innocent person.

Now, on the other side of the coin, each of the serial funerals was very dignified and showed our representative democracy at its finest. All of the revisionist eulogies aside, every rite was conducted with dignity and respect. Contrast that with the proceedings on early Saturday in Baghdad. It is amazing that the Shi’ahs of Iraq could manage to make someone as reprehensible as Saddam Hussein look dignified. They even managed to make him look like a martyr. Iraq is not a democracy. Iraq is not even a country. It is a series of tribes that are either aligned to the Shi’ah or Sunni branch of Islam (with a very few other sects thrown in). In Iraq, loyalty to one’s tribe comes before loyalty to one’s country, not to mention loyalty to a principle.

Ideas are what we stand and salute when we call ourselves Americans. We have, for the past 217 years sworn our allegiance to ideas, not to tribes. Then, again, whom was Gerald Ford being loyal to when he withheld his voice in opposition to the Bush administration’s folly in the desert? What made his statements worse, were the fact that he allowed for their release after his death. Who was he fearful of offending? Why was he fearful of offending? He was still loyal to his guys. We mustn’t forget that it was Gerald Ford who brought us Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Of course he wasn’t going to critique their performance now; it would make Gerald Ford look bad. R.I.P. Gerald R. Ford. You went as you lived.

Please give what you can to Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders).

And, of course

*When some loud braggart tries to put me down
And says his school is great
I tell him right away
Now what’s the matter buddy
Ain’t you heard of my school
Its number one in the state

So be true to your school now
Just like you would to your girl or guy
Be true to your school now
And let your colors fly
Be true to your school

I got a letterman’s sweater
With a letter in front
I got for football and track
I’m proud to wear it now
When I cruise around
The other parts of the town
I got a decal in back

So be true to your school now
Just like you would to your girl or guy
Be true to your school now
And let your colors fly
Be true to your school

On Friday well be jacked up on the football game
And ‘Ill be ready to fight
We’re gonna smash ‘em now
My girl will be working on her pom-poms now
And shell be yelling tonight

So be true to your school now
Just like you would to your girl or guy
Be true to your school now
And let your colors fly
Be true to your school