IN PRAISE OF PRINCES AND PRESIDENTS -- FORD
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[Col. Writ. 1/3/07] Copyright 2007 Mumia Abu-Jamal


I have struggled to not write about the passing of U.S. President Gerald
Ford. I sought to not do so for days.

Yet, the imperial fashion adopted by most of the American press, which
praised his administration almost unanimously as "his salvation of the
republic," forced me to put pen to paper.

Much of the reporting that we have seen has simply been dishonest,
historically inaccurate, and a national amnesiac.

What I found particularly perturbing was the virtually unanimous
official opinion that former President Ford's pardon of Richard M. Nixon
was an act of "courage."

Why?

Because he opposed the will of the majority of the American people?

There is something unseemly about issuing a pardon to a man *before* he
was criminally charged with anything, and further, *one who built much
of his political career on law and order.**

Ford, to hear the corporate press tell it, simply made a deep, inner
decision to save the nation the trauma of a trial against Nixon, by
issuing a preemptive pardon.

The problem with this official reading is that there's plenty of
evidence that it just ain't true.

Acclaimed historian, Howard Zinn, in his phenomenal "A People's History
of the United States - 1492-Present" (New York: Harper Collins
Perennial, 2003) tells us that *months* before the Nixon resignation,
".... top Democratic and Republican leaders in the House of
Representatives had given secret assurance to Nixon that if he resigned
they would not support criminal proceedings against him." (p. 546]

The *New York Times* reported that what Wall Street wanted in case Nixon
resigned was, "the same play with different players."

It took a French journalist to voice what no mainstream American paper
would -- that U.S. political leaders wanted a change of face, but not a
change of politics. Zinn writes:

"No respectable American newspaper said what was said by Claude Julien,
editor of 'Le Monde Diplomatique' in September 1974. 'The elimination
of Mr. Richard Nixon leaves intact all the mechanisms and all the false
values which permitted the Watergate scandal.' Julien noted that
Nixon's Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, would remain at his post --
in other words, that Nixon's foreign policy would continue. 'That is to
say,' Julien wrote, 'that Washington will continue to support General
Pinochet in Chile, General Geisel in Brazil, General Stroessner in
Paraguay, etc....'" [p. 545]

Clearly, for millions of people in the U.S., and in Latin America, 'the
long national nightmare' was far from over.

Nixon's regime was criminal to the core, despite his rhetoric about 'law
and order.' It was a government that broke laws frequently and
flagrantly, *and got away with it*. Slush funds, burglaries, illegal
corporate campaign contributions, illegal wiretaps, corruption -- you
name it.

A deal. A pardon. A swift goodbye, and the imperial press applauds.

'Law and order' was a program for Blacks, Hispanics, poor people,
political opponents, and radicals. For the wealthy and well-to-do, it
was business as usual.

Ford was part of that program.

And because he played his part, the media played their part: 'the king
is dead, long live the king.'

From Shakespeare's "Richard II," the immortal lines are writ:

"For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings:...."

The stories, we see, are still being told.


Copyright 2007 Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Mr. Jamal's recent book features a chapter on the
remarkable women who helped build and defend
the Black Panther Party: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South
End Press (http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]

Ford's decision about Nixon did not bother him enough to live and be considered the longest lived President in US history.

Maybe playing golf in the greens away from the American people does wonders.