(shame)

[arguchik]

after seeing the picture of betty ford that's hitting all of the front pages, her face crushed with grief, i feel like an absolute heel, a heartless ass for saying anything even remotely humorous about gerald ford.

god. i can't remember the last time i saw such naked pain reflected on a human face. politics aside, my heart goes out to betty. she obviously loved jerry. now she's facing an aspect of old age that punches me in the stomach whenever i think about it: carrying on without one's lifelong partner.

(an odd side note: my best friend when i was a little kid, who grew up in the house across the street from mine--her parents were also named betty and jerry. they are both deceased now.)

Comments

[boutell.livejournal.com]

My mother was just mentioning this the other day - how when the Fords came out to the country about her substance problem and her rehab and so forth, that was all pretty groundbreaking. One thing he surely did right.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

yeah, very true. it's interesting. i think he was a pretty fair-minded, even-keeled guy, overall. he just signed up for the wrong party. but i don't associate him with the fuckheads who are running the republican party now--even though he fostered two of the biggest fuckheads of all (cheney and rumsfeld), among others. i can't quite explain why, i just don't.

[jennaxide.livejournal.com]

she was also the first first lady to reside in the same room in the White House with her husband. they are admirable in their everydayness.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

oh, i didn't know that. from either direction, i mean: i didn't know that first ladies didn't typically share a room with their husbands; nor did i know that betty and jerry changed that trend.