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Morning Meditation
March 26, 2026
US House Speaker Tip O’Neill, “God has been good to America, especially during difficult times. At the time of the Civil War, he gave us Abraham Lincoln. And at the time of Watergate, he gave us Gerald Ford — the right man at the right time who was able to put our nation back together again.”
Meditation by Glenn Beamer
President Gerald Ford is the president I hope my sons would emulate should their lives place them in leadership positions. President Ford is remembered for charitably pardoning his predecessor Richard Nixon. But President Ford, along the Senator Russell Long, created the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is the nation’s most effective anti-poverty program, he championed women entering US military service academies, & with genuine joy he led us in our Bicentennial Celebration in 1976.
I have thought about President Ford as the war in Iran and surrounding countries has unfolded. Regardless of when and how we end military actions, thousands have been killed. Nearly one million Lebanese have been displaced from their homes.
One of my earliest political memories was the fall of Saigon in April 1975. My grandparents lived in the gate house on the Gibson/Merriam estate, and I sat in their living room and watched on their gigantic “color” TV as the last helicopter took off from the roof of the American embassy in Saigon – leaving behind thousands of Vietnamese who sought to flee imminent communist rule.
Decades later, I would understand and appreciate the humanity, courage and grace that Gerald Ford exhibited during the extraordinary and sad end to a decade-long war. Anticipating a humanitarian crisis & in partnership with Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, President Ford led the effort to pass the Indochina Resettlement and Refugee Assistance Act, which included $250 million in humanitarian aid ($1.6 billion in 2026) and legal changes enabling the US military to save South Vietnamese whose lives were at risk because of their support for the United States and the coming imposition of North Vietnamese communist rule. In his address to Congress, President Ford said:
Fundamental decency requires that we do everything in our power to ease the misery and the pain of the monumental human crisis which has befallen the people of Vietnam. Millions have fled in the face of the Communist onslaught and are now homeless and are now destitute. I hereby pledge in the name of the American people that the United States will make a maximum humanitarian effort to help care for and feed these hopeless victims.
President Ford’s proposal was substantially unpopular. Letters to Congress ran overwhelmingly against resettling 130,000 Vietnamese refugees, including 6000 orphaned Vietnamese children, to the United States. CBS News correspondent Leslie Stahl quoted a Nebraskan voter, “They (Vietnamese refugees) bring only disease, corruption, and apathy.” In some ways this sentiment was understandable. Unemployment in 1975 was 9 percent, twice what it is in 2026, and inflation was 9%, three times what it is today. Nevertheless, only two senators and 21 house members voted against the legislation.
Rather than subordinate or finesse unpopular refugee assistance, President Ford engaged his Episcopal faith and leaned into his humanity. The president traveled to San Francisco to meet an “Operation Baby Lift” flight. He boarded the plane, picked up and cradled a Vietnamese baby, and carried the child off the plane and onto American soil in full view of the press, the military, aid workers, and bystanders.
President Ford’s concern and consolation went beyond orphaned children. He recognized the contributions South Vietnamese had made in support of US military efforts. In his April 3 Congressional address he stated,
There are tens of thousands of other South Vietnamese intellectuals, professors, teachers, editors, and opinion leaders who have supported the South Vietnamese cause and the alliance with the United States to whom we have a profound moral obligation.
President Ford had the presence of mind to recognize the contributions from South Vietnamese professors and South Vietnamese media. Rather than belittle them or make specious claims, he sought to protect them. He understood that however convoluted our political and military processes and however hapless and desperate their circumstances, we had created a covenant with them, and he would fulfill our obligations. This is the grace and courage that Jesus calls us to as we come to Holy Week.
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