Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 10

As Our Readers Sec It Ford Destroys His Era of Good Feelings Detroit 4ivce AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER V1 JOHN Editorial Chairman LEE HILLS, esidenl and Publisher LEE TEMPLETON, Executive Vice President L. J. GUITTAR, Business Manager 'KURT LUEDTKE, Executive Editor FRANK ANGELO, Assoc. Exec. Editor JOE H.

STROUD, Mfor 10-A WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1974 Is IFe See It AN APPARENTLY criminal ex-president being pardoned of all guilt by the man he chose to serve as vice-president, and who assumed the presidency upon the resignation of the former is, in my opinion, the most vile political deal in our country's history. Although I have never liked the current president, any respect that I have mustered for the man has been destroyed with his pardoning of Nixon. Further, I believe that the House of Representatives should consider impeaching President For for obstruction of justice in pardoning the former president before the latter was brought to trial. ALLEN F. PASCHKE Ferndale THIS IS a thank you to our new president, Gerald Ford, who so graciously pardoned former President Richard M.

Nixon. I believe this will officially close Watergate and call on President Nixon's prayers for the United States. A bitter man could hold us way back. We need his prayers more than he needs ours. I'm so grateful to our president for the courage he displayed in doing this great thing, since I am sure it meets with much opposition.

MARY LEMAK PRESIDENT FORD'S action In granting a full pardon to Richard Nixon circumvents our Congress and our courts and prevents proof of Mr. Nixon's admitted and alleged deeds in a court of law. The method whereby Gerald Ford was selected to be our president must be changed. Gerald Ford is not the president of all of us; he is a lackey for an admitted crook. WARREN M.

KLEIN Franklin GERALD FORD committed a most serious and disgusting act against justice and the system of law of our nation that almost verges on the In giving Richard Nixon a full and complete pardon before he was either charged with any wrongdoing or being forced to come to trial sim- Blanket Pardon for Nixon Raises Problem Equity 'No, That's Not ply pounds in one of the final nails on the cover-mjj of what is known as Watergate. He has shown that he is now, what he has always been through his entire career, a.cheap political hack. He has done this with a presidential power that was not given to him by the people of this country but was given to him by Nixon himself. Ford has patted Nixon on the back and will see that the taxpayers will have to foot an extTa million dollars to keep Nixon living in the means he has accustomed himself to. DENNIS 0.

KAWICKI Warren THE DISTURBING factor in our president' decision to pardon Mr. Nixon is that it comes at a time when people were beginning to feel that all the secret deals that we had become accustomed to in the past were over. Despite the fact that Mr. Ford's path to the presidency began when former President Nixon appointed him to the office of vice-president, ha seemed to be a man who would run ai open Oval Office. Not only was Mr.

Ford's press secretary unaware of the pardon, it seems that emissaries were sent out to San Clemente just as one would send them in the case of an exiled monarch who still was a power to be reckoned with. Mr. Ford's decision Is another indication to the little man that law and order is for those who are at the bottom of the totem pole. SAM WALLACE GOD BLESS this good Christian President Ford. May the good Lord love him for his kindness and mercy towards Mr.

Nixon when his world was fallen on him and his fair-weather friends and his enemies the media and the networksand the polls had him guilty and about to have him drawn and quartered. There was no way he would receive a fair trial with the country in recession, with the stock market panicky, and the country divided. Mr. Ford has the country moving again and that is why he granted Nixon an absolute pardon. TOM DUNN St.

Clair Shores EVEL KNIEVEL landed in the Snake River Canyon and "Evil" Ford got himself smack In the center of the new cover-up of Watergate. ARTHUR SPENCER Oter Lake PRESIDENT, FORD'S pardon of Mr. Nixon deeply angered my wife and me. Again, we have been betrayed. I thought that fresh air was now flowing through the White House, with a seemingly straight-forward law-abiding man who had become president witlhout being elected, No more! The question is: what did President Ford pardon Nixnn for? In my mind the new president is proclaiming that Nixon is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, It is a brazen obstruction of justice.

Maybe we should have another impeachment proceeding in the House of Representative. The only small good In all of this is that Democrats have a windfall Issue on which to campaign this fall. I hope that they will stop being polite and come down hard with both feet. I must agree with Julian Bond of Georgia who said awhile back that Ford was just a bald-headed Nixon in the White House. CHARLES ROOT JR.

Plymouth i If I fff a A John Dean, the president's former counsel, in jail for telling the truth while the ex-president, who admitted lying, goes free. The courts andor Mr. Ford will have to exercise some discretion in restoring some semblance of equity. Making the record. In every instance where the question of Mr.

Nixon's guilt or innocence might have been established, he has opted not to confront the issue: on impeachment, on the pardon question and now on the question of disbarment. Even more important to us than the question of punishment is the need for a clear declaration. Even an Agnew-type solution, where the charges are somehow put into the record, would be better than the present ambiguity. Perhaps Congress, perhaps the special prosecutor, perhaps President Ford might help by providing for some such masing of the record. The money requested by Nixon.

We believe Mr. Ford erred in asking Congress to approve $850,000 more than the minimum required by existing law for Mr. Nixon in his retirement. The nation has no obligation to rescue Mr. Nixon from his financial plight, which results from his having overextended himself and from his having underpaid his taxes.

Congress ought to scrutinize closely the princeiy amounts-requested for transition expenses and such items as travel. It ought to say no to at least some of them. Vietnam amnesty. Inevitably a comparison arises between the unconditional amnesty for Mr. Nixon and the leniency President Ford had proposed for dealing with Vietnam evaders and draft-dodgers.

We have problems with simply ignoring violations of the law. Now, however, with mercy outweighing justice in Mr. Nixon's case, we are inclined to believe the same principle should be applied to the Vietnam draft-evaders; that is, jn the interest of wiping the, slate clean, the president should grant them a complete amnesty. There are some problems with that, a3 veterans and parents of veterans will remind us, but it may be the only way to help soften the inequities already created. Decisions in areas such as these will not be simple, but they offer US the best chance to bring the whole mess to a conclusion.

The country has no interest in prolonging the controversy any more than is absolutely necessary, even, though President Ford's decision was troublesome. So let us do what we can, and try, as President Ford said he intended to do, to brihg reconciliation to the nation. A GREAT difficulty with President Ford's pardon of former President Nixon is that the country runs some risk, in trying to restore equity, of trying to undo one wrong with another. With the granting of amnesty in one such case, can the prosecution of other, lesser officials go forward? Having granted unconditional amnesty to Mr. Nixon, can Mr.

Ford hold to his position that Vietnam draft dodgers and deserters must earn their way back into society? Does Congress grant former President Nixon all the emoluments he requested? Is there some way to complete the record on Mr. Nixon despite the pardon, so that at least there can be no weaseling on why he left office? President Ford's grant of pardon is a fact, it is final and, so far as federal crimes are concerned, it is complete. There may be loopholes for state prosecution, but the possible state issues are mostly peripheral. Besides, state prosecution would have the appearance of harassment tactics. We certainly are not interested in that, and we doubt that many people are.

So it remains for the country to try to bring an end to this affair, a9 best it can, without compounding the prematura pardon with bad tactics or unseemly gestures. In such context, a number of issues need to be weighed. Prosecution of others. The idea that the lesser men should not be prosecuted now is not necessarily valid. Mr.

Nixon's aides were adult citizens, and they were responsible for their acts. Indeed, the best evidence is that they set in motion the events that eventually pulled Mr. Nixon down and, while he became directly involved in the cover-up, his aide3 often acted on their own. We do not see how they can be let off the hook completely. At some point it may become reasonable or even desirable to commute some sentences.

It is particularly galling to see TerHorst Shows IT IS IRONIC, but in resigning his position as press secretary to President Ford, J. F. terllorst has shown how well qualified he was for the job. Ideally, a presidential press secretary conducts himself with honor and honesty, and rises above the temptation to function merely as an unthinking mouthpiece for administration policy and decisions. It is a difficult level to reach, though, because inherent in the position is the necessity to defend those policies, espe the White House Letters to the editor must he sinned nmt address n'tven.

Names will he withlield only lor food reasons. enough tp eat with their meager Social Security and cried out for mercy. And the hard-working, law-abiding, ridden, overburdened taxpaying American cried out for mercy. Blessed be the merciful. And the young men who chose to leave their families and their country rather than to fight in a war which their consciences told them was unnecessary and unjust, cried out for mercy.

Blessed be the merciful. For theirs is this kingdom? GENEVJEVE DOLAN Pontiac DEPRESSED, DEJECTED: That is my reaction on hearing that President Ford decided to circumvent our judicial process by granting Nixon an early pardon. I really believed there had been a change in Washington when he took over the presidency. I weep for this country, for it is obvious that the Model in Buff Walks Off in Public Denied Full Knowledge of Guilt Ryan Has Served Well system of unequal justice still exists, in fact, has been reinforced. We can never know whether President Ford has made a previous agreement with Nixon.

But with what has happened in the past, how can we really reject the possibility? Sept. 8, 1974 another sad day for America. ROSEMARIE PROULX WE HAD HOPED that President Ford was appointed to serve the people. Now we realize more fully whose interests he serves. I have always maintained a free-thinking, nonpartisan voting record.

Come November, my conscience compels me to vote for a one-party ticket all the way-Demo-crstic. SYBIL JAQUES THE PRESIDENTIAL pardon to Richard Nixon Is no doubt the "payoff" required to put Gerald Ford in the While House. This action, poupled. with the entire Watergate scandal, clearly displays the lack of political morals and personal ethics in the Republican Party today. Perhaps we should now consider impeaching President Ford.

By this act of national betrayal the president has put his name in company with those of Benedict Arnold and Judas Iscariot. RICHARD WOODRUFF Huff taken by a thrill-seeker, and nosing in the buff for a couple of cigar-chomping artists who have seen it all before and are mainly interested in line and shade. The departure of the model left the sketcher with half-finished efforts, prompting one of the lady guests at the party to recline on the posing platform until the artists had finished. Fully clothed, of course, but good legs. The results were bizarre, most of them featuring a nude woman with hose.

It was the best that could be done. As it was, the volunteer model only lasted 15 minutes before her left arm cramped up. Modeling is work. It was a fun party. The guests bid for the decorations, murals depicting satyrs chasing giggling nudes, and they ate shish-kabob in the rear garden, under the starlight.

They sang "Shine On, Harvest Moon," "Ev-aline' "The Bells Are Ringing," and other favorites of an era when Detroit was served by street cars and the Majestic Building at Woodward and Michigan was the handsomest structure in town. And they jested with two topless waitresses who wouldn't remember those times at all. One of them had tattooed on her right shoulder. At the time one refrained from Inquiring who or what it stood for because it seemed like an invasion of privacy, 1 Later it occurred that privacy was obviously the young lady's least concern. PRESIDENT FORD'S premature action convinces me he has inside information that Nixon is guilty of even more than we now are aware of.

Will we ever learn the truth? DAVID M. DUNN Muskegon MR. FORD'S cover-up of the cover-up and his belief in a double standard of justice should be an impeachable offense. CARL LEE IF AFTER consulting God and his conscience at great length, Mr. Ford has come up with the immoral decision to pardon Richard Nixon, then God help America.

I would hate to have Mr. Tord's conscience make decisions for our country in future crises. We now have two men in the White House who have had no conception of the difference between right and wrong Richard, the Evil, and Gerry, the Gullible. RUTH GEWANtER Ann Arbor THIS IS a country, supposedly, of equal justice for all. Therefore should not Mr.

Ford show mercy to all by ordering all Watergate trials stopped and all prisons opened so that all' may partake of his act of presidential compassion? I see this selective pardoning of Richard Nixon as an affront to the American people no less than was the firing of Archibald Cox by Mr. Nixon. like millions of others, have been deceived by Mr. Ford'g claim of concern for all the people. But his real concern apparently was to keep people from knowing the whole truth of Watergate, to protect a friend from exposure of his crimes.

The Watergate cover-up is, indeed, alive and well. JEANMcGARVEY Okemos NOT ONLY is the honeymoon over, but so is the hope for a good marriage. ED EVANS Grand Rapids I WOULD like to state my-opinion on the greatest injustice and ripoff I have ever seen or heard of in this country or anyplace else. I am talking of the presidential pardon of that man who took over the White House and the country before G. Rudolph Ford.

I thought Pearl Harbor Sunday was a black day dn our history, but this tops it easily. Then we only had the Japanese to fight. Now we have a terrible enemy within our society. What will become of justice in this country is anyone's guess if a man can rob, rape, cheat and slay the people and get away with it? Where can I apply for a pardon for any future criminal acts I might commit in the future or might have committed in the past? R. BOSTICK Warren AND THE children in the rat-infested ghettos of the richest nation in the world cried out for mercy.

And the aged patriotic citizens tried to buy Scarabs Softly Outrageous His Strength cially the major ones, with some degree of logic and certainty. Mr. terHorst, who will now become a national columnist for the Detroit News, was unable to reconcile those -dual functions with his own conscience, his own beliefs that absolute pardon should not be granted to "one man who has not even been accused of any crime by the courts," former President Nixon. Resigning was Mr. terHorst's way of maintaining his personal integrity.

He can only be commended for that. Overall, Mr. Ryan has been a good speaker and a good" leader, of the Democratic Party in the Legislature. In recent years, the House under his leadership has been the real workhorse of the Legislature, and has produced most of the key legislation and programs designed to improve the quality of life of the state's people. We have not always agreed with Mr.

Ryan, and, in fact, have been most disappointed in recent months by his apparent blindness to the need for effective reform of the political system, But in areas such as education, welfare, transportation, the environment and others, he has usually stood in the forefronj of those pushing for improvement and progress. And, as a Democrat, he has often shown a willingness to work with a Republican administration tiat has enhanced progress, rather than blocked it. It may be understandable that Mr. Ryan now seeks a rest from the time-consuming administrative details of the speakership so he can devote more effort to those causes which interest him most. Ilojse Democrats have a potentially able ladder In Rep.

Bob Crim of Davison to replace him as speaker. Even so, he will be missed. BILL RYAN has been such an influential member of Michigan's political scene over the last few years that it seems unreal for him to vacate voluntarily his post as speaker of the state' House of Representatives. Mr. Ryan, a Detroit Democrat who entered politics from the ranks of the UAW, has been in the Legislature since 1958 and has served as House speaker since 1969.

He leaves that office of his own choosing at the age of 55, but has plans to continue his work in other legislative capacities. Intercepted Letter COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTIONS U.S. Prisons Dear Warden: JiETTER keep your keys handy. BY LOUIS COOK -Prat Prmi Editorial Wrllir THE SCARAB CLUB'S Beaux Arts ball took up last weekend where it left off years ago, as jolly-risque as ever and the participants little changed in panache, although grayer and plumper than the last time out. The costumes were not as outrageous as in former years, the party-goers being a little uncertain about how far out everybody would go, But there was a touch of the old madness in a fellow Arab dress with "Scarab VlTT, S-i Arab" marked on his back, dancing with a handsome A I.J,.

'U mujr ui94-ULnu it a i jii Sea rum." For the most part the emphasis was on arty rigs- berets, turtle-neck sweaters, although one pretty girl looked like Toulouse-Lautrec's mistress, relying heavily on items purchased at a lower-Wood ward, flea market. A flurry of artistic temperament marked the evening when i nude model flounced away in a huff whwi an audacious guest snapped her picture. She had justification, of course. There is a considerable difference between having one's picture 1 Cook ai i ii jo i Kg ri fi r-i.