It is with a heavy heart that I speak today on the passing of former President Gerald Ford. I didn't know him, but President Ford made me proud to be an American. I am one of the many Americans who wore a "WIN" button ("whip inflation now") at President Ford's suggestion. The mere fact that the WIN button didn't do anything to stop inflation, which was rampant during the Ford administration, or that it was an inane idea to begin with, is beside the point. And although I chortled at Mr. Ford when he made the asinine comment during the Carter-Ford debate that there is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, I stopped laughing after dour Mr. Jimmy Carter forced me to lower my thermostat and put on a sweater and had the audacity to tell me that I was what's wrong with America (we sent that self-righteous peanut farmer back to Plains after the 1980 election).I speak for all Americans, not to mention all butchers, in extending my deepest condolences to Mrs. Betty Ford, who was so outspoken for so many years but from whom nobody's heard anything in so long.
Noah Swayne, Butcher
