Ford: A role model for new office holders

We congratulate all of the candidates sworn into office on Monday and wish them good luck in doing what's best for their constituents and in tackling the many difficult issues and challenges before them.

The vast differences in philosophy that emerged during the election will surely make for good political theater not only in state government, but in local offices as well, including the Carson City School Board.

It will take skilled public servants to bridge those philosophical divides.

In case they need a role model, they need only look to President Gerald Ford, who will be buried this week in Grand Rapids, Mich. Talk about challenges: Ford found himself having to pick up the pieces left after of one of this country's greatest political scandals.

There was crippling inflation, an energy crisis, the aftermath of Vietnam, a tense Cold War and myriad other problems.

Against all of that, the problems facing the United States and Nevada today seem very solvable. Ford set to work in businesslike fashion, coolly setting forth policies that may not have been popular, but which he believed were in the best interest of his country. Historians with the benefit of time now admire many of the policies he began to put in place before he left office.

But the real contribution Ford left us with is the importance of integrity and selflessness in public office, the principles he said led him to pardon Richard Nixon. That decision ultimately cost him the election to Jimmy Carter.

We're sure that the issues that face local officials won't bear much similarity to those President Ford faced. But the guiding principles he used in his attempt to solve them are universal. He never forgot who he was working for, and that it was not Gerald Ford.