Whenever our country loses a former leader, the period of national mourning makes me solemn and reflective. I find myself stopping on news channels to respectfully watch the arrival ceremony of a man I know very little about. A man I have never met. A man whose term in office began and ended before I was a distant thought in my parent's minds. This week, former President Gerald Ford died. Perhaps I should know more from my latest history class, but really, the only information I know about our thirty-eighth president is that he pardoned Nixon and is the only president never sworn into office. I know of his wife's struggles with and contributions to the treatment of substance abuse. As I looked through a slide show of this man's life, however, the most striking thing to me was the normalcy of family moments captured at Camp David. I think it's easy to forget that despite six days of mourning, national recognition, assassination attempts, and world politics, this man and his family are just like you and I.
In breaking news, another nation's leader just met his end in a very different way. There was no national mourning when former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein was executed for war crimes. This man has been in the news for as long as I can remember, and at the risk of seeming cruel and unfeeling, I'm glad it's over.
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