(HOST) Memories of Vermont’s long time Senator Robert Stafford, and images of former First Lady Betty Ford at her husband’s funeral services this week, have reminded commentator Madeleine Kunin of the good examples they quietly set for the rest of us.
(KUNIN) Occasionally, people in public life have a large impact on us by simply displaying the courage of their convictions.
Two such people who emerged in the news recently are Senator Bob Stafford and President Ford’s widow, Betty Ford.
They may never have had a conversation about their beliefs, but what they represent to us today is old fashioned, courageous Republicanism.
Sometimes when I looked at Bob Stafford, I thought his face was chiseled out of Vermont marble, but whenever I spoke with him, he exuded a rough, rather shy, friendliness.
Robert Stafford, who would find it difficult were he in the senate today to find many Republicans to sign onto his clean air bill, or clean water bill, or even the superfund legislation, was an impassioned environmentalist, at a time when the phrase may not even have been coined.
He shepherded the major environmental bills of our time through the congress, using the clout of ranking member on the environment committee.
There is no doubt that were he in office today, he would lead the charge on global warming.
His work in making college tuition more affordable was recognized by the congress in 1988, when they renamed the student guaranteed loan program, the Robert T. Stafford student loan program.
Turning to Betty Ford, she was neither Eleanor Roosevelt or Hillary Clinton. She was herself, and that was the beauty of it.
In the midst of a tumultuous time in this country, when sex, drugs, abortion and the draft were prompting divisive conversations between many parents and children, Betty was in the vanguard, talking about how she would counsel her daughter if she were having an affair, or suspecting that her children might have smoked marijuana.
She had the courage to talk openly about her own addiction to alcohol and pain killers and established a treatment center in Rancho Mirage, where she remains on the board today.
Diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after her husband became president, she used the media to talk about her mastectomy and chemotherapy.
She was in favor of a woman’s right to decide whether or not to have an abortion, and she was an enthusiastic lobbyist for the passage of the equal rights amendment.
Both Senator Stafford and First Lady Betty Ford had convictions and they didn’t much care whether or not they were creating controversy or whether they would be credited with the results of their actions.
What they did care about were the issues of their time, engaging the public in important conversations and acting on their beliefs.
Despite themselves, both Bob Stafford and Betty Ford have become important role models for our time.
Madeleine May Kunin is a former governor of Vermont.