Why didn Gerald Ford attend President Bushs inauguration along with the other former presidents?
I saw nothing in the media that mentioned why he failed to appear. — Sherry Bowie, Alpharetta, Ga. A: Ford is 91 years old, and while he is not ill he is not in the best of health, either. He suffered two small strokes in 2000 and was hospitalized following a dizzy spell in 2003. In addition to missing the inauguration, he was also the only former president to not make the dedication of Bill Clinton’s presidential library in Arkansas in November. A Ford spokesman said he decided not to fly to either event. Q: I always thought Shirley Chisholm, the late Democrat from Brooklyn, was the first African American to serve in Congress, male or female. Who was the first? Was it Julian Bond? — Sue Knight, Denver, Colo. A: Chisholm was the first black woman elected to Congress, but she was not the first black; that was Joseph Rainey, a South Carolina Republican, who was elected in 1870. Of the 20 African Americans who were elected to the House during Reconstruction, all were Republicans from the
