The Zumwalt family extended grace and mercy to President Clinton by asking him to give a eulogy at the funeral of Admiral Zumwalt, who served as Chief of Naval Operations during the Viet Nam conflict.

Even though Bill Clinton had stated, and illustrated openly, his loathing of the military by avoiding the draft . . . the past has been forgotten by those who want to move on. And even though Admiral Zumwalt’s son, Elmo Jr., did the honorable thing and served in the Viet Nam war, and lost his life as a result of it . . .there are no hard feelings extended to Bill Clinton that he did not honor his duty to serve.

So I hope that those who would stand and throw stones at other presidential hopefuls today, for youthful indiscretions that reflected poor judgement yesterday, will show the same mercy. Extend to them the same grace, forgiveness and love that has been extended to Bill Clinton by the Zumwalt family.

A good slogan, to have emblazoned on the hearts and minds of all those running in this next election should be . .. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”