True believer
Jimmy Carter has left the planet. He was 100 years old. There will be many tributes and remembrances – Lord knows, there's been plenty of time to prepare them.
I was one handshake away from him. I had a roommate in law school who had quite recently worked on his successful campaign for the Presidency. Then came the hostage crisis.
I don't recall what I thought of Carter at the time, but in retrospect he was a decent, humble person who asked that the American public be the same. He took his Christian faith seriously. When fuel was short, he encouraged turning down the thermostat and wearing a sweater. And so, of course, America showed him the door, that the era of limitless greed and selfishness could begin. We're still there. Crank up the heat.
Here in Portland, the story will be told and retold of his Presidential sleepover with an average family in one of our neighborhoods, the one I live in now. He was a man you could let be around your children. It was a different time.
I grew up in that general area, and walked to that store around the block on 15th Ave on a daily basis. That store, Lopiparo’s Thriftway, was a constant in my life for close to 20 years or so. It was eventually taken over by new owners who made it less family friendly.
ReplyDeleteI remember the visit and didn’t think too much about it at the time as I wasn’t political at all. Sure, I knew the issues and had grown up in a family that attached themselves to local and federal politics, but I was skeptical of politicians. They had worked heavily on every major campaign and cause since RFK, so I was right sick of it all eventually.
I don’t think that I even tried to gawk at the spectacle, but years later finally realized that it was quite the groundbreaking moment. Probably to never be repeated again. Politics aside, I thought that he was a humble man and did good work after serving as President.
I never met Jimmy Carter. I was in grad school when the primary campaign began. I gave his campaign a few dollars (that I really couldn't afford). Gerald Ford (Carter's eventual opponent in 1976) had pardoned Nixon for his Watergate crimes. I despised them both.
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me about him was that, even though he claimed to be a peanut farmer, he was a highly-skilled technocrat who was trained as a nuclear engineer at the US Naval Academy. In fact, Carter served as a protege of Adm Hyman Rickover. Carter holds the distinction as the the only USNA grad ever to be elected President.
I don't think Carter was much cut out for the Presidency. He had the skill but not the temperment. It seemed like he disdained the limelight -- preferring to lead by example rather than inspiration. He wasn't very good at delegation and his top aides were mostly rank amateurs who seemed to be overwhelmed from the start. Unfortunately, America disdained his example...and we're worse off for it.
Then came the hostage crisis...and he was done. The Age of Ray-gun was upon us...
Having suffered through Ray-gun's two terms as Governor of California and having had to listen to his execrable campaign speech given in my college commencement excercises. I despised him too. My lasting memory of my college graduation was seeing snipers on the tops of all the buildings lining the march route from the men's gym (assembly point) to the stadium (where commencement was held). Nice way to start your life, eh?
And, so, Carter went back to Plains to tend his peanut farm and work tirelessly toward the advancement of the human condition. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for that. So, thank you President Carter for being truly a man of the people...probably the last one we're ever going to see in this (still semi-free) country.
I think Carter was a humble, moral, descent man .He was thrust into a caldron of turmoil that required a different set of credentials.
ReplyDelete