I suppose I consider it a kindness from one of the very few gentlemen to ever hold the office of President of the United States that he chose to put his passing on at the tail of a year that saw so much unkindness. James Earl Carter Jr. lived to be one hundred years old, and managed to do more as an ex-president than most manage in two terms holding the office. To say that his passing was inevitable cheapens the moment. A few months back, when we were all excited about him living long enough to help elect the first woman Commander In Chief, there was an element of certainty. That moment came and went, and now we are stuck with the gaudy comparisons of how one man chose to live his life and lead our nation while another comes slithering in to take his place. Something should be said about being able to pass a certain litmus of moral integrity to be the leader of the free world.
My mother sent me a book authored by President Carter, Jimmy to his friends. He wrote quite a few. The one I read was Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis. I can say that I am not generally one that takes well to being preached at, but Jimmy had me by the lapels and I read every word. Because he didn't just talk the talk. He walked the walk. He was a fundamentalist who didn't waste your time by judging. He did his work through example. He wasn't exclusionary. He wanted to put everyone on the same side.
Nowhere was this more in evidence than in his work with Habitat for Humanity, an organization for which Jimmy didn't just cheerlead and fundraise, he pounded nails and lifted bricks. He was doing this well into his nineties. I defy you to imagine this kind of activity being undertaken by the bloated sack of protoplasm about to take the oath of office for a second term. Jimmy Carter was a man who felt he was put on this earth to serve his god and country. In that order.
He was handed a mess of a nation back in 1976. It was his job to put the country back on track after eight years of Republican bumbling that led to a massive recession, for which his predecessor Gerald Ford was only able to muster a campaign that included a clever button to remind us all to "WIN - Whip Inflation Now." It was Carter's job to remind us all that it wasn't up to the government to dig us out of our lethargy. That responsibility rested solely upon our disillusioned shoulders. If you haven't had a chance since maybe you weren't alive back then or maybe you couldn't be bothered to listen to a political speech back in 1979, I offer this one, referred to somewhat blithely by historians as his "Malaise Speech."
It was this moment that many point to as that which allowed Ronald Reagan to steamroll his way into power in 1980, leaving the ideals and morals of a generation unchallenged for another decade while we sat back and waited for Dallas to come on and Gordon Gekko to remind us that "greed, for lack of a better word, is good."
That was one heck of a right turn, way back then. But it didn't keep Jimmy Carter from doing the work he was put on this planet to do. He packed up his Nobel Peace Prize and went back to work. When he wasn't building homes, he was helping to eradicate Guinea Worm Disease, only the second disease after Smallpox to be eliminated from the planet. And he was the guy who finally gave Panama back their Canal.
And now this Bozo wants to take it back.
That's down here on earth, where the footprints of where Jimmy Carter stomped on the Terra will be visible for generations to come. He's probably up in heaven now, checking in on affordable housing for the cherubim. Godspeed, Jimmy Carter.
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