Jan.15

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Reader Reflections on Jimmy Carter, Part V

Another set of reader thoughts on Jimmy Carter. As with the stories, not all of them are necessarily going to be positive.

• A.C. in Shoreline, WA: Been thinking how President Carter impacted my life. When he had solar panels installed on the White House, my father then had some installed on my childhood home. As a man and teacher of sciences, dad was also thrilled with the push to the Metric System. And growing up, from 4-8 years old, my parents also volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. After mom passed, dad and I still volunteered there, and other places. But at four years old, I remember both parents telling me "a former president volunteering is a model for all of us to never be too big to help another."
  
  
• K.S. in Cozumel, Mexico: I worked in Africa for nearly 6 years in the 1990's, and it was always a thrill to see on the local news channel that President Jimmy Carter was in town working on the eradication of the Guinea worm (which only involved rudimentary filtering, but much community engagement to make it happen). I was thrilled and proud to be an American, as I was part of a team vaccinating kids. It was as if we were all on the same team, trying to make the world better.
  
  Much later I returned home and became a lawyer... and then was really fortunate to land a judicial clerkship with a federal judge. I learned that Carter had changed the nomination process of federal judges to a merit-based system instead of a political-connections appointment system. "My" judge, S. Arthur Spiegel, was never really active in Democratic Party politics—he was too busy doing lawyerly work to fight to integrate swimming pools in Cincinnati. So even though he and Carter didn't know each other from Adam, Judge Spiegel got the appointment and took the bench.
  
  Years later still, I learned Carter was coming to Cincinnati for a book-signing. We contacted Atlanta and arranged a meeting before the event.
  
  Carter ambled into the room with a big smile and a friendly handshake. He looked every person in the eye and acknowledged that we were there. He and the Judge laughed together about a fried-chicken spot in Plains—the Judge and his wife had stopped there one time on the way to Florida to try the chicken. The owner proudly announced that President Carter fronted her the start-up money for her business and "gave me my start!" The Judge proclaimed, "Well, he gave me my start too!" Carter acknowledged the whole thing and stated, "She really does make the best fried chicken in Plains."
  
  As all the accolades rightfully pour in over great accomplishments, I am reminded of how this good man surely impacted so many people in personal and empowering ways, like a lady trying to sell fried chicken in Plains. Yet also, he impacted the judiciary in the appointment of a Jewish civil rights lawyer who served on the bench for 30+ years—who nobody knew politically, but who got the spot based on his work and not his connections.
  
  
• S.P. in Cranston, RI: Rest in peace, James Earl Carter Jr.
  
  Warning to all who want to read only positive comments about the late president: I was not a fan of his during the stretch when he was running for, and then served as, president. In the 1976 primaries, he ran as the "moderate" Democrat, opposed to the blatant racism of George Wallace, but far to the right of progressives such as Fred Harris, Morris Udall and Frank Church. At a time of rising opposition to nuclear power, he continued to champion nukes. He accepted the Shah of Iran as a protected refugee, while turning away desperate "boat people" from Haiti. He opposed efforts to increase access to abortion, declaring to pro-choice voters that, "Life is unfair." He shot down attempts by Ralph Nader to create consumer protections that would have meaningfully reined in corporate power. He fired his ambassador, Andrew Young, when Young attempted to hold talks with the PLO.
  
  His presidential legacy was not completely negative to me at the time, though. Carter facilitated a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. He did not try to save the Somoza government from the Sandinista uprising, or continue the Shah's corrupt and dictatorial regime. Although he received negative reviews for it, he tried to raise awareness of the need to change energy consumption habits (albeit mostly on the level of individual consumer action, rather than by shaping national and international laws to hold corporate energy producers accountable). He made some halfway measures to make life easier for the many folks who resisted our war with Vietnam (but also reinstituted draft registration).
  
  Even in his early post-presidential years, I was not all that impressed. One of the first newspaper letters to the editor that I got published praised his efforts with Habitat for Humanity, while noting that real solutions to our housing issues required massive governmental policy changes and not just noble individual acts. His much-praised poetry left me uninspired.
  
  The man continued to grow on me, however. He became a trail-blazing critic of Israeli policies towards Palestinian rights. He took on powers-that-be in his own church as it drifted further and further to the right. He helped monitor elections worldwide, promoted effective "getting to yes" style negotiation techniques, and helped broker reduction in antagonism between North Korea and the USA at a time when others said that couldn't be done. He supported Bernie Sanders' bid for the Presidency in 2016.
  
  In summary, Jimmy Carter was, like all of us, a human being whose judgment was at times flawed, but who strove to become a better person and shape a better world. RIP.
  
  
• M.S. in Newton, MA: I literally sat in silence, with my jaw open, reading your comment about Carter with regards to Jews. There is no self-respecting Jew who cares at all about Israel that would say he is anything less than an antisemite and someone who acted actively and purposefully against the State of Israel. Carter cozied up to Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, the Palestinians and Arafat... was there an organization that wanted Israel destroyed that he didn't befriend? There's a Hebrew phrase/curse we use for people like Hitler, which is "Yimach Shemo," meaning "May his name be erased.' We Jews who care about Israel will use it for Carter. You can think that he did great things for Jews and Israel, but for those of us who are Jewish and Zionist, he will go down as the worst president in American history, and for having the worst post-presidency of any president.
  
  
• B.C. in Walpole, ME: I was a junior in college on the eve of spring break. This was before "Go to Florida and Get Drunk for a Week Spring Break," and way before "Community Service Spring Break." Someone told me they were going to spend the week at a commune somewhere and invited me to come. It sounded interesting, and I had no other plans. I remember nothing about the trip or which of my friends went, though I think it was at least six of us, nor how anyone even knew about this place.
  
  Two distinct memories remain: When we got to Koinonia Farm, we quickly figured out that the commune had lost its way. The founder and leader of the group, Clarence Jordan, had died, and the motley collection of people who were left no longer had a direction or purpose. The commune was near Americus, GA, and we spent that week insulating sharecropper shacks. (Southern sharecropper shacks, which were worthy successors to slave cabins, had no insulation at all.)
  
  Some years later, I realized that the commune had found a purpose—building decent housing for people who could not afford it—and had formed an organization: Habitat for Humanity. (Apparently, we had worked on the first proto-Habitat houses when the idea was just being born.) The group's work didn't come to the attention of the nation (and the world) until it got the support of a former President from Georgia: Jimmy Carter. His commitment to the program, demonstrated by showing up in work clothes and doing the physical labor, gave Habitat the publicity it needed to do the great work it has done.
  
  
• J.M. in Portland, OR: The Carter/Reagan election was the last time I thought "They're all the same" and voted third party (Barry Commoner). Learned a tough lesson on that one.

Two more sets: One tomorrow, one Friday. (Z)