Jan.17

electoral-vote.com

Dem 47

   

GOP 53

Reader Reflections on Jimmy Carter, Part VI

We didn't get to run any reader reflections yesterday, so we're going to run a longer group of them today. If you'd like to read the previous entries, here they are:

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Part IV
• Part IV

And now, the conclusion:

• W.H. in Cooperstown, NY: The only president I ever met person to person, at one of his Sunday morning sermons. I'm NOT religious but his sermon was enlightening and uplifting. An honest, decent, humble man. We need more like him.
  
  
• J.M. in Summit, NJ: About 25 years ago, my wife and I were attending a business conference in London. On the first night of the conference, the attendees were invited to a special dinner at the Tower of London, hosted by the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. My wife and I happened to sit next to the ambassador at dinner, and were fortunate enough to receive a private invitation to visit the ambassador's London residence in Regent's Park the next day.
  
  The following day we were greeted at the Winfield House by the ambassador and his wife, and generously taken on a personal tour of the beautiful grounds and mansion, which had been donated to the U.S. by Barbara Hutton. As we were completing our tour we saw two crumpled people coming in the front door, dressed in fly-fishing gear and holding tackle boxes. We instantly recognized the pair to be Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, who happened to be guests at the Winfield House that week. They were just returning from a morning of fishing.
  
  To our amazement, Jimmy and Roz put their gear down, introduced themselves to us, and sat with us for the next hour or so in the parlor, getting to know us and inquiring about our family and careers. They were the kindest people, eager to hear our stories and to share their stories with us. Jimmy did not dominate the conversation; Roz more than held her own. By the end of our time together, my wife and I felt as though we had just spent time with two very dear friends. The Carters were a lovely couple, very much in love with one another, and genuinely interested in getting to know other people—even two visiting strangers they would never meet again.
  
  
• E.G.G.-C. in Syracuse, NY: My memories of President Carter are those from a young kid in Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship, and having Carter upholding human rights and trying to protect them for Chileans. It was impressive, after Richard Nixon, to have the U.S. President care about us so much!
  
  
• A.H. in Brier, WA: About ten years ago, Jimmy Carter came to Seattle for a book-signing event. A friend of mine planned to go, and asked me what he should say to him. I gave him my advice.
  
  After the book-signing, my friend reported back. When he got to the front of the long line of people, he said, "Mr. President, thank you for legalizing homebrewing." Carter suddenly stopped in the middle of signing my friend's book, looked up, got that big Jimmy Carter smile on his face, and replied, "Yeah, that worked out pretty good, didn't it?"
  
  
• M.B. in San Antonio, TX: One of Jimmy Carter's greatest and long-lasting accomplishments was almost single-handedly (with help from Congressman Morris Udall) saving the state of Alaska. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 designated more than 100 million acres of Alaska as federally protected lands, including wilderness areas, national parks and preserves, wildlife refuges, wild and scenic rivers, the Iditarod National Historic Trails, the Steese National Conservation Area, and the White Mountains Recreation Area. Subsequent administrations (including, almost immediately, Ronald Reagan and his horrific Interior Secretary James Watt), tried and failed to dismantle the Act. I'll always be thankful to Carter for having done this.
  
  
• D.S. in Oscoda, MI: When Jimmy Carter went on TV and asked Americans to turn our furnaces down to 68 and put on a sweater, I thought "This is what great leadership looks like, to set an example for the good of the planet and all of us who live on it. "When I saw the freak-out that ensued from that simple ask, I thought "This is what mass denial of common sense looks like." That's when I knew we Americans were not interested in saving the planet.
  
  
• R.K. in Laurel, MD: When I was a child, my parents took a detour from going down to Disney World so we could visit Plains, GA. There's a photo of me in the Plains Train Depot, as giddy as my sister would be when we finally made it to Orlando. Jimmy Carter was my favorite living president then (out of the four at that time) and he's way up in my list of favorite presidents overall now. He was the last truly honest man to hold the position, the last man who did not cash in on the fact he had been president. He worked for the greater good of humanity, not the greater good of his pocketbook. None of his successors have had (and none will ever have, I'm sure) a better post-presidency.
  
  The loss of President Carter, while not unexpected, still hits hard because while the sunny optimism and empty platitudes of Ronald Reagan may have been easier to swallow, had the whole of America been as forward thinking as its 39th President, the country would be in a much better place, I'm sure.
  
  
• J.F. in Bronx, NY: I had the pleasure to speak with Carter at a book signing in Huntington, NY, in November 1996. As he was signing my copy of Living Faith, I mentioned that his mother's Peace Corps service in India had inspired me to join Peace Corps. He looked up and asked where I had served. And when I told him Papua New Guinea, he said: "Oh really? Rosalynn and I will be going to Papua with Habitats (for Humanity). You should come with us!" At this point, with probably another thousand customers still in line behind me, a Secret Service agent ushered me along. I knew it was not likely a serious invitation. But it was a kind thing for him to say and I'll always be appreciative for having this story I can tell.
  
  
• J.S. in Palm Springs, CA: My paternal grandfather, a trumpet-playing jazz musician and fruit tree farmer on the slopes of western Colorado, was a lifelong Democrat. One of the most important days of his life came along while he was standing there fishing one afternoon down in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. A river raft came ashore and out stepped the man my Grandad revered most, former president Jimmy Carter. For a few minutes, Grandad had president Carter all to himself. He never stopped talking about it.
  
  
• C.L. in Glendale, AZ: Flying in the face of my Republican upbringing, I cast my first vote in a presidential election for Jimmy Carter when he ran against Gerald Ford in 1976. Decades later, I remain proud of the choice made by my 21-year-old self. And although I'm an agnostic, it would be nice to believe that Jimmy may in some way be reunited with Rosalynn, now that his long and distinguished life has reached its end.

That seems like a particularly appropriate sentiment on which to end. (Z)