Decent...

There are not a lot of politicians in the world that you would describe as decent. Not decent on the scale of good to great, but decent as in just a decent human. A good person.

Jimmy Carter was that politician.

I've told my political awakening story before but I'm going to tell it again. When I was a kid my parents' polling place was Highland High School. November 4, 1980, I was 12 years old. My mother had finished voting and we were in the car waiting for my dad to be done. I said something about how we were voting for Carter. My mother was quick to correct me. No. We were voting for Reagan. I asked why. Carter was the one that lined up with us religiously, I mean, Reagan had even had a divorce. (This was a big deal in 1980 in a conservative Christian family, or it should have been anyway) And my mother informed me it was because we were Republicans.

Hunh.

Okay.

I had been aware of the president for a few years. One of my earliest memories of ever "talking" politics was standing in line for lunch at school and everyone was talking about how hot lunch prices were going to go up. I said if Carter were elected he wouldn't let that happen. Now, at 8 years old, I have no idea why I had formed the opinion that Carter would be for less expensive school lunches but I had. And of course it was totally naive because presidents don't have any say over the cost of school lunches, but again, I was 8.

But clearly I had already started to form my own opinions about things and for some reason Carter was my guy.

It was a good choice. Looking back at the time period and the choices and I'm still a fan of the Carters. Both Jimmy and Rosalynn were from all appearances just good decent human beings. The saying is that Carter was a good man, but a bad president. But that's bullshit pedaled by Reagan and the rest of the Republican party. I'll leave the link to Heather Cox Richardson's lovely piece on Carter so you can see all that he accomplished. I don't agree with the deregulation part, but I have the benefit of knowing how it turned out. Otherwise he did a lot of good.

And then yes, he was a good man who had his greatest accomplishments after leaving office. And you can see the theme of them. Protect democracy, protect people, do the most good.

We used to joke that he was stalking me. For years one of the first pieces of mail I would receive when we moved in to a new place was from former President Jimmy Carter on behalf of Habitat for Humanity. And we moved A LOT in our early years. But he always found me. And found me quickly. I guess you get some perks after leaving office, and finding me was one.

Today is the National Day of Mourning for President Carter, and it was his State funeral. There were a lot of people who spoke about how decent he was. What a good man he was.

The world could use more people like Carter in politics. More people who are just decent, kind people trying to do the most good they can. I hope that someday we get back to having those sorts of people get elected. That we become the sort of people that vote for decent, kind people who want to do the most good they can.

May his memory be a blessing.

And a lesson.