Looking at our nation's longest-living President during Rosalynn's memorial service is the life of a decent man whom we call Jimmy.
James Earl Carter Jr. born on October 1, 1924, is a former POTUS and Humanitarian. He was the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter was the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975, and a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967. At age 99, he is the oldest living former U.S. president and the longest-lived president in U.S. history.
I remember meeting Jimmy Carter in College and covering him as a journalist. I was a young reporter back in the days when the world looked to America for leadership, decency, truth, and honor. Jimmy always had a duty to those less fortunate. He and his late wife were an example of a two-person team that showed us the kind of leadership for four years genuinely good people who led the free world.
Sadly, the snake pit of international politics stirs nearly unsolvable dilemmas. These included Israel, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, and Russia. These nations should serve as a reminder of how little has changed in international politics since their time in the Whitehouse.
There are very few role models like The Carters. The Obamas are also decent people. They temporarily placed a finger in the dyke, but temporarily held back the flood. Now the Bidens are trying their best, but remember, where the USA goes, Europe soon follows, and in the past four years, the world watched politics become a marketing exercise founded on lies, attacks on the press, and aiding the rich. The purpose of party politics has moved from obtaining office to improve the welfare of our nation, to profiting from power.
Ideology is unimportant, the modern process of election is founded on obtaining enough money and telling enough convincing lies to attract votes. The former guy said he would drain the swamp and has done the opposite. I'm sure he didn't plan to be wriggling at the bottom when he made that empty promise. He has exposed the Republican party that is no longer fit for public service. Anyone observing these past years who lives outside the USA can be forgiven for thinking that Congress has lost all sense of reason. It seems that rich politicians do not go to prison, no matter what they do. Was he correct when he said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any votes?
I never thought I would see a day when party politics in the USA was more important than preventing Communism from conquering Ukraine. I could not imagine a similar situation on this side of the Atlantic. We still remember the 1930s.
The past is a foreign land a million miles away I would like to see virtue creep back into American politics. Democracy stands on the edge of a great fall if we do not change direction and vote for decency, honor, reason, truth, justice, and the American way.
I'm not registered as a Democrat or Republican and have no political party affiliation, and for that, I have been verbally attacked by shortsighted people.
Image: Jimmy Carter holds hands with his wife of 77 years. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)