Happy 100th Birthday, President Carter
A Tribute to a Truly Great Man
Jimmy Carter is the first President of the United States that I remember.
I was born in 1969, but I have no real memory (as a kid) of Richard Nixon (who was President at the time of my birth) or Gerald Ford (who succeeded him). But I do remember President Carter.
I remember Dad didn’t care much for him, but Grandot (what I called my paternal grandfather) did. And I grew up witnessing their political debates.
Dad was a diehard anti-communist conservative Republican, who cast his first vote for Barry Goldwater. Grandot was a classic FDR / JFK / RFK / LBJ Democrat. I learned a lot about politics just listening to those two go at it. :-) It’s also among the reasons why I’ve grown up wanting to hear the various sides and perspectives of a given issue.
One thing Dad conceded, though, was that Jimmy Carter was a good man.
He disagreed with Carter on many political issues and was deeply frustrated at how the United States, under Carter’s leadership, was losing ground to the Soviet Union during the Cold War — and don’t even get him started about the Iranian hostage crisis! But Dad respected Carter as a fellow Christian and an all-round decent guy.
