Jimmy Carter Was Right
And Kevin Murray Was Wrong
TODAY'S RAMBLINGS
3 Minute Read
Happy New Year and while I don’t want to throw tepid and flat bubbly on your celebration, I must say something about the late and absolutely great Jimmy Carter.
As you certainly know by now, he died this past Sunday, at 100 years of age, and I will comment in my typical way: If you guessed “opinion,” “stories,” or “clever anecdotes” you guessed right.
RIP Jimmy Carter from Georgia, 39th President of the United States.
The Last Honest Politician
Do your homework. You will find that he mostly always told the truth to us, no matter how unpleasant. Don’t believe me? Perhaps you are not familiar with his so-called “Malaise Speech?”
I also listened to this great podcast on the subject.
Listen and learn. Jimmy Carter was the last truly honest president.
Myrtle Beach and a Hostage Crisis
Do you remember the Iranian Hostage Crisis? Boy, I do.
In November 1979, Iranian protestors stormed the American embassy in Tehran, taking 50+ hostage. They’d be held for 444 days, not released until just after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.
In between and from Wikipedia:
On April 24, 1980, Carter ordered Operation Eagle Claw to try to free the hostages. The mission failed, leaving eight American servicemen dead and two aircraft destroyed. The failure led Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who had opposed the mission, to resign.
On April 25, 1980, I had on golf attire as I strolled into the 1970s splendor of the lobby of the Myrtle Beach Hilton. My parents had indulged me and we were on a nice golf vacation; it was time for breakfast before my tee time.
But it was disrupted on this day, and I remember vividly the TVs blaring the terrible news via reports from the breathless ABC, CBS, and NBC foreign correspondents. Every adult, including my parents, seemed concerned, and many said this was the end of Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
At age 16, I was concerned too: Would this somehow impact my senior year of high school?
No, but there’s a connection between President Carter and a friend of mine from that senior year in high school.
Endangered Values and Friendships
I learned about Carter’s qualities not just from videos and podcasts. In 2005, President Carter published a book, to this day one of my favorites, entitled Our Endangered Values.
When I read it at the time, I was struck by many things, but especially this Baptist preacher’s vociferous defense of the criticality of maintaining a clear separation between church and state.
Equally as impressive in this book is how he called balls and strikes on issues that remain inflammatory and unresolved:
Environment
Nuclear proliferation
Torture
Death penalty
Abortion
Gay rights
There was more and in every case, he applied what he saw as real Christianity: compassion, empathy, turn the other cheek, love thy neighbor, etc., etc. As opposed to fundamentalist Christianity, which he saw as very dangerous. It was a balanced and completely reasonable book, regardless of one’s party affiliation.
No matter, because this book still endangered a friendship.
A couple of years later, in October of 2007, a high school friend from Albany visited SF. We had a great time, but I had changed. While Kevin Murray was as Albanian as ever, extremely brash and willing to say/do anything, my same predilections were waning with age. So one of his outbursts, this time about Jimmy Carter, was the beginning of the end of me wanting to hang out with him.
We were having coffee one morning in our home before a tour of San Francisco, and Kevin and I began discussing politics. Now, Kevin is a bit right politically of Fred Flintstone, but I was pleading for rational and reasonable positions, and I turned to my bookcase and pointed at Carter’s book as a fine example.
Me: “It’s a great book.”
KM: “I think Jimmy Carter should be killed.”
“Oh, Kevin, shut the fuck up and that is offensive. Have you read the book?”
“Are you fucking kidding me? I would never read that Communist and I should toss that shit out the window right now.”
An Amazing Idea
Carter had a rocky presidency, but it was more successful than many think, and few deny his service to our nation after he left office. He set an example for us all and remember when presidents did that?
That is why this idea - not mine, unfortunately - is just so damned perfect.
Such a tribute, done correctly, would be very powerful, on many levels. I propose it be done the night of Dear Leader’s inauguration, ideally with his support.
Or do it in protest regardless. Because Jimmy Carter was a man Dear Leader never will be.
FROM THE UNWASHED MASSES
There were some fun responses to my Chelsea Galleries Micro Travel Guide.
But none were better than hearing from another cousin, the western NY powerbroker Raquel Heinz Baku. It turns out she and her brainy professor hubby Javin Baku will be here in NYC and we’re connecting on Friday somewhere in Manhattan.
All of this holiday family stuff can make one go all Jimmy Stewart.
Thank you for reading this newsletter.
KLUF
Those that know President Carter knows this Killer playlist of mine is exactly right for today.