Jimmy Carter’s Example

I hope we can keep listening

Just got word that President Jimmy Carter died at age 100. He was a good man.

When Carter ran for president in 1976, I was very young and very left, saw little difference between the two political parties: I was an Independent. A State Senator from Georgia, Carter was not well-known at the national level, and his nomination was a suprise to the country; some other contenders were Jerry Brown of California and Morris Udall of Arizona, who was my favorite. Udall was more liberal, I was suspicious of Carter’s centrism and, while unfair on my part, I was uncomfortable with his outspoken Christian beliefs. This election was the last time a Democratic candidate for president took the majority of southern states, perhaps because he was from Georgia, but we were begining to see the changes in our political landscape. When I was young, I always thought of the south as Democratic, which it was. But not for long.

My upbringing as a Quaker taught me to be tolerant of everyone’s religion, and as I “grew up” into my adulthood, I became comfortable with Carter’s Christianity. In fact, I greatly admire him because of how he actually lived his beliefs, he didn’t simply attend church weekly, nor did he spew scripture. He wanted to spread peace.