Former president Jimmy Carter is celebrating his birthday today. It’s his 100th. He’s the first US president to live to this age and may be the only argument I know of against the dictum that the good die young.
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| (The Carter Center) |
Because there can’t
be a sentient being on earth who does not recognize that Carter is a good man.*
Perhaps not the best president (although he did have to contend with the Reagan
campaign’s ratfucking him in cahoots with the Iranians holding 53 American citizens
hostage), yet he still brought Israel and Egypt together in the Camp David
Accords (for which Menachim Begin and Anwar al-Sadat won the Nobel Peace
Prize), developed a national energy policy and pardoned Vietnam War draft
dodgers.
Post-presidency,
Carter blossomed into an elder statesman, a humanitarian and a force for peace
around the world. He himself won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, for the work
done through his Carter Center. He’s a Christian in ways tens of thousands of
evangelical fundamentalists cannot fathom: he follows the teachings of Christ.
And he had the
most amazing, loving marriage to Rosalyn, which lasted for 77 years, until her
death last year. I feared for him when she died, because they seemed so
indelibly unified; I thought he would follow her soon after.
But he revealed a while ago that he intends to live long enough to cast his vote for Kamala Harris for president and so far he’s holding out. (I thought of him last week when I voted—one of my reasons for seizing the moment was that I no longer have to worry about being hit by a bus and missing out on my chance to do the same.) If he hasn’t already filled out his mail-in ballot, early voting in Georgia begins on the 15th. I’d like him to hold on for at least Harris’s inauguration, but if he and the Almighty have something worked out between them, it’s got my full support.
Happy birthday, Jimmy. Many, many happy returns.
©2024 Bas Bleu
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