RIP Jimmuh

Jimmy Carter has long been a hero of mine, even before I met him, primarily because of his insistence on pairing foreign aid to any country's record on human rights.

Many years ago, 1997 to be exact, Colin Powell organized a Volunteerism Summit in North Philadelphia. Current, former, future and wannabe Presidents Clinton, Carter, Ford, GHWBush, Gore and their wives were there, along with Powell, Nancy Reagan, Arlen Specter, Mayor Rendell and various others, including LL Cool J. We all first met on the pockmarked Simon Gratz High School football field, where I stood about 10 yards in front of the stage furiously taking photos until I ran out of film (remember that?!).

Eventually, we were all shepherded into buses to be ferried to our assigned North Philly post were we would be clearing litter-strewn lots, painting buildings, etc.

As my bus slowed to a stop to let us off, I saw out my window that President Carter was holding a mini-press conference half a block away. As soon as my bus came to a stop, as the leaders were directing us to a different assignment, I, pretending not to hear them shouting at me to stay with my group, hustled over to join President Carter's group.

I got there just in time to see President Carter begging away (forcefully) fro the assembled media because he wanted to get to work. And when I saw where he was headed, I, also semi-forcefully, made sure I was as close to him as I was allowed and to my surprise, I eventually found myself painting the outside of a dilapidated North Philly building, virtually and almost literally elbow to elbow with him, each paint roller in hand.

My two enduring memories of my interactions with him that day came first when we were directed to a place where there was some rather beautiful graffiti on the side of the building. When the (ex-)President came to that spot, he paused and looked at it and asked me whether I thought he should leave it alone or he should paint over it.

I commented that it really was pretty enough to leave alone but was otherwise non-committal. President Carter paused, stared at it for a moment longer and soon started framing it with his roller, filling in all around, and leaving it for all to see.

My second memory is when we were all sitting on front steps of row houses, finishing up the boxed lunches provided to us. There were two attractive young college-aged looking women who wanted to have their pictures taken with President Carter. I vaguely remember that one of them wanted to sit on his lap, and even may have, though what I remember even more than Jimmy's big toothy grin as the two college girls fawned over him, was his wife Rosalynn standing to the side, watching, not smiling, until finally she said "OK, enough of this. Time to get back to work, everyone!"

Years later I drove around North Philly hoping to remember correctly the location of the building President Carter and I had painted together and after some circling around in parts of the city many would never go within 20 blocks of, I found the spot. It had since bulldozed to the ground, nothing in its place.

I am tempted to list all the incredible achievements of his presidency as outlined here, but if you need to be reminded, either open that link, or let me know and I'll copy and send it to you. It's worth it. He really was a great President...and by all counts as great a person.