My mom and I didn’t get much time together as adults. Well, as two adults. So I never got a lot of wisdom that I was able to take with me into my adulthood. I do remember two things she said to me in regards to politics (and it wasn’t a ‘sit-down’ kinda talk, just matter-of-factly as she went about her life… these were not said at the same time): The Kennedys were no good (since they didn’t follow the laws the rest of us followed) and Jimmy Carter was a good man and good president.

Fast forward to today. Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter live a simple life decades after being in the White House. This shouldn’t be astonishing.

But then I read this…

The Democratic former president decided not to join corporate boards or give speeches for big money because, he says, he didn’t want to “capitalize financially on being in the White House.”

… And I’m astonished. Jimmy Carter stands for everything this country, currently, is not. But it used to and still can again.