D CARTR

In college I had a yellow VW Scirocco with the Connecticut license plate D CARTR. Since my name was Dana Carter my father thought it was a good plate to get me. A bight yellow car parked on the street of Carlisle, Pennsylvania stood out. One day an upper class man, a short little weasley guy who was also from Connecticut asked me if my license plate stood for Dump Carter as he was the fairly unpopular president at the time.

My Carter family is no relation to Jimmy Carter’s family. In college having the same name as President Carter was not necessarily a positive. Interest rates were sky high, the economy was doing poorly, Iran had taken American’s Hostage. I didn’t really want to be associated with Carter. He lost his bid for reelection in 1980 and went back to plains and I kind of got my name back.

Then he started to do great work, both at home and abroad. As the years went by he was improving his legacy, overcoming an unsuccessful presidency. Eventually he built so many Houses for Habitat and oversaw fair elections around the world and taught people what being a good person acted like, that he reached beloved status. Then having the name Carter was a positive.

He made it to 100 years old, the oldest President ever. And now he has left us and does not have to witness what is coming next. I wish that they could hold his funeral until January 20 so we could chose to watch his funeral rather than anything else that happens that day.

Rest in Peace Jimmy Carter. You lived a good life which we all could learn from.