Jimmy Carter was partly raised by a black woman

Jimmy Carter was partly raised by a black woman, as so many white children in the South have been for centuries and still are. Some of the soul of our people did go into making up his awareness of right and wrong. I can see our spiritual imprint on his character, in some of his behavior after he left office, though while in office it was largely erased by what it meant to be American. ~aw

A Jimmy Carter lo crió en parte una mujer negra, como lo han sido muchos niños blancos del Sur por siglos y aun lo siguen siendo. Algo del alma de nuestra gente ciertamente contribuyó a desarrollar su conciencia del bien y del mal. Puedo notar nuestra huella espiritual en su carácter, en parte de su actuación después de dejar el gobierno, aunque mientras estuvo en el cargo fue en gran parte borrada por aquello que significaba ser estadounidense. ~aw

 
Originally posted to Alice Walkers Garden Home page 2024 December:

(For Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter of Plains, Georgia)

© 2010 By Alice Walker

Let other leaders
Retire
To play golf
& write
Memoirs
About bombing
Villages
They’ve never seen.

Growing old
Presents a peril
They may not
Expect.

It is to lose
One’s soul
In trivia
& irrelevance
The nerve
Endings
Blunted
By the constant
Pressure
Of moral
Indifference.

Growing old
A curse:
Not even
Generally speaking
Able
To relate
To whoever
Shares

Your house. Not the mansion
You inhabit
On the
Lovely stolen hill
Above the sea
Or the interior one:
The darkened
Desolate
Shack.

You want to grow old
Like
The Carters;
Curing blindness
&
Building houses
For
The Poor;

Making friends of those
Who believe
They must fight.

You want to grow old
Like
The Carters
Holding hands
With someone
You love
&
Riding bicycles
Leisurely
Where the ground
Is well known
& perfectly
Flat.

You want to find
And keep to the path
Laid down
Inside you
Such a long time
Ago.

You want to grow old
Like
The Carters:
Serene. Eyes
Twinkling
To be accused
Of
Not getting
It right.

Upfront, upright.
Speaking what to you is true.

A person rich in Mothers.
Beloved.

And:
Honoring what is black
In you.

**Reprint from Alice Walkers Garden  | Original post  November 2010

 Jimmy Carter was partly raised by a black woman, as so many white children in the South have been for centuries and still are.  Some of the soul of our people did go into making up his awareness of right and wrong. I can see our spiritual imprint on his character, in some of his behavior after he left office,  though while in office  it was largely erased by what it meant to be American. ~aw

 
A Jimmy Carter lo crió en parte una mujer negra, como lo han sido muchos niños blancos del Sur por siglos y aun lo siguen siendo. Algo del alma de nuestra gente ciertamente contribuyó a desarrollar su conciencia del bien y del mal. Puedo notar nuestra huella espiritual en su carácter, en parte de su actuación después de dejar el gobierno, aunque mientras estuvo en el cargo fue en gran parte borrada por aquello que significaba ser estadounidense. ~aw