Jimmy Carter: A Presidential Portrait
Spoon Jackson on a president he respected
[A few years ago, Spoon was assigned a writing prompt to choose any US president to write about. He chose Jimmy Carter. Spoon has spoken to me before about his respect for the late President Carter, someone he deemed *real* - with the right priorities and his heart in the right place. Spoon called me the day President Carter passed, before I had heard the news, and said he wished he had somehow kept going, that the world would really be missing his voice, especially now. Spoon’s Presidential Portrait is followed by a poem. Thanks for reading! - SaraMarie]
Presidential Portrait: Jimmy Carter
I know most folks would think I’d lean towards writing this essay about former President Obama. He was the first person of his hue to become president of the United States of America. The first Black man whose mom was white and from Kansas—the land of the Wizard of Oz. For me, it’s what’s inside a person that matters.
From the opening act of Barack Obama’s presidency, he was chained and shackled to a tree and reminded that he was Black and would, therefore, not enjoy any white privileges, even as president.
The old white school of politics promised Obama that he would not be allowed to accomplish his agenda, that he would be a one-term president. They promised to enslave his presidency and erase his legacy, even before it was created. But he proved them wrong.
Nevertheless, when I was asked to write about a president, I chose Jimmy Carter. I had heard on the radio or read somewhere what President Carter said about the judicial system in America. He said that justice in America is inherently racist and that the deck is stacked against Blacks and other people of color. I knew, then, that I wanted to write about Mr. Carter and his restorative justice walk in America. I knew that President Carter had the heart of a poet and was a poet. He spoke true and real about the system of injustice in the U.S.A. Not only did he speak about racial injustice, he spoke out about injustices to women, girls, the poor, and the homeless in this country and around the world.
Not only did Carter speak out, but he created programs to fight against racism, sexism, and violence against women and girls. These programs fought for civil rights and the rights of the poor. In his book A Call to Action, he called all people to action. I am sure President Jimmy Carter wanted to eliminate privilege, as well as color, religion, and gender bias.
Mr. Jimmy Carter’s legacy, I believe, started once he untied his hands and left office. He showed by example how a president must be inclusive and not exclusive, how justice must be restorative and for everyone, how forgiveness must be restorative and in service to others’ freedom, how jobs must be accessible to all, how religion must not blame women for the fall of man or mankind, how women and men must be equal like the oceans that welcome in all rivers and streams.
I had hoped to meet President Carter someday and exchange poetry. Together we could build Habitat for Humanity housing. However we both are older now and, with the life cards California dealt me, it seems very unlikely we will share space in this lifetime or dimension.
Mr. Carter shed light on the American system that is racist and for the benefit of a few. Through his efforts, the public received some notice of the injustices that persist in the U.S.A.
I am so proud of the young folks, the younger generation who are rallying around truth, realness, peace, love, and acceptance of all people. I am proud of the young white folk who are aware of their privilege and do not want white privilege but rather equal privilege for all.
I am hopeful people can use President Carter’s voice and be inspired to make change to this monstrous injustice system. Carter, being a poet, would not mind people using his voice and actions as a way to join the struggle to bring equal rights to all people, to make justice more than just a blindfolded statue in courthouses around the country.
President Carter’s programs stand up to injustice, violence against women, religious intolerance, and oppression of the poor. They go against all the evil capitalism America stands for. Can capitalism and love ever mix and become one? Mr. Carter stood against the new slavery movement of mass incarceration as perpetrated by the legal system, the economic system, and the one-sided educational system in the U.S.A.
When Carter showed humanity, kindness, love, and realness towards the people while in office, the old school, white, political elite considered his presence in the White House weak. The same political elite that long to keep people of different skin colors separate and unequal, to keep women separate and unequal to men. They just wanted to keep the image of President Carter as a backwards, simple-minded peanut farmer.
President Carter came from one of the most racist parts of the south where white folks often changed the bible, interpreting it the was they needed to keep white privilege and white male dominance in power.
Carter managed to see through and change that culture of racism for himself. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, also believed in one people and unlearned the aspects of America’s history of racism and sexism that is still embedded like a rock mountain in the institutions, churches, and schools in America. Look at all the banned books in the Florida educational system! How can a sitting governor make small and minimize the history and facts of slavery?
President Jimmy Carter was and is a poet. He saw and felt deeper than any other president because none of the others had a heart of a poet. Most, if not all, of the past white presidents were happy with their white privilege that was directly passed down from their founding fathers.
When Jimmy Carter was young, he went into the fields with the people to pick peanuts. When his culture told him at a certain age that he must accept his white privilege and leave his Black family and friends behind, his poet heart rebelled. Carter questioned some of the white privilege interpretations found in the bible—interpretations that placed women and people of color in bondage. Jimmy Carter reeducated himself, even in the face of hatred and anger from white republicans and democrats.
What was President Carter’s direct and indirect effect on the racist justice system? He spoke out and wrote the truth. He gave the facts about the racist system of justice in America—a system that keeps Blacks, Browns, women, and the poor in their place.
President and poet Jimmy Carter spoke out against the continual wrong-doings of a justice system that just recently refused me a youth offender hearing, while it gave a white guy from the same San Bernadino County a youth offender hearing. We were both the same age when our crimes happened. We both were given life without parole. I had at least fifteen more years of incarceration than the white guy. Both of us were first-time offenders. Both of us have changed and are no longer the wayward youth we once were. The only difference is skin color, which still determines justice in
America.
Poet to Poet (for President Jimmy Carter)
By Spoon Jackson B-92377
Solano Prison
Vacaville, CA
We both have traveled
the roads less traveled
and we both discovered poetry
in a land where poems
blossom year-round.
We discovered poetry
and came to know ourselves
and our lives under a different
sun and time. ,
Both sometimes leading
with our hearts,
both finding
ourselves out of the norm
and yet poetry connects
us like the wind and rain,
connects the ocean, sun, and moon.
Like when the pain of despair
and unfair treatment call
our hearts to action,
calling on our wisdom, talents
and depths of soul
to stand tall, to fight
for women’s rights, for human rights,
for Mother Earth’s rights.
Even in the face of death,
the rights of all people
to be people under
the same light—
under the same love.
Calling all poets, all artists
To action.
the love, sweat, tears,
and hard work.
Both old poets now but still
full of fire.
If you’d like to write to Spoon, please do! Postcards work too. The prison doesn’t allow letters that contain colored cardstock, stickers, or anything with staples or string. Writing on stationery paper, lined paper, or printer paper all works just fine.
