Jimmy Carter

Carter was a first-responder at an early nuclear emergency.
The world was in the grip of the Cold War in 1952 when a nuclear reactor began melting down.

That reactor, located at Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario, had suffered an explosion on Dec. 12. Radioactive material had escaped into the atmosphere, and millions of gallons of radioactive water flooded into the reactor’s basement. Thankfully, no one was injured, but the Canadians needed help to disassemble the reactor’s damaged core.

The United States sent 28-year-old Jimmy Carter.
.....
Then the partial meltdown happened, and Lt. Carter was one of the few people on the planet authorized to go inside a nuclear reactor.

Carter and his two dozen men were sent to Canada to help, along with other Canadian and American service members. Because of the intensity of radiation, a human could spend only 90 seconds in the damaged core, even while wearing protective gear.
Click to expand...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/02/20/jimmy-carter-nuclear-reactor-navy/
 
Segnosaur said:
Well to be honest I think Carter was probably harmed politically by the Iranian hostage situation. Seeing dozens of Americans held hostage and the president unable to do much would have made him seem weak.

(I don't necessarily think it was Carter's fault... It just happened when he was president.)

Sent from my moto e using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Carter was just not a good president. He meant well, but he was a lousy manager and tried to do everything at once.
Yes, he was an incredeibly decent person, but he not a good president.
He also had an incrediblyamount of just plain bad luck.
 
Sadly, the National Cathedrial in DC is probably making plans for the inevitable funeral/memorial service.
 
dudalb said:
Sadly, the National Cathedrial in DC is probably making plans for the inevitable funeral/memorial service.
Click to expand...

They probably have the plans already in place for the deaths for many different famous figures and ex-presidents. Anyone who would get the National Cathedral treatment is already on a list somewhere. Just need to dust off the folder when someone on the list kicks it.
 
All in all, a life well lived even if not yet over. My greatest respect.
 
I also suspect the 3rd US Infantry Regiment..."THe Old Guard" is dusting off and rehearsing it's procedures and ceremonies for the funeral of a ex President.
 
Random said:
They probably have the plans already in place for the deaths for many different famous figures and ex-presidents. Anyone who would get the National Cathedral treatment is already on a list somewhere. Just need to dust off the folder when someone on the list kicks it.
Click to expand...

One of the first things a new president does on assuming office is plan their funeral. The plans have existed for years. I'm not sure if they are updated occasionally. I believe that started after Kennedy.
 
Bob001 said:
A little known side of Carter. Most of his childhood friends were black, and later as governor he got one of them out of prison.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ommentID=730514b1-e793-40eb-94c9-f8b7082cad17
Click to expand...

Interesting. My parents grew up in South Carolina then married and moved to DC. My Dad's closest friend growing up was black but died in his 20's. When my parents would visit their family down in SC, my dad would go out to the cemetary and stand for a few minutes over his friend's grave. My dad missed him terribly.
 
I had my issues with him as a rather bland President, but as I've seen what he's done with his life afterwards I think he's the one I respect the most.
 
He also wrote a pretty good historical novel about the American Revolutionary War in the South....'The Hornet's Nest".
 
I met him several times and helped on a Homes for Humanity project. He really worked on that sucker and was a much better carpenter than I. Once, because a poster here insisted that as President Carter had made a speech to tell us all that Bigfoot was real and he had communicated with them, I was able to ask Mr Carter, which bemused him, though he informed me ha had made no such speech and gave Bigfoot a low probability of being real.
His Carter Center has done much humanitarian work, eliminating Guinea worm disease, making treatments available for river blindness, and supporting research of and treatments for a half-dozen other tropical diseases. He is a good man.
 
I agree with the sentiment that Jimmy Carter was not an especially good President. That was the general consensus at the time, and remains largely unchanged through history. Specifically for my interests, he was the one who permanently shut down all the remote experiments on the Moon, placed there by the Apollo crews. It saved a whopping $200,000 per year in data collection and monitoring. That move struck me as colossally short-sighted.

However, in subsequent years there can be little doubt he exemplifies the kind of person we wish we could see more of in candidates for the office, or just among the human race in general. I very much admire his hands-on humanitarianism. His actions speak louder than the words of all the blowhard billionaires who want to style themselves as philanthropists.
 
One can be a good person without being a good leader.

It's preferable for a president to manage at least one of those two things, though.
 
I'm still not convinced that he was a bad president. He was portrayed as one but he actually wanted to talk about the problems America is still ignoring. Reagan just had "it's morning in America" where every day you eat apple pie.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom