Public Comment

I have not followed the career of Rosalynn Carter, yet somehow her passing, and seeing photos on the internet of her and Jimmy Carter, made my eyes watery. It brings to mind my shortcomings in life, including physical separation from my spouse of twenty-eight years. 

Mrs. Carter was well-known for championing mental health. In 1985, me, one of my two brothers, and my mom went to the LA area to attend a NAMI conference, and to visit my grandmother. By pure chance, my mother when she was getting some refreshments at a table, realized she was standing next to Mrs. Carter. 

(Alliance on Mental Illness has undergone name revision since it was founded in the late 1970's. It was at one time named "--Alliance for the Mentally Ill." Fill in the blank for location.) 

It is with great fondness that I remember the Carter presidency that followed the Nixon impeachment and the appointment of President Ford. Those were the days! To get facts and figures about Mrs. Carter, you should look elsewhere, they are readily available and I'm not going to dig them up for you. 

If I remember correctly, at the very same conference, Joan Rivers may have attended and spoken. I honestly don't remember the eighties very well. I was in my early twenties, and I was determined to make something of myself despite my diagnosis in 1982, of Schizophrenia, Paranoid-type. 

Mrs. Carter's life of goodness, kindness, and toughness, serves as an example of how people should be. We need some more examples like hers. 

A very great but not arrogant man, who I knew personally in the eighties, was a proponent of "leading by example, not by force." And the late Rosalynn Carter, if the history books don't get massively rewritten, will be remembered as being on the correct side of history.b