Tag: Public Service

🇺🇸👏😇 ROSALYNN CARTER (1927-2023): HUMANITARIAN, PUBLIC SERVANT, FORMER FIRST LADY — A life lived “with humility, compassion, dignity, patriotism and service at the core was a great blessing to this country.”

 

https://open.substack.com/pub/steveschmidt/p/a-tribute-to-rosalynn-carter?r=330z7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

An appreciation by Steve Schmidt @ Substack:

Rosalynn Carter
Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter speaks at a mental health conference in 1979 (Duane Howell/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

The United States is smaller today because Rosalynn Carter has been called home.

She was our American First Lady, a role she filled with grace, love and compassion. She lived a life of service and dignity. Two generations before Americans started talking about the mental health crisis, she was helping ease suffering from it.

Rosalynn Carter was married to the 39th president of the United States for 77 years. He first saw her as a newborn who had been delivered by his mother, a nurse, peering over the edge of her crib.

Theirs was a love story for the ages. They were an example for all Americans about how to cherish and honor what you love the most.

Jimmy Carter came home from Annapolis in 1945 and fell in love with Rosalynn. It is something to see them both so young at the end of World War II, with their destinies stretching out in front of them.

. . . .

President Carter entered hospice care almost _____ months ago. Many have commented about the fact that Jimmy Carter has lived longer than most imagined he would when the American people were given the news, but no one should be surprised. Would a man of such indomitable will, strength and goodness have been able to leave his wife first?

Of course, such decisions are not ours alone, but in the case of President Carter, I suspect he was uncompromising on the matter. The American people should prepare themselves now that the celebration of both of these remarkable Americans will follow each other quickly. What a lesson they have given all of us about service, love and selflessness.

What Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter did with their lives was monumental. How they lived their lives with humility, compassion, dignity, patriotism and service at the core was a great blessing to this country.

Politics is a brutal business with transcendent moments of grace. Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter provided many. They were peacemakers who served on the world stage, and then went home to where they came from, and served for another 50 years.

We tend to spend a great deal of time in America focused disproportionately on the worst and most wretched amongst us. That is a tragedy of our time. It is also a great and unnecessary punishment inflicted on our children, who are taught too often that there aren’t heroes who walk amongst us anymore. It’s not true. Rosalynn Carter was a hero, and so is her husband Jimmy.

James Earl Carter is a faithful man. Pray for him and Rosalynn today. Pray for him to ease the sadness of a man who was our president, who never broke faith with his love, his family, his oath, his duty or any of us. He is one of us like his beautiful wife Rosalynn. What makes them exceptional is that they have shown after a lifetime of love and patriotism that they have been amongst the best of us.

May God bless Rosalynn Carter and the whole Carter family.

*********************

What true patriotism and public service looks like!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-20-23

Related posts:

  1. DAHLIA LITHWICK REVIEWS NEW BOOK “AMERICAN NERO” ON THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE RULE OF LAW AND AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS UNDER THE TRUMP REGIME!  — Echoes Of Germany In 1939 — “[J]udges, prosecutors and democratically elected officials formed the very backbone of Nazi Germany.”
  2. CHILD ABUSE BY COWARDLY REGIME OFFICIALS RAMPS UP AS COURTS TANK IN FACE OF LATEST ASSAULT ON RULE OF LAW & HUMANITY ☠️ — “This incredibly callous treatment of young migrants as well as their families is part of the Trump administration’s attempt to erase any vestige of due process at the border with Mexico.“
  3. DEMS NEED TO STOP REPEATING THE BOGUS 🤥 NARRATIVES ABOUT THE (LARGELY SELF-CREATED & OVERBLOWN) “SOUTHERN BORDER CRISIS:” Channeling “Courtside,” Yale Schacher Sets Forth A Plan For Using Experts To Not Only Reinstitute But Drastically Improve Due Process ⚖️🗽🇺🇸 For Asylum Seekers! — It’s NOT Rocket 🚀 Science!
  4. 🏴‍☠️☠️ THE RIGHT IS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO AMERICA! — TRUMP, HENCHMEN, PLANNING “NAZIFACATION” INCLUDING CONCENTRATION CAMPS, MASS DEPORTATIONS, SUSPENSION OF CONSTITUTION, STRIPPING CITIZENSHIP! – Immigrants & Muslims Will Be First Targets, But Not Last!

🇬🇧ELIZABETH II  (1926 – 2022) — ONE OF HISTORY’S GREATEST PUBLIC SERVANTS! — She Will Be Remembered For Work Ethic, Strength, Sense Of Duty, Unselfish Leadership!

Elizabeth II and Harry Truman
Elizabeth II & President  Harry Truman in Wash DC, Nov. 1951
PHOTO: Getty Images

Like all of us “boomers,” it’s hard to imagine a world without “The Queen.” I can vaguely remember my parents, grandmother, and aunt glued to our black and white TV in Milwaukee to watch Elizabeth’s coronation. It was the first internationally televised world event, although admittedly the American version was on film, not live.

Elizabeth basically rose from her death bed to perform her final constitutional duty, the appointment of Liz Truss as her Prime Minister. And, she did a good job of it, performing with grace, dignity, and a strength of character that even coming death couldn’t squelch. She wasn’t one to “just go through the motions” — I don’t think the concept “good enough for government work” was in her vocabulary.

Compare Queen Elizabeth’s sense of duty in putting constitution, duty, and service before personal comfort and ego with the sleazy performance of recent world leaders including, specifically, disgraceful, dishonest, selfish, lawless, self-aggrandizing, right wing turkeys 🦃 Trump and Johnson!

Four queens to an ace? Although the overwhelming number of British monarchs have been men, it’s four of the Queens — Elizabeth I, Anne, Victoria, and Elizabeth II — who have proved to most skilled at the position and left the biggest historical footprints (although I’m sure that somewhere in the afterworld, Henry VIII would debate that).

Elizabeth has been succeeded by King Charles III, who spent the longest “period in waiting” of any British monarch. It’s going to be a tough act to follow, but we all wish him well. The Queen is dead; long live the King!🇬🇧👑

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

09-09-22

Related posts:

  1. THE HATER-IN-CHIEF: “Trump has attacked and scapegoated immigrants in ways that previous presidents never have — and in the process, he has spread more fear, resentment and hatred of immigrants than any American in history.”
  2. Immigrants Bridge The Gap With Local Communities — “The Haters Are Always Wrong, And The Haters Will Eventually Lose.”
  3. FRANK RICH @ NY MAGGIE: TRUMP TOADIES WILL FACE A RECKONING — “With time, the ultimate fates of those brutalized immigrant and refugee families will emerge in full. And Trump’s collaborators, our Vichy Republicans, will own all of it . . . .”
  4. JAMELLE BOUIE @ NYT: Is Trump Bringing Back Jim Crow? — This Time All Persons of Color Are Targets For Dehumanization! — “[W]e might be on a path that ends in something that is familiar from our past — authoritarian government with a democratic facade.”

COURTSIDE EDUCATION: INSIDE TODAY’S PUBLIC TEACHING PROFESSION WITH ANNA PATCHIN SCHMIDT — “The morale of teachers is a pretty good gauge for the future of our nation. No one will escape the ramifications of deprioritizing public education.”

Anna writes on Facebook:

I have a question for you. If you learned that the attached quote was functioning as someone’s daily mantra or motivation, what job or endeavor would you imagine that person to be connected to? Perhaps an investigative journalist exposing some hard truths. Maybe a civil rights lawyer. Maybe someone speaking up about an abusive relationship. Perhaps, even, someone gearing up for battle. With that in mind, what does it mean that on a Wednesday morning last week, I came into my classroom and saw this quote on my daily feminism calendar and connected with it so deeply that I had to tape it next to my desk? I am a teacher, people. I work with children. What does that say to you about the conditions that public school teachers are working under? I came in this morning to a quiet classroom, empty of students for the weekend, and only then did I have the rare clarity of mind to see the quote taped there and recognize something: it isn’t right that I need this here; it isn’t normal and it most certainly is not acceptable. Sometimes I feel like I AM gearing up for battle. There are days, weeks, or even months in this profession that are so hard that I question whether I’m going to make it another 25 years. I think I can. I know I want to. But sometimes when I think about my emotional and physical well-being, I wonder if I should keep going. I don’t blame my administrators: they are just finding temporary loopholes in a broken system. I don’t blame parents: teachers are an easy scapegoat when life is hard and unfair. I don’t even blame the students: we raised them, after all. The morale of teachers is a pretty good gauge for the future of our nation. No one will escape the ramifications of deprioritizing public education. And yet, I AM still here. I AM sticking around. Silence from me is only an indication that I have thoughts brewing.

(Disclaimer: It’s sad that I feel a need to point this out alongside every post I make about education, but please do not file this post as reason number 472 why you aren’t going to send your kid to public school. You might have come to that decision for different reasons that I hope have nothing to do with me. I don’t think it’s right to sugarcoat or hide the hard truths about public education just because I’m scared someone will read them and bolt. At the end of the day, I don’t just send my kids to the public school around the corner and teach in another because I think I should- I actually feel fortunate to do so.)

***********************************************

I’m sure there are many U.S. Immigration Judges, Immigration Court Clerks, pro bono lawyers, and other dedicated and talented government employees who feel the same way. Public institutions are essential to a great future. Once destroyed, they won’t easily, if ever, be rebuilt.

***************************************

Anna Patchin Schmidt is a Middle School English teacher in the Public Schools of Beloit, Wisconsin, where she lives with her husband, Professor Daniel Barolsky, and their three children Oscar, Eve, and Atticus.  Oscar and Atticus attend a bilingual program at Todd Elementary School, a Beloit Public School, where Eve will go next year. Anna holds a B.A. and a B.Mus., both with honors, from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin where she was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She received her M.A. in Education from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. She is also certified to teach English Language Learning and did so in the Menasha and Walworth, Wisconsin Public School Systems before joining the Beloit System. She and Daniel are dedicated members of the “Beloit Proud” Movement, and she is also a qualified Doula who has assisted in the delivery of several babies. Anna grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, where she attended Alexandria City Public Schools (as did her brothers, Wick & Will) and graduated from T.C. Williams High School (“Remember the Titans”) with honors, earning 12 varsity letters, rowing on several championship crew teams, and playing oboe in the T.C. Williams Band. She is our daughter.

PWS

01-21-19

Related posts:

  1. DIANE HENDRICKS: AMERICA’S SECOND RICHEST WOMAN’S QUEST TO REVIVE BELOIT, WI!
  2. COURTSIDE GUEST COLUMNIST: ANNA PATCHIN SCHMIDT — “2020 End of School Year Roundup From Beloit, WI”
  3. “Warren Buffett on Immigration Reform: Buffett feels that immigrants (including undocumented ones) have been and continue to be a key part of our prosperity — not a part of the problem.“
  4. JAMELLE BOUIE @ SLATE: TRUMP, SESSIONS, MILLER & THE GOP RESTRICTIONISTS HAVE PUT GOOD OL’ 1920S RACISM AT THE FOREFRONT OF THEIR WHITE NATIONALIST IMMIGRATION AGENDA! –“What good does it do to bring in somebody who’s illiterate in their own country, has no skills, and is going to struggle in our country and not be successful? . . . That is not what a good nation should do, and we need to get away from it.” — J. “Gonzo Apocalypto” Sessions, Attorney General of the United States of America & Unapologetic White Nationalist With A Long History Of Racism!