It can’t be bought, or legislated. If you’re luckier, you know it when you see it. Better yet, you might actually have it! It’s not something easily put on, but it is incredibly easy to lose with even one misstep.
I can name one person today who had it, for one hundred years. Jimmy Carter. Our lives will be poorer for our loss, but richer for having “known” him. Yes, many of us who grew up with him feel like we knew him even though we never met the man. Oh, the Camp David Accord, that was him? Yep. Also the Iranian POW debacle where Iran released the prisoners under brand new president Reagan just to snub the former president. I remember that. I also remember odd and even days to buy gasoline, living just outside the Beltway, even though it would be years until I would be old enough to drive.
In Carter’s “retirement” he accomplished more than most people do in their entire career. He nearly eradicated Guinea Worm, an amazing and little-known fact. Helped spread democracy and fair elections, and hammered more nails for Habitat for Humanity than most grade schoolers could even count.
Yesterday was a sad day, the end of an era. But I literally broke down in tears when I saw the Mike Luckovich cartoon entitled “Eternal Reunion,” where, at the pearly gates, Rosalynn Carter rushes out calling “Jimmy!” to her long-time love, her husband for over 77 years as he rushed into her waiting arms.
Theirs was (is?) a partnership for the ages, based on love, trust, faith and, yes, dignity. I didn’t know until today that Jimmy Carter met his wife literally on the day she was born. If Hallmark is looking for a love-at-first-sight premise that spans a century, here ’tis. Don’t thank me, the info has been sitting out there for decades.
Clara Jeffery wrote an incredible piece in Mother Jones yesterday entitled “Of Misogyny, Musk, and Men” in which she states that women are not fine with the recent presidential election, “we’re furious.” I believe I know why.
By overturning Roe, Trump and SCOTUS not only removed a constitutional right from women, the entire MAGA playbook is centered on removing womens’ dignity. These MAGA voters and those who went along for the Trump II roller coaster ride pride themselves on putting women back “in their place.” Your body. My choice. Forever. Really? In 2024?
I’m a college-educated, white woman in my 60’s who got her first period the same year Roe was decided in 1973. When I was in charge of talent transport for a major cultural entity, I sentenced my misogynistic cousin to a two-hour airport ride with one of my drivers and guest lecturer Betty Friedan. I wish I was a fly on the wall for that conversation.
I simply cannot understand how women can vote to remove rights from other women, and there’s more to come, including a war on mifepristone, contraception and no-fault divorce. Do women really want to see other women die in hospital parking lots? Abandon Texas babies in dumpsters because of the $10,000 bounty law? Be beaten to death by husbands they’re not allowed to divorce?
As a woman of a certain age, I am childless not by choice but circumstance. That said, I do not see the only path for grandmothers as being permanent free childcare for their children’s offspring. Having grandma around is not an excuse for lack of available/affordable child care, child tax credits, free school lunches, equal pay for equal work and other government laws and applicable safety nets. All so that billionaires can get richer off our labor.
Women are not empty vessels, and empty-headed ones at that, whose only role in life is carrying babies and feeding husbands. I’m in a partnership, nearly 25 years now (22 married) where we both bring talents to the table. He’s tall, he reaches the high shelves, I get the low ones. We both write, the other edits. A partnership based on trust, love, faith and dignity.
You can’t take away my rights without a fight. And whatever you say or do, you will not take away my dignity. Generations of women fought for our freedoms. We cannot afford to let them slip away. If I have the hammer, my husband will hand me the nails, same as Rosalynn and Jimmy. Not nearly the same, but they have certainly been an inspiration. Rest in peace, and thank you for sharing your lives with the nation. Yours in dignity, Dee
Cooking with Dee 