Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Confronting the President

Two of our former president's wives have new books out. Laura Bush in "Spoken from the Heart" spills the beans about herself - and she looks very beautiful in her interviews.

But I've been a little more interested in Roslynn Carter's book "Within Our Reach - Ending the Mental Health Crisis." Mrs. Carter has had a passion for this cause for almost 50 years.

Did you know that one in four Americans suffers from mental illness?

Probably not because we still try to keep it a secret or ignore it and hope it will go away.

Most interviewers have played softball with Mrs. Carter - most likely because she's 83 years old - but I think she can still handle herself.

In the book she tells a funny story about when Jimmie was running for governor of Georgia. One night when he was campaigning Roslynn got in line to speak with him. He was surprised to see her but she simple said,

"What are you going to do about people with mental illness?"

This reminded me that when Jimmie Carter was first running for president - and nobody knew who he was - he had a room in a hotel in Miami and anybody who wanted could have a private audience with him.

So my husband, Ken, drove to Miami and had 15 minutes alone in a hotel room with future President Carter.

Ken asked Mr. Carter what he was going to do about a whole lot of things.


***