I saw this quote from President Jimmy Carter pop up on Facebook and decided to use it for my quote of the day:
“When Willie Nelson wrote his autobiography, he confessed that he smoked pot in the White House, one night, when he was spending the night with me,” says the former president in the film, which is directed by Mary Wharton.
“He said that his companion, that shared the pot with him, was one of the servants at the White House. That was not exactly true. It actually was one of my sons, which he didn’t want to categorize as a pot-smoker like him.
There were some people who didn’t like my being deeply involved with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan and disreputable rock ‘n’ rollers. I didn’t care about that because I was doing what I really believed and the response from the followers of those musicians was much more influential than a few people who thought that being associated with rock ‘n’ roll and radical people was inappropriate in a president.”
And how many presidents have gone on to do what he did after his term in office? An honorable man who truly cares about those other than the wealthy few.
How many people in a position like that would have the guts to not only hang out with the “riff-raff” but also say, “yeah, he blamed a nameless, faceless chimney sweep. It wasn’t. My son smoked with Willie Nelson in the White House, survived Willie and then me.” Jimmy is the best kinda hard-head: he always did his own thing with a heart as big as the universe. Some people used to say bad things about him as President, but honestly, the man is so impressive that being president was kind of a blip in his trajectory. For most people, it’s the highest high of their life, for him, having been President is not his legacy. He was President, but he was just a good, solid man who happened to spend 4 years as head of the country. It’s the least impressive thing about him. Honestly, how many people can say that??