A Poem to Jimmy Carter on his birthday

Celebrating you, Jimmy!

President Jimmy Carter was 100 years old last Tuesday. He’s in hospice at home in Plains, Georgia, holding on, he says, so he can cast his vote in the presidential election only a few weeks away.

This takes me back to my first time voting in US elections, a newly minted American. I remember the pride and responsibility I felt in having the vote and in voting my very first time for the re-election of an American president who against all odds had stood on principle, the principle of the self-determination of nations, signing a long-fought-for treaty that would allow Panama sovereignty over the Panama Canal and the Canal Zone territory that cut across its narrow waist. This was a stunning achievement, implemented in stages until completion on December 31, 1999.

Jimmy Carter was only 56 years old when he left the office of President and continued contributing to the world alongside his wife and partner Rosalynn. He is a man of fundamental decency—and action.

Decency and character, these are qualities central to the political choices that we have as Americans in November.

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My poem “Jimmy and Me” was first published in Poets Reading the News: Journalism in Verse on May 19, 2021. In the poem I wove together Jimmy’s life with mine to feature other relevant issues of the time.

Translation of opening line:
I played with kites made with colored paper over a cross of birulí
(birulí-a woody piece of the sugarcane plant)

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Jimmy and Me

jugué con cometas hechas con papel de colores sobre una cruz de birulí

Jimmy is a little boy from Plains
Nací en el hospital Santo Tomás
Jimmy joins the US Navy
Jimmy is elected governor of Georgia on the unpopular anti-segregation platform
Jungles in Panama are used to train American soldiers headed for Vietnam
I have the coveted green card
Neil and “Buzz” land on the moon
I travel to Texas and Mexico working on a fifth grade social studies book for American children
I visit a Mexican family with only one lightbulb
Jimmy becomes the 39^th president of the United States
Jimmy pardons Vietnam War draft evaders on the second day
My first baby boy is born in late September
Right or wrong, I always loved the American G.I.’s
I slip from Spanish into English
Jimmy feels the injustice of Americans owning the Panama Canal in perpetuity
I race home to my American baby on the D train
The Hispanic men on 82 street play dominoes at night
Jimmy lobbies the Senate for a return of the Canal to my small nation
S.I. Hayakawa says “we stole it fair and square”
Jimmy signs two treaties with Panama to return the land that cuts like a cinch belt through the middle of my country
The American Senate passes the bipartisan treaty
People of many nations sit side by side on wood benches facing the judge
I’m an American!
Jimmy is not a favorite American president
Jimmy’s work as president is marked by the failed Iran Hostage Crisis, the Gas embargo, the aggressive Soviets
I can vote
I vote for Jimmy for his second term as president
Jimmy loses by a landslide to Ronnie Reagan
Panamanians are sovereign over their land
I will be responsible for my adoptive country
Jimmy travels to alleviate suffering
He monitors elections all over the world
Jimmy receives the Nobel Peace Prize
Jimmy writes more than 30 books
Panameños enlarge the Canal to fit giant container neopanamax ships
Jimmy is named honorary citizen of Peru
I write one book and many poems
Jimmy says that the US is the most warlike nation in the history of the world
Jimmy teaches Bible study on Sundays

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Please exercise your right to vote.

Tell me what you’re thinking. As always, this is a conversation.