Former ABC Chief White House Correspondent, Sam Donaldson was one of the most controversial reporters that Washington has endured. He was an equal opportunity nuisance, treating presidents of both parties with equal lack of deference. He was especially hard on former president Jimmy Carter, though.
Donaldson told about traveling with Carter to a small village near New Delhi, India to see how the village solved its energy problem. This was at the height of concern over the energy crisis. This particular village solved its energy problem by throwing all the cow manure from its herds into a large pit, then siphoning off the methane gas from the manure to light the village lamps.
So, it came to pass that the reporters and the officials with Carter all stood on the lip of this manure pit inspecting the process. “If I fell in, you’d pull me out, wouldn’t you, Mr. President?” joked Donaldson.
“Certainly,” Carter replied. Then he paused and added, “after a suitable interval.”
If you’ve thought about getting even today, forget it. You cannot get “even”, anyway. You reap what you sow.
Tags: forgiveness, Pres. Carter, Sam Donaldson, strife
While Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, daughter Amy needed help with some homework. It was a Friday and the homework assignment was due on Monday.
A question about the industrial revolution was in the assignment. Neither Amy nor her mother quite understood the question, so mother Rosalyn asked a White House aide to ask the Labor Department.
Sunday afternoon a truck pulled up at the White House loaded with a computer printout. Somebody had assumed it was information the President urgently needed. So the Labor Department had kept a full computer team working all weekend to prepare the information.
When mother Rosalyn was told that the research had cost hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars she was horrified. But it was too late to do anything about it. So the information was used to help Amy complete her homework.
Ever made an expensive mistake? We all have. The importance of mistakes is the lessons learned. Learn them well.
Oh, by the way, on that homework assignment – Amy got a ‘C’.
Tags: homework, mistakes, Pres. Carter, school
While Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, his daughter, Amy, brought a homework assignment home one Friday night. Stumped by a question on the Industrial Revolution, Amy sought help from her mother. Rosalynn was also fogged by the question and, in turn, asked an aide to seek clarification from the Labor Department. A “Rush” was placed on the request since the assignment was due Monday.
Thinking the question was a serious request from the President himself, a Labor Department official immediately cranked up the government computer and kept a full team of technicians and programmers working overtime all weekend…at a reported cost of several hundred thousand dollars. The massive computer printout was finally delivered by truck to the White House on Sunday afternoon and Amy showed up in class with the official answer the following day.
Its amazing what authority a person can have when we are acting under the authority of one higher than ourselves. Whose authority are you under?
By the way, Amy got a “C” on the paper.
Tags: humor, Pres. Carter