Part of the fallen human condition is the desire to put oneself first. A baby cries when he or she needs food, to be changed, doesn't feel well, or needs to be held.

As they grow, most children quickly learn how to get their way with their parents, whether it is looking cute, whining or throwing a fit. It is always interesting to observe this behavior as I shop. 

As one grows older, reality begins to set in and we realize that no one gets everything they want or their own way all the time — and, indeed, it wouldn't even be beneficial to get everything a person may desire.

This can be a difficult lesson at times, but one we all need to learn. 

Our sinful nature seeks its own desires, but in Philippians 2:3-4, we read, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."

Think of how much nicer life would be if we followed this premise, to look out for the interests of others. No murder, no stealing, no violence — what an amazing life that would be.

There are certainly times when we need to insist on getting our own way. For instance, when we get an inferior or defective product, should the company be reluctant to make the transaction right, we need to insist it be replaced. 

If someone working on our cars or homes does a poor job, then we need to insist the job be done correctly. Many times this requires that we speak up and make our needs known and that we not back down.

There are certain people who exemplify selflessness and put others first, sometimes at the expense of themselves. Part of being an adult means giving up one's own rights, and this is demonstrated by parents toward their children.

I think of the many Crestview teachers who devote extra time, energy and resources to help their students and I thank them.

A person who exemplifies selflessness, love and kindness, through both her teaching in Crestview, as well as her work at her church, was Bertie Ann Curenton.

May the Lord comfort her family and friends upon her departure from this earthly life to her heavenly home.

Janice Lynn Crose, a former accountant, lives in Crestview with her husband, Jim; her two rescue collies, Shane and Jasmine; and two cats, Kathryn and Prince Valiant.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: The importance of selflessness

I’m so old I remember when conservatives cared about the annual budget deficit and the national debt.

Just kidding, they only care when Democrats control Congress or the White House.

During times of Democratic leadership, deficit spending dominates every campaign ad and most nightly news cycles. Liberals wasting money is a big deal.

Sean Hannity was apoplectic about President Barack Obama raising the national debt a little more than $1 trillion a year during his tenure. As early as 2010, Fox News used a national debt clock to show the number growing to $13 trillion. When Obama left office a year ago, our country’s debt was more than $19 trillion.

Thanks to an improving economy, in his last four years, Obama’s deficits averaged less than a half trillion dollars per year.

In President Donald Trump’s first year with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, you would expect a huge improvement over the eight years of liberal leadership.

You would be disappointed.

Not only has the pace of the national debt continued under President Trump, it has accelerated. And if you liked the deficit spending of Trump’s first year, you will love the next one. The "big win" of giving tax cuts to the donor class and corporations is already having a negative effect. It isn’t good for debt when spending stays the same and revenue drops for any reason. In a better economy, Congress decided to lower revenue on purpose.

Now we are facing the next debt-ceiling limit of $20.5 trillion about six weeks earlier than expected.

Even if you believe in trickle-down economics, you have to understand that there is a reason they don’t call it floodgates open economics. Passing a tax cut won’t have immediate effects. Companies will make rapid cuts when an outside factor causes profits to decrease. But it takes CEOs and boards of directors a lot longer to decide to expand operations because those factors turn in their favor.

Believe it or not, sometimes they don’t expand at all and they just enjoy more profits for themselves and their shareholders and never do anything that creates growth to help repay lost revenue from tax cuts.

Look at Oklahoma and Kansas. They did the same thing Trump and the Congress did with the same flawed logic. Seven years into the terms of Mary Fallin and Sam Brownback — who recently took a job in the Trump administration — both states are still dealing with the long-term effects of lost revenue.

None of the great waste crusaders from either state has identified enough government waste to make a dent in the revenue they stopped collecting. The tax cuts they enacted have done little to help expand the economy to make up the deficits.

Forced cuts to education and other essential state services have become a normal part of every legislative term.

That won’t happen to Trump and Congress. They don’t have to balance their budget — and it isn’t likely they ever will. John Boehner helped enact a measure that any increase in the debt ceiling would be matched with equal spending cuts. Those rules have been unwound in the past couple of years by the GOP Congress.

The only plan being discussed right now includes cuts to entitlements like Medicaid and Medicare as well as Social Security.

Any change will require 60 votes in the Senate and the Republicans are far from that. They were aware of that fact when they passed the tax cut bill. So we have another policy in place that will accelerate the annual deficit and add to the national debt faster than anytime during the Obama administration.

Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell knew what they were doing when they did it. When Obama signed the checks, the national debt was a big deal. With Trump’s name on the line, Congress is signing blank checks and watching the national debt grow rapidly and the debt ceiling crashing down on us faster than expected.

It is irresponsible and far from conservative.

Kent Bush is publisher of the Shawnee (Oklahoma) News-Star and can be reached at kent.bush@news-star.com.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Recent tax cuts driving debt

During the Obama years, the State of the Union address was a divisive and arrogantly partisan lecture by a smooth-talking president. He lectured Supreme Court members so much that some stopped attending. Hopefully, this year we can focus not on the messenger but on the message, which seems to be working together on immigration and rebuilding our infrastructure.　

During past Statist of the Union speeches, Joe Biden dutifully sat behind the president and clapped on cue to his liberal laundry list. The highly excitable "Plugs" Biden looked so happy — it was as if he had just heard that Rogaine had gone generic. This year, VP Mike Pence sat there uncomfortably without his wife, ever fearful that that vixen Ruth Bader Ginsberg might be trying to seduce him. 

Trump’s speech was great. Apparently his staff had him on his teleprompter and a shock collar in case he went off it. The Democrats sat with the worst looks on their faces; they looked like patients waiting for test results in the lobby of a free clinic. 

Democrats try to pit those who work for a living against those who vote for a living. They take from the makers and give money to the takers in exchange for the takers' votes — often twice in one election.

It is easy to lavish other people’s tax money on people in order to stay in power. It’s much harder to stand on principle and make the hard, long-term decisions that are best for the country. Trump, while indelicate and not nearly the messenger Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were, knows that most people want to earn their money and enjoy the sense of self-worth that comes with a good job in a growing economy.  

Even when liberal NPR points out that African-American unemployment is now at 6.8 percent, the lowest level since government started keeping track of it in 1972, Democrats' instinct is just to push back. Pelosi and Schumer would probably point out that this statistic is untrue; actually, black unemployment was zero under Democrat President James Buchanan, whom Republican Abraham Lincoln succeeded in 1860. 

Thanks to the Dems' petulant nature, we had the three-day "Schumer Shutdown," but no one knew the government was not working. The NSA had to ask Americans to spy on each other for three days. The shutdown was bad timing for the Democrats. With regulations lifted, stock markets soaring, jobs created and corporations giving pay raises and bonuses to employees, who needs government? 

If Trump could bring our troops home by convincing Russia it is their turn to invade Afghanistan again, he might get on Mount Rushmore.  

Democrats need people from a perpetual underclass whom they can convince have been wronged by America. To them, America is a mean-spirited, bigoted, racist place of inequality, and they want illegal immigrants to come here and enjoy it.

In reality, Dems are running out of victimization voters and need to replenish their base. We just had a black president. What’s next? A black American divorcee is marrying into Britain's Royal Family. Clutch my pearls!

The race card is overplayed; we’ve moved past that. Yet all 52 cards in the Democrats’ deck are the race card. They don’t even have to deal off the bottom of the deck anymore. 

Obama never did a deal with the Republicans. Trump may be the easiest president to do a deal with since Tip O’Neal and Ronald Reagan agreed on important legislation. Yet the Democrats continue to entrench themselves further left. Trump is willing to meet them on an agreement on DACA (a.k.a. the "Dreamers"), yet they backstab him by going to the press after private meetings and say he called the countries we take most of our immigrants from "S-holes." That is like being allowed to stay free in a hotel, burning it down, and then disputing your mini-bar bill.

With their hysterical Russian collusion investigation coming up snake-eyes, Democrats are running out of ways to obstruct Trump. He gets around pathetically biased media reporting by Tweeting, mostly to inform people, but also to tweak the nose of the media. 

The Grammys predictably trashed Trump with Hillary reading from the tabloid book Fire and Fury. Next will be the Michelle and Barack Obama book on which Random House gave them a $59.5 million advance. It's more bad news for Democrats; even Barack and Michelle Obama are making tons of money under Trump.

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: State of the Disunion 'Americans are Dreamers too'

For more than 90 years, Americans have seen the month of February as a time to remember the rich and diverse history of African Americans as we celebrate Black History Month.

The achievements of African Americans touch every community and are found in every field of study, including science and technology. This is a time to remember the sacrifices and hard work of individuals who helped build a better and more tolerant life, both past, present and future, for all of us.

As we acknowledge the many African-American men and women who have helped the United States grow culturally, countless civil rights pioneers in Florida have been equally as important and should be reflected upon as agents of change in our own state.

The appointments of Justice Peggy Ann Quince, the first African American woman appointed to the Florida Supreme Court, and the late Leander Shaw, Jr., the first African American to become Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, both helped to pave the way for countless young black lawyers who might not have had the chance to practice law and reach all levels of the state’s judiciary.

For the last six years, the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame has honored individual Floridians who made great sacrifices and helped foster equality for all in our state. These heroes, including last year’s new inductees, Patricia Stephens Due, Dr. Arnett Elyus Girardeau, Sr. and Willie H. Williams, were recognized for their unyielding commitment to equality, diversity and human dignity.

Today’s African Americans have much to celebrate and build upon as they honor those who have gone before them.

Black History Month gives us the opportunity to recognize the many ways these individuals who have enriched Florida's communities, culture and history. 

Latanya Peterson is the vice chair of the Florida Commission on Human Relations.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: February is a time for reflection, celebration

Gulf Power no longer accepts payments at their offices in Northwest Florida. I have never heard of a utility company refusing to accept payments at their business offices in any state in which I've lived.

[The company] can spin this decision, but the bottom line is that they are hurting the elderly and the poor. Per their chat representative, less than 10 percent of their customers paid their bills in the office.

They offer a variety of ways to pay one's bill, most of which cost money.

Those who mail their payment need to make sure it will arrive on time to be posted to their account so it isn't late. I'd recommend seven to 10 days. Gulf Power states they post all payments the day they are received.

Or you can call and give them all your checking information, which they will keep on file; or you can have "auto pay," which allows monthly access into your checking account to pay the bill.

[The company] had breaches at several of their kiosks, yet one is supposed to trust them with their checking account?

Gulf Power Communications Manager Jeff Rogers said, "So instead of people coming to us, having to make a special trip to Gulf Power, we're coming to them. They'll be able to pay at Winn-Dixie, Walmart, Walgreen's, Publix, through Western Union and through CheckFree Pay." (Source: http://weartv.com/news/local/gulf-power-closes-payment-kiosks)

What Mr. Rogers failed to say in his statement is that this "convenience" will cost an extra $18 per year, which might be the difference in a senior's prescription or not.

If one would like to use a debit or credit card, Gulf Power has contracted with a third party that charges a $2.25 service fee. These payment methods hurt people on fixed incomes or those [who] live paycheck to paycheck. If one pays this fee every month, it would cost $28 per year, the cost of several gallons of milk.

For those who pay through their banks, the bank sends an electronic transfer.

All others must either trust Gulf Power with total access to their checking account, send their payments seven days before they are due, or pay a monthly fee.

People like my niece — who is divorced with four children, and lives paycheck to paycheck — don't have extra money. They are barely scraping by.

Shame on Gulf Power for adding extra charges to those most vulnerable, the poor and the elderly. Why make it so difficult to pay one's power bill? There must be a better solution.

Janice Lynn Crose, a former accountant, lives in Crestview with her husband, Jim; her two rescue collies, Shane and Jasmine; and two cats, Kathryn and Prince Valiant.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Gulf Power's payment methods come with additional costs

Because it is largely government-funded, higher education has become an overpriced failure full of left-leaning political cronies. 

Bloated colleges with tenured professors who seek to indoctrinate, rather than educate, diminish our country. Kids leave college under-educated and frustrated, espousing illogical social causes that cause them to be humorless and angry. 

If being perpetually offended paid, they would be able to pay off  their massive student loans. These wrongly educated folks  show up to a Confederate statue protest in a Volkswagen, shouting "Resist the Nazi extremists!"  —  and don't see the irony.

The gig is up.

The fraud of higher education is built on student loan debt. Since any 18-year-old who can fog a mirror can now get a huge student loan, our nation has more student loan debt than credit card debt ($1.3 trillion, with 6 million debtors in default).

Millennials who do not feel they are adults until age 26 dutifully take out student loans for inane degrees that land them bitter, broke and working at Starbucks. At 18, most of these kids would finance a tattoo; it’s almost loan-sharking to make them sign away their futures at that age. But government does it, so it must be OK — right?

Parents’ basements are full of millennials with tons of debt. And employers, even in a much-improved job market, are unwilling to hire knuckleheads. If the tenets of free market economics were applied to education, kids would not be tenants in their parents’ basements rent-free. The arrogance of some of these kids — they walk around their parents' basements like they rent the place!

Millennials are so misled in college that real life can depress them. They turn to opioids. But they would never snort cocaine, because the powder on the mirror would obscure their view of themselves. Uber has caused  these kids' drunk driving acumen  to atrophy. Smart phones at the Google-ready weaken them. In my day, if you lost someone at the mall, he or she was just gone.

A USA Today poll showed that 26 percent of college grads move back home. Upon hearing the poll news, their parents did something special for their snowflakes because they were so proud of them for completing that three-question survey.

Trump saw something missing in this racket of a government-funded education system: He wasn’t getting a cut. He tried to get into the business, doing a better job at it for a lower price than most universities. The students, including the lead plaintiff in the politically motivated case against his Trump University, gave him positive reviews.

Partisan prosecutors in NYC blasted Trump University as a scam. But say what you will, a degree from Trump U. was worth more than a Gender Studies degree from Wellesley.

What the media are not telling you about is how the Clintons, smelling money, shook down the "higher education" system with the grift teamwork for which they are so well known. While Hillary tried to paint Trump as a greedy businessman, the Clintons wet their beaks in the higher education scam.

The Daily Caller (and a few other organizations still willing to practice journalism) offered a detailed report on how Bill Clinton was paid $16.5 million from a company that runs for-profit colleges. It is further purported that Hillary Clinton’s State Department funneled $55 million in tax dollars to that company. All of this is detailed in Peter Schweizer’s book "Clinton Cash."

"Charities" fit liberals perfectly. It’s like being a Democrat: You act like you are doing for others, when in fact you are taking from others to do for yourself. The Clinton Family Foundation was no more than a shakedown vehicle to launder money for funding the Clinton lifestyle. Uranium One is the real "Russian collusion."

The education game is easy. Like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s government-backed loans, which caused the great recession and the housing meltdown, easy federal money fuels the disaster. You just get regulators (government cronies) to approve your school. The feds then feed loan money to any stoner whom the college can talk into enrolling. There is no accountability as to your outcome. You keep the money, and the student and government (i.e., taxpayers) take the loan risk.

Many universities  seem like such shams that their commencement speaker should be Bernie Madoff.

For most expensive colleges, especially the one the Clintons were involved with, the school mascot should be a pigeon.

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

—

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this column unfairly attributed the student debt crisis to a single private lender.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Next on Trump's agenda: address the educrats' college monopoly

On Dec. 28, Army Pvt. Emmanuel Mensah, an immigrant from Ghana, died rescuing neighbors from a burning apartment building in Brooklyn, New York.

Kwabena Mensah said of his late son: “It was in his nature. He wanted to help people out.”

Right now, we’re in the throes of debating how the U.S. should gauge who’s “worthy” to emigrate here. Some Americans who want to curtail the number of low-skilled immigrants are people whose own ancestors couldn’t have cleared such a bar.

Last checked, Emma Lazurus’ poem did not read: “Give me your professors, your surgeons, your Ph.D.s, yearning to get tenure.”

From the White House to the Golden Gate Bridge, it was working-class immigrants of all races and enslaved blacks who literally built this country.

During a recent meeting on immigration, the president disparaged several poor countries and asked why there weren’t more applicants from, oh, say, Norway, which has free college, nearly free health care and an overall better quality of life than the U.S.

Come here for what?

The president’s defenders say it’s about merit, not race or national origin, but he’s never called Slovenia what he called El Salvador and Haiti.

Squirt guns and goulash

If it’s truly about merit, we should be rolling out the red carpet for Nigerians, who are vastly more educated than most native-born Americans. In fact, according to the U.S. Census, 41 percent of immigrants who arrived here between 2010 and 2015 were college graduates, compared to 30 percent of us.

As a child, my neighborhood was filled with immigrants. The Lebanese family who owned and operated our corner store knew us kids by name.

The Italian woman who owned the pizza shop nearby struggled with English, but she knew enough about America to take a chance on it.

There was nothing better than the smell of fresh bread from the Greek-owned bakery on my way to school. A family whose kids couldn’t speak a lick of English when they arrived vaulted to the top in math class because numbers are a universal language.

The kindness shown to us by Mr. and Mrs. Barber, who hailed from Hungary, was not diminished by their broken English. Their trinket store was a treasure trove of firecrackers, yo-yos, fake packs of gum that snapped your fingers and squirt guns, which the teachers confiscated every spring.

None was rich nor highly skilled, as I could see. But by bringing their culture, traditions and faith with them, they infused new blood and new flavors into the neighborhood.

Both feet

There has never been a time when millions of Americans left this country and all they knew in order to find a better life elsewhere, which tells us immigrants understand something about America that we’ve forgotten.

The immigrants I know have jumped into America with both feet. Who would we be without founding father Alexander Hamilton, architect I.M. Pei or Sergey Brin, a child refugee who grew up to become co-founder of Google?

Immigrants confirm what we know to be true: America, in its most perfect form, isn’t defined by race but by ideals.

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens describes himself as a “holer,” that is a descendant of immigrants and refugees who wouldn’t meet the administration’s standards for desirable newcomers. In a recent column Stephens wrote:

“Are you of Irish descent? Italian? Polish? Scottish? Chinese? Chances are, your ancestors did not get on a boat because life in the old country was placid and prosperous and grandpa owned a bank. With few exceptions, Americans are the dregs of the wine, the chaff of the wheat. If you don’t know this by now, it makes you the wax in the ear.”

Emmanuel Mensah, by the way, wasn’t some celebrity athlete or millionaire banker.

He was simply a soldier who loved his adopted country enough to serve it.

Reach Charita M. Goshay at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Immigrants are our kind of people

What a weather rollercoaster we have been on here in the Crestview area, and in most areas of our country.

Unfortunately, as I have gotten older, the cold bothers me more. I am glad I live in Crestview and not northern Maine — brrr.

My husband, Jim, is from Minnesota, and it is apparent when you see our pajamas. I am dressed in fleece or sweats, socks and a beanie, and he is in lightweight cotton pajamas.

For some reason, I freeze when it is bedtime, so I bundle up my blankets as though I will be sleeping outside at the North Pole. Jim calls my nighttime sleeping attire my "Minnesota negligee," claiming it is all the rage in frozen Minnesota.

After I bundle up in my "negligee," I add another couple of blankets to my side of the bed and go find the cat. Once I snuggle down, I take the top blanket and drape it over my head so that only my face shows. The heater is set at a cool 70 degrees.

The cat, being a cat, jumps and weaves in and out of the covers, which means I have to keep arranging my nest. In the meantime, Jim is reading his Bible, or in some instances, soundly sleeping, unaware of my blanket issues.

I finally get to sleep, and around 3:30 a.m. the cat decides to wake me. Sometimes I can go right back to sleep but inevitably, I get up, give the cats fresh water and food and then go back to bed.

Once again, I am cold so I try to warm up with all of the above steps. There are nights when I wiggle and fuss with the blankets so much that Jim gives up and goes into the guest room so he can get some sleep.

Around 5 a.m., I finally begin to warm up. Half-awake, I decide it's too hot, so I toss off one of the mountain of blankets. About a half-hour later, I take off my socks, then I throw off another blanket, and another and by the time Jim gets up, I am down to the amount of blankets he sleeps under, and I finally feel warm, until the cat leaves.

Is it just me, or does anyone else play blanket wars all night long?

Janice Lynn Crose, a former accountant, lives in Crestview with her husband, Jim; her two rescue collies, Shane and Jasmine; and two cats, Kathryn and Prince Valiant.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Blanket wars in wintry weather

People can often "misunderestimate" just how hard it is to be a "very stable genius" all the time. So it is with President Trump, battling hyperventilating and relentless media, unencumbered by the truth, that are out to destroy him.

For the few of us who write political humor op-eds, he provides more satire material in one day than No-Drama-Obama did in a year.

Here’s just this week’s material:

You know the material is flowing fast and furiously when porn star "Stormy Daniels," it is reported, took $130,000 in hush money from a president and it does not make the front page of most papers. If you wonder why someone at that level would want to be associated with such a seedy and miserable business, no one has asked Stormy why she got involved.

Then there was a fire at the Clinton home in Chappaqua, NY around the time there seemed to be an actual Department of Justice investigation into the Clinton Crime Family Foundation. The fire was probably started by all the paper shredders running at the same time. But not to worry, Democrats: I have it on good authority that the fire was confined to Hillary’s bedroom, so Bill was never in peril.

Then Trump had a very nice, televised meeting with Democrats and Republicans trying to come to some mutual agreement on immigration and DACA. It was a glimpse of the president's willingness to work with Democrats on important issues. Trump was cool, measured, reasonable and in command, which drove the media nuts. PMS-NBC and CNN were so upset they are making a case, quoting unnamed sources, that Trump colluded with Dale Carnegie.

The president said of the "Dreamers," illegals here under DACA so they can study at our colleges, that he wanted legislation addressing their status. He called it "A Bill of Love," which also happened to be President Clinton’s secret service code name. Trump later summed up what many wonder about our immigration policy, "Why do we take so many from s—hole countries?" Then Dicky Durbin double-crossed him and went to the press about a confidential meeting. No wonder nothing gets done in D.C.

Trump gets into a dust-up with Lil-Kim Jong-un over whose nuclear button is bigger. To be fair, who among us men has not speculated on whether our button is bigger than a rival's? Trump punctuates the fight by saying that at least his nuke button works. Hawaii is then panicked when its government mistakenly sends out a distress message that they are being nuked. The Hawaii state employee responsible was given the most severe punishment a state employee can get: reassignment to a similar position at full pay.

So, with all the incompetence of government (especially North Korea's), Kim Jong-un could push a button thinking he is ordering office supplies and we end up  in an all-out nuclear war — all this about the same time that South Korea hosts the Winter Olympics, perhaps to be renamed the Nuclear Winter Olympics.

The awards season has started with the Golden Globes. Legend has it that if the stars come out and do not see their reflections in a mirror on this day, we are in for another 10 months of award shows. Going forward in Hollywood, the format and criteria this year will change. Actresses will be judged more on the quality of their performances, not just on their willingness to watch Harvey Weinstein shower.

Stars wore "Time's Up" buttons. They love fashionable worries. On the red carpet, James Franco hugged a co-star from his recent movie when he saw her. The trial starts Monday.

Oprah intimates she might run for president and celebs rail against Trump. I am surprised that Americans do not take more of their moral, political and reasoning from today's celebrities. Early in their careers, many of them got GEDs while they were auditioning for roles in Hollywood. As we all know, good-looking people are just smarter than we are.

Then, we have the Dems’ perpetual plan to heal the racial divide on MLK Day the same way they always have: by calling anyone who disagrees with them "racist." MLK would be a RINO by today’s standards. Black Caucus members are also boycotting Trump’s State of the Union Speech.

Trump says he does not want them or celebs to attend anyway and is "choosing" not to invite, much the same way I "chose" not to attend my high school prom with our homecoming queen.

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: A week in the life of a 'very stable genius'

ATLANTA — In 1970, Canadian Neil Young told “Southern Man” to “keep your head, don’t forget what your Good Book said,” and some Southern men took offense. Jacksonville, Florida, rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd responded, in “Sweet Home Alabama,” that “I hope Neil Young will remember a southern man don’t need him around.“

Both songs became hits that are still played decades later. At the time, they exposed a fissure between Northern longhairs and Southern longhairs. Northerners often assumed that all Southerners were white and all white Southerners were racists. Southerners resented being stereotyped by jerks who knew nothing about them. Faced with injustice in their backyard, they raised the Confederate flag and turned their anger toward Northern elites, and not for the first time.

They set off an argument over Northern condescension and Southern defensiveness that has never really ended.

But amid all the caricatures, some important Southern men were all but erased. They were white men, born into a Jim Crow world, who knew it was wrong and tried to make it better.

Jimmy Carter is one of those Southern men. He grew up on a peanut farm in tiny Plains, Georgia, where his best friends were the African-American children of tenant farmers on his father’s land. It bothered him, he says, that his black playmates couldn’t go to his school.

Carter’s father, a pillar of his church and community, was a strict segregationist. But his mother, a nurse, served patients of all races. “Miss Lillian” Carter was broad-minded and idealistic – she joined the Peace Corps at age 68 – and passed those traits on to her oldest son.

When his father died, Carter quit a promising Navy career to return to Plains, where he said he could do the most good. He grew the family peanut business and got involved in local politics just as the Civil Rights movement was polarizing small towns and cities alike. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council (part of a network of white supremacist organizations) prompting the segregationists to boycott his peanut business. He got elected chairman of the Sumter County School Board, where he advocated for school integration.

After two terms in the Georgia Senate, Carter ran for governor against Lester Maddox, a segregationist who gained national notoriety for chasing black would-be customers out of his restaurant with an ax handle. Carter lost, but he ran again four years later and won. His first act as governor was to declare that “the time for racial discrimination is over.“

Southern man Jimmy Carter flipped Georgia from a white supremacist state to one where every citizen was equal. Of course, he had help from other, now-famous Georgians — Andrew Young, Atlanta’s first black mayor; Rep. John Lewis; and Martin Luther King — and ones whose acts of principle went mostly unnoticed.

Similar transitions played out in those years in every county courthouse and state capital in the South. Jim Crow was buried, a better South was born, and it was Southern men – black and white – who did most of the heavy lifting.

Carter’s presidency is mostly forgotten now. He won the White House in 1976 as a reaction to Richard Nixon and lost four years later to Ronald Reagan. In office, he was blamed for everything that went wrong and given no credit for things that went right. He was ridiculed on late-night TV and used as a punching bag by his political opponents. That’s what we do to our presidents.

But Carter’s post-presidency, a record 35 years and counting, has been something else. Through the Carter Center, he and his wife, Rosalynn, have roamed the world mediating disputes, encouraging democracy and observing elections from Timbuktu to Kathmandu. They’ve been leaders in efforts to remove the stigma from mental illness and eradicate awful diseases – guinea worm and river blindness – that bring misery to the poorest of the poor in Africa and Central America. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, not for being the U.S. president, but for his work since then as a global citizen.

At 93, Jimmy Carter still teaches Sunday school in Plains. He still writes a book a year, his main source of income because, unlike other ex-presidents, he takes no money for making speeches or serving on boards. He still pounds nails, building houses for needy families through Habitat for Humanity. And he’s now free of the cancer that, two years ago, had spread to his liver and brain.

Carter’s presidential library in Atlanta is a low-profile building nestled in a wooded landscape, reflecting the humility of the man it honors. There’s no statue of the former president inside, just the story of a Southern man who never forgot what the Good Book says, and is still making the world a better place.

Rick Holmes can be reached at rick@rickholmes.net. You can follow his journey at www.rickholmes.net. Like him on Facebook at Holmes & Co, on follow him on Twitter @HolmesAndCo.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: How Jimmy Carter changed Georgia and the world