All right, welcome to the nonprofits.
For our second story this week, we're going to look on as America mourns the loss of its thirty ninth president. Eli Slack, the man with the plan, give us the loadown on this story.
As Jimmy Carter's memorial service brought five living presidents together in a climate where bipartisan cooperation is increasingly rare, it forces us to reflect on the humility, integrity, and selflessness of Carter's presidency and life thereafter, compared to the egocentric, selfish political climate we find ourselves today. From as humanitarian work to his unassuming demeanor, Carter embodied a style of
political leadership that today feels increasingly distant. Let's discuss and explore how his life and values challenge the current norms of political spectacle and reflect on what public public service should look like. This story is from AP News by Chris Magerian on January ninth, twenty twenty five.
All Right, Eli, thank you for that introduction. There.
You're the youngest member on the panel tonight. What do you know about the life of Jimmy Carter and his presidency and how do you think that impacted young Americans?
Yeah.
Actually, so I didn't know anything about Jimmy Carter.
I was born under Bush Senior, so I had to kind of learn about him.
But I did like he.
He apparently had the longest and most philanthropic post presidency of any president before or since. You know, of course the longest remained you know, still be well, we'll continue to be contested.
But he, you know, he was a diplomatic champion of peace.
He founded the Carter Center, which focuses on human rights, conflict resolution, and public health eradicating infectious diseases and mental health, so like helping provide access to that.
He you know, they helped with.
Hurricane relief, and he he just kind of remained like serving of the people that lived in his country for as long as he could. Sounds like as far as how far how he impacted other people, I honestly couldn't say how he impacted because I wasn't conscious of of these things he had done until now. So I'd have to go back and kind of extrapolate, like, Okay, well what you know stands now as a result of what helped with But I mean, definitely no small amount I would say.
Interesting, Well, you might say that in a way, there wasn't really much impact.
I mean, if it didn't.
Register with you, I suppose there could be some things happening that you're not aware.
Of and I just don't know the source yet, that's right.
And it's not like young Americans are ever oblivious to things going on around them.
Or anything like that.
So you know, it doesn't happen right exactly, Chris, I want to jump over to you here. So it seems that Jimmy Carter was somewhat of an odd duck among American presidents.
What sets him apart from the others.
One of the things I think that set Jimmy Carter apart was that, you know, first of all, he was a peanut farmer. He was more of a down to earth person, I feel than most of the politicians still the word politicians are, and at the time, back in the day between his presidency and just before and then since then, a lot almost all of the politicians are businessmen or lawyers, some of this kind of from that
kind of demographic. And yet Jimmy Carter had this soil of the earth, assault of the earth kind of way about him. And he was one of my earliest memories political memories from whenever I was a kid during the election of nineteen eighty telling you how old I am. Whenever Reagan beat Jimmy Carter for reelection, I believe that was the yes. I was down playing with some friends and whenever, though they're my friends, their parents found out that my mom was for Ronald Reagan. They sent us home.
I wouldn't let it play with their kids anymore. That's one of my first memories. But you know that in my mind is a little kid. I'm like, Oh, Jimmy Carter, you know, But throughout the entirety of his life, I've seen him or my life, I've seen him just be This is probably the best place to say this, but an exemplary Christian, the idea of what a good a good Christian working for the community, being a person. Him and Dali parton, I think, or like the pinnacle of
what a Christian should be. If if every other Christian followed them, we'd have such a better, better world.
True enough, and arguments here and arguments here.
I want to ask this of both of you here, and so let's let's shift the focus a little bit from from Jimmy Carter the man to to to the population, to all of us, right, And so we see a lot of people reacting to this news that he had passed on. Right, there's a lot of people. There's a lot of love and honor coming his way, but many people viewed him as inept and even harmful to the country. But despite those differences of opinion, we see that people from both sides of the aisle are praising the man
after we passed. And that's actually really a very common phenomenon, right, Usually when when people die then you know, ever, but hey, all of a sudden loves them and all of a sudden everything that they did.
You know, why do why do you guys think that we do this?
Why why do we almost always forget the bad things that somebody uh from somebody that has recently died, and we remember and even enhance the good things. Let's start with Eli first. Why do you think that what's what's going on in our brain's there? And I understand that none of us are experts here, but but we can conjecture.
Sure, I've read a little bit about this and and you kind of do this is similar thing like at the end of relationships, right, Like almost all relationships I mean all relationships that end like okay, not all, but like when when two people part ways at the one person's choice, it's never because like everything was great and you know, there was no problems and there was never any bad times. If you look back, you will see the bad times.
But for that person that you know, perhaps was surprised or didn't choose, you know, was it didn't make the choice of far ways, they're going to forget about those things that you know they didn't quite you know, care about so much.
And this is I mean, that's just sort of a thing that we do in human relationships.
We just sort of have a tendency to see more good in people, uh for.
In it not all the time, I guess. And I'm kind of like backtracking the way.
I was gonna say.
I can remember some pretty bad relationships in my life.
Right, And it's sort of thing when we experience loss, I guess is what it is when when when we no longer have something, no longer have access to it, we started to be like, wait, wait, hold on, how does this effect like how is this gonna like.
What's going to be different now?
And then maybe that's more of what it is, like things are going to be different now, like it won't have this positive better I won't have this good benefit, you.
Know, And it's it's more or less extreme to some degree for different people, I think in cases like this, Like for me, I heard like Jimmy Carry, I was like, oh, that was like one.
Of the presidents, right, yeah, that's how old was he? Like, you know, that's sad, but it sounds like it was time.
You know, it was pretty pretty old. So it's you know, but for some people, like it's it hits.
A lot more heavily, So it's it's far be it for me to yet, Like you said, we're not experts.
I'm just kind of conjecturing.
Here, right right, right, Well, one hundred years is pretty pretty good run, I think.
And then yeah, good on them.
Yeah, maybe it was a swing in the hammer all those years or something, you know, it kept them, kept them youthful and invigorated.
Maybe that's it. Maybe that all right?
Well, the new Eli Slack Peanut Diet coming out next week, Chris, what are your thoughts on that?
White Why do you think?
I mean, from what I'm gathering from what Eli was saying, is that maybe this is some kind of defense mechanism or something like that. I mean, does why do you think people are all of a sudden all rosy and peaches?
Is that a phrase? Rosy and peaches?
After somebody passes on and they and they have a tendency to forget about the bad stuff, you.
Know that they're to be honest. There's a couple of things that I think about it. One of them is that it could be actually a reflection on us. It's less about that we want to make It's how we would want to be treated when we passed. When I pass I don't want you to remember the bad things about me. I want you to remember the good things that uphold them to me. I think that kind of has from my perspective, That's how I kind of feel
about it. You know, whenever, whenever it happens, Mandeal, don't sit there about think about that one time you caught me on the camera and deep in my nose, talk about all the times we did good things and had you know, made good points and stuff like that. I think he kind of has that. It's as sad as
it may seem. I feel it's a little bit of a narcissistic, selfish thing that we apply this to other people, even like the antagonist that Jimmy Carter had who didn't care for him necessarily during his presidency, and yet now are going, oh, he was a great man. I think it's kind of the same way. Whenever they pass despite however they engage with everyone else, they want people to gather around and go, he was a good guy.
Oh. So, maybe it's a form of optimism.
Maybe it's a form of wishful thinking or hope for the future or whatever. Oh okay, interesting, All right, Well I want to shift gears here. I'm going to stay with Chris on this question, but I want you to
think about this. So, despite the long standing tradition of honoring deceased presidents by lowering flags on federal buildings to have staff for thirty days, Okay, that's the tradition, there are some that will be refusing to do so because of the inauguration of the incoming regime falls within that thirty day window.
So my question is this.
Just petty dick waving from either or both sides, or is it a reasonable accommodation. If it's the former, is it an indication that this is what American politics would be like from here on out.
You know what, I think it's. I think it is petty. I think it's I think the incoming administration should see it as an honor. They should. They should lift up everything they can about Jimmy Carter and embrace it all and go, hey, there's a brother in arms has fallen and I'm coming into office, and I'm honored to have my inauguration flag flag staff. The part of the deal is the narcissistem of this particular individual. It takes the light away from him, right, and therefore, you know he
doesn't like it. One of the things he already didn't like them. My understanding, he didn't like the notion of a half flag half staff because of it. I don't know. He already didn't liked it for some reason. I don't remember what that particular reason was. Looks bad like injured military people. He doesn't like them either, But I think that kind of has some more to do with it. He really should see it as an honor that he
is bringing. He is taking the mantle at the same time, and should actually honor Jimmy Carter's legacy while he takes his own, make creates his own legacy. I think it's a missed opportunity.
As as a tip of the hat or even a salute to the institution of the presidency.
Yeah, what do you think about that? Eli? Oh? Sorry finished, Chris Well.
I was just gonna say yeah to the institution and of course to the man. You know, now, even Donald Trump, like you have been mentioning here, Donald Trump himself used to speak poorly of him, and now all of a sudden he's going to be be speaking well about him, and he's going to do all this stuff same thing, you know.
So, Eli, I want to put a slight little twist on the on the on the question there.
So, do you think that this is being overplaced?
Do you think that this little schism or whatever you're gonna call it, right, one group saying we want the flags that have staff, the other group saying no way. Do you think that that particular schism is being taken advantage of for political advantage or do you think that it's a legitimate squabble.
I think that every disagreement that ever takes place within the halls of the federal government the United States is always being taken advantage of as much as possible at any given time.
I think, I mean, you'll you see it all.
The time when like there's like major news or major media coverage over some like you know, catastrophic event, and then you'll hear people talking about, like, hey, like in the meantime, Congress did this thing, and it turns out like you know, some new bill that has you know, maybe not passed yet but has some significant change or something, and like you start to consider like what things are distractions and what aren't, and it's almost like the more
they can you start to think about how things are designed to sort of divide people that do have different beliefs, Like they're not only designed to be like, hey, this is why our belief is good.
It's like this is why.
Everybody who disagrees with you is like a horrid piece of shit and you should you.
Know, like and like and why like bad things should have it? Yeah, like I should, but like why bad things are happening them. It's like it's it's the.
Things are kind of being designed to divide people rather than just like educate them, like, hey.
There's these are our beliefs.
So that's just more like what they're kind of continuing to do as long as they can like blow it out of proportion and be like it's this this big of a deal and these people are stopping it or changing it. Then you know there's more division, more feel for that fire.
So do you think it's just the nature of the beast. Then it's just.
Part of politics as usual and this is just the next in line of the next thing that's being take miss you know, misused and taken advantage of for political gain.
I wouldn't say part of politics in general, what I'd say part of USA incorporated. Yes, Okay, I think it kind of like just it.
It's the way things are now, and it's just kind of becoming more and more apparent as as you know, each each week, at each each like new episode of nonprofits.
Right, everything's a dog whistle, Right, everything is a dog whistle in the political sphere. Everything it's it's just like, oh, look at that, look at that, look at that. It's tiring.
I wonder what that says about us as citizens, about about the targets of that of that show, right, or the audience for that particular show. If if I mean clearly that kind of thing works, I mean I mean clearly it's effective otherwise it would.
Have been abandoned a long time ago.
Uh.
Okay, well, you know, I guess we're seems like we're kind of doomed to be on repeat of this kind of thing.
And this is just and you know, we'll see what happens next week.
I guess I wanted to ask about a particular passage in the article that we read, and the passage says this, all politics were not left outside the cathedral, though Biden, who leaves office in eleven days, repeated several times that character was Carter's chief attribute. Biden said Carter taught him quote, everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. And so what stood out to me with that quote was not
necessarily what was said. I mean, that was well within the bounds of what we would expect to hear, you know, in an event like this.
But what stood out to me was the.
Offhand, nonchalant way that they tied politics to everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. That they made that into a political position. They tied it to, you know, one side or the other. And and is that association fair?
Is that fair?
And if so, what does that say about politics in America? If we're taking, you know, moral characteristics and assigning them to one.
Political party or the other. Chris, do you have any thoughts on that?
Well, you know, I kind of do. It does seem based whenever you we look I don't want to use the word objectively, but whenever you look at the methods used by the political party that Biden is actually referencing, you can kind of see where they're coming off. But that's only I mean. Whenever we look back at the history of American politics, there has been mudslinging since day one. We think, I think sometimes we as Americans. Maybe it's because of the way we learn about it in school.
We think about the founding fathers and the politicians leading up to the eighteen hundreds and the nineteen hundreds as some sort of noble, glorious things. But when you go back and look at some of the things they did during their own camps or during their own presidencies. I mean, Johnson, when you've heard about Johnson, he will tell you about his Johnson because he did, you know what I mean, There was a lot and when down that you don't really think about, you know, oh wow, Johnson was it?
Teddy Roosevelt like to wear women's clothes and swim naked in the river behind the White House. People don't think about things like that. There's this, you know, But but nowadays we see our politicians in this stark Oh my goodness, I can't believe they did that or they said that. I think it kind of we forget those things. So yeah, I kind of feel because of my political bents, why
Biden would say that. But really it's really just the one more touchet in a fencing match that has been going back for two hundred and fifty years.
Right, right, Well, I suppose as atheists were used to being slandered and were used to being associated with these negative characteristics. Eli, do you see any comparison there between what's happening and I mean, is this just a different flavor of the type of discrimination that atheists and of course other minority groups experience, or is this is this intended either consciously or unconsciously to exacerbate the divide between us versus them?
I guess is what I'm asking.
I don't know if it is. If I would guess that it's intended to I think it could. I would agree that, you know, to associate the characteristic of like treating people with dignity with one like particular political abiliation.
I guess I don't think that any any ideology, any group is a monolith. There are you know, people who have different stances on different topics for different reasons. So yeah, you're going to find people on either side of any given characteristic.
That do and don't treat people with respected So yeah, if the implication is that you know, like unlike.
Some people around here, then I think that's an unfairy I mean, you can say unlike some people, but like to categorize those.
People as all one group I think would be a misstep, and it would be.
So it's kind of a way of building yourself up by pushing someone else down, even though the things that you say are saying about the other kind of also applies to your group as well, right, I mean, so it's a human thing, not a Republican or a democrat thing, or not as a religious or atheist thing. It's just being human beings. That's what we do, and that this
is just one way of doing it. Okay, All right, Well, I have the most important and most thought provoking question of the evening, right is coming out right now here it is, and we're going to start with Chris, what is your favorite food that features peanuts as the main ingredients?
Oh? Okay, okay, I want to house a main ingredient. See I've been lining this up even getting okay.
If you want to do it as a secondary.
Ingredient, that's okay, thank you, Scott. You don't need to be super strict with that.
I was going to go with a banana split, battle peanuts on top, cheese, some chili.
Wait, hold on, I was with you there for a second. Please tell me you don't chili? Really?
No? No, no, okay, all right, if you were paying attention.
Well I was, but I was shocked. But that was that was close enough that I might have bought it. I might have bought it.
I was selling it. I was a banana split. If you know, if you use to give me an option of anything with peanuts on it, bananas but would be the only thing.
I think, right, Eli, what what's your favorite peanut dish?
I'm gonna go with the Reese's peanut butter cup strong.
Like the extra peanut butter ones, the ones that are.
You do like the extra peanut butter ones.
Okay, so let me ask you this, and this is of course another important question. What is the correct way of eating a Reese's peanut butter cup?
Oh?
I did, like, Yeah, it's it's like a hockey pucked like if you could, if you could hit them at my mouth with like, and I would just Yeah.
However, however, I think you've just stumbled onto the next ACA fundraising event.
We're not gonna have a dunk tank. We're gonna have a slapshot in the eli's face.
Pat Maroon, formerly of the Sailoris, Blues to just slapstick friggain Reese's cups into my face.
Yeah, that would be awesome and horrifying at the same time.
Yea life.
My favorite peanut dish is a dish that I learned how to make when I was in the Peace Corn Africa. It's called domita and it's it's basically it's peanut stew and you make it with chicken and vegetables and chicken broth and an unsalted, unsweetened peanut butter and it's really super delicious. It was my favorite thing that I ate when I was over there.
Are you making your own chili joke?
Really?
Peanut butter and chicken. Then they'll sell, right.
I'll make Chris.
Next time you are in Minnesota, drop me a line, and I will make you some super delicious domita and it would be freaking awesome, all right, And if any of you want domita, well you're not going to get it here.