Jimmy Carter

The More Things Change

In a musty attic box I found letters of my family in the War
from places like Bull Run and Gettysburg
and places seldom mentioned in the books.

They said Jeb Stuart had praised some of them,
who served a cause and often gave their lives
not knowing how to tell the history they made, except a private's
point of view set down in a simple line or two:

"We have about a half enough to eat, green beef and flour,
but very little salt. Our company left Savannah heading north,
there was a hundred twenty-five of us, but since then
many of my friends have died so now they's only thirty-six left to fight.
I tell you, Mother, I am well but am not satisfied."


James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (Plains, Georgia, EE UU, 1924). Trigésimo noveno presidente de los Estados Unidos.