Bertha and President Jimmy Carter

 

HUD arranged for the local chairpersons of community Boards of projects funded by HUD to travel to Washington and meet President Carter. We had a CDBG grant for Rehab, and the Challenge Grant for El Adobero Yard. The chairperson had to be a low-or-moderate income local resident of the area, that was Bertha, and two staff members could come along.

Bertha, her first time outside of Tucson, agreed to go. The most memorable part of this trip was her exclamations of surprise every time she saw, for the first time in her long life, skyscrapers, immense monuments, extensive green lawns, airplanes, traffic jams, double decked busses, and wide rivers with constant flowing water. On the last day,  outside on the lawn of the White House, standing behind  a rope fifty yards long, the President came out and started walking down shaking the hand of every Board Member, close to two hundred. Staff members were asked to stand to the back, so many were blocking my view. When the President got to Bertha, she was too small for me to see her head, there was suddenly a commotion. Like a ripple effect of vibrating heads, someone was causing substantial apprehension among the security personnel surrounding the President. I stood up to see better. When President Carter shook Bertha’s hand, she took his hand in both of hers, and would not let go. Bertha began to tell President Carter about the Innovative School Program she and a few others were implementing at Carrillo Elementary School, because she said it was a good model for other schools to use. At first, the President wanted to move on, but then, after catching on to what Bertha was saying, he became all ears and stood motionless listening to her all the way to the end. The Secret Service had formed a protective ring around both, but did not interrupt the conversation, or rather Bertha’s monologue. I don’t know how close Bertha was from being shot even though both her hands were clearly visible. Here was a grandmother who had never left Tucson in her life, as two equals, talking one-on-one with the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States, about a project in her school. What a fighter! Not a pushover! We were all very proud of her.