Rosalynn Carter once ambushed her husband at a gubernatorial campaign event, demanding he do something about mental-health issues. She’s still at it 39 years later, as she told Jon Stewart last night, despite frustration at the pace of change.
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A seemingly frail Carter showed plenty of steel in talking about how our society has undergone a “reinstitutionalization” — moving people with mental health problems out of asylums and into prisons. “You can get money for prisons, you can’t get money for mental health,” she said, adding that she was frustrated about it.
“You seem actually like you’re about to get violent. I just want to say that there are children watching and I don’t want to have to restrain you,” said Stewart.
But in reality, it was another lovefest. Carter told Stewart, “You say good things.” In return, he said to her, “You are full of goodness.”