I learned of Rosalyn Carter's passing with great sadness yesterday, just a day or two after I saw the news that she had been admitted to hospice care. I know President Carter is in hospice care himself, but I hadn't understood that his wife was also very ill.

Thanks for writing this nice remembrance of her.

The Carters have been really important to me for a long time as leaders and symbols of decency. As a youth, I was taught to despise them. It's hard to understate how the right reviled Carter. It's hard to understand how the conservative Christian world so strongly condemned such a decent man who seemed actually devoted to the faith they supposedly shared.

But I'll give the whole situation this: I rejected my conservative upbringing, thanks in at least some small part, by watching the Conservative world reject the Carters, both during and after his presidency.

I'm grateful to both of them for helping set an example of acceptance and kindness — a lesson conservatives today desperately need to hear.

I heard both Carters loud and clear as a teenager and young man. I hope others will continue to.

My heart goes out to the whole family for their loss.