President Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, has died at age 100.
Carter was President for one term from January 20 1977 to January 20 1981.
President Carter was a great humanitarian. One of his first acts was to pardon all Vietnam War draft evaders. He did that on day two of his Presidency. In his more recent years he became a major figure in Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organisation that builds affordable housing. Carter worked tirelessly for human rights and in 2002 received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Carter’s presidency was hindered by inflation and recession. He had to deal with the Iranian hostage crisis, the negotiation for the Middle East to give the Panama Canal back to Panama and the US fuel crisis, making him an easy target for Ronald Reagan to beat him in the 1980 election.
Jimmy was a distant cousin to the musical family The Carter Family, featuring June Carter. He also had family ties to Motown founder Berry Gordy via a mutual great-grandfather James Thomas Gordy.
For his 100th birthday in September the event Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration In Music was staged in Atlanta. The show featured Carlene Carter, the B-52’s, Dave Matthews, Bonnie Raitt, Garth Brooks and Nile Rodgers.
President Carter became close friends with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, James Brown and The Allman Brothers over his years. His friendship with Dylan dated back before he was President, when he was the Governor of Georgia. Their friendship was Dylan’s influence to convert to Christianity. It was during this period he released the ‘Slow Train Coming’ and ‘Saved’ albums.
Dylan once contributed to a Carter documentary. In it he said, “When I first met Jimmy, the first thing he did was quote my songs back to me. And that was the first time that I realized my songs had reached into basically the establishment”.
Bob said, “He was a kindred spirit to me of a rare kind. The kind of man you don’t meet every day and you’re lucky to if you ever do.”
Jimmy and Bob were lifelong friends.
American currently has four living Presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden and one arse-clown.
President Obama said in a statement:
For decades, you could walk into Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia on some Sunday mornings and see hundreds of tourists from around the world crammed into the pews. And standing in front of them, asking with a wink if there were any visitors that morning, would be President Jimmy Carter – preparing to teach Sunday school, just like he had done for most of his adult life.
Some who came to hear him speak were undoubtedly there because of what President Carter accomplished in his four years in the White House – the Camp David Accords he brokered that reshaped the Middle East; the work he did to diversify the federal judiciary, including nominating a pioneering women’s rights activist and lawyer named Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the federal bench; the environmental reforms he put in place, becoming one of the first leaders in the world to recognize the problem of climate change.
Others were likely there because of what President Carter accomplished in the longest, and most impactful, post-presidency in American history – monitoring more than 100 elections around the world; helping virtually eliminate Guinea worm disease, an infection that had haunted Africa for centuries; becoming the only former president to earn a Nobel Peace Prize; and building or repairing thousands of homes in more than a dozen countries with his beloved Rosalynn as part of Habitat for Humanity.
But I’m willing to bet that many people in that church on Sunday morning were there, at least in part, because of something more fundamental: President Carter’s decency.
Elected in the shadow of Watergate, Jimmy Carter promised voters that he would always tell the truth. And he did – advocating for the public good, consequences be damned. He believed some things were more important than reelection – things like integrity, respect, and compassion. Because Jimmy Carter believed, as deeply as he believed anything, that we are all created in God’s image.
Whenever I had a chance to spend time with President Carter, it was clear that he didn’t just profess these values. He embodied them. And in doing so, he taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service. In his Nobel acceptance speech, President Carter said, “God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace.” He made that choice again and again over the course of his 100 years, and the world is better for it.
Maranatha Baptist Church will be a little quieter on Sundays, but President Carter will never be far away – buried alongside Rosalynn next to a willow tree down the road, his memory calling all of us to heed our better angels. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and everyone who loved and learned from this remarkable man.
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