Civility and love will be Carter’s gentle legacy
The holiday dedicated to the nation’s presidents is never a celebration, despite all the patriotic-sounding sales held over the weekend.
It was particularly solemn this week because former President Jimmy Carter, 98, a man who in his post-presidency became a model of decency, democracy, productivity and humanitarianism, went home to die.
At 98, he’s the longest living president and longest married, spending nearly 77 years with fellow humanitarian Rosalynn Carter.
For many, his work in the White House and afterward made him one of the nation’s greatest presidents.
For me, he was an example to all of us. Even now, he’s leading us, teaching us how to exit with calmness, peace and fearlessness.
Deciding to halt medical interventions and receive palliative hospice care at home was both powerful and heartbreaking. But it was unsurprising that he would make such a courageous decision.
His grandson Jason Carter, who chairs the Carter Center’s board of trustees, reassured those who’ve long admired and appreciated the former president’s service.
“They are at peace and, as always,” he said of his grandparents, “their home is full of love.”
Those who know him best have come forward in these last days to say Carter has long been at peace, especially about his mortality.
His faith has always assured him, they say, not to fear death but to make the most of life — his own and that of others.
He has lived to work, love and give. He has stayed longer than most to teach us to fight good fights. He remained to both lead and follow.
He wore a tool belt longer than he wore a suit. He was a nuclear physicist and a Sunday school teacher.
A son of the South, Carter descended from plantation owners who owned slaves and fought for the Confederacy. He fought for civil and human rights and social justice, suffering politically for it.
The 39th president of the United States helped bridge the pain of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal which ended with Richard Nixon’s resignation.
Carter defeated Gerald Ford, with whom he became friends. Former President Ford welcomed Carter to the White House. Carter held office for four years and lost his re-election to Ronald Reagan.
On his last day in the White House, Carter finally brought a 444-day hostage crisis to an end with the release of 52 U.S. diplomats in Iran.
It was an albatross, as were inflation and an energy crisis, but he negotiated a historic peace between Israel and Egypt in the Camp David accords. The photograph of him with Anwar el-sadat and Menachem Begin will remain an important moment.
But it was Carter’s postpresidency for which he’ll be most remembered.
He was 56 when he left office and spent the rest of his life in service. Through the Carter Center, he helped negotiate the end to conflicts and prevented others.
The center continues to promote democracy, monitoring free, fair elections and helps provide treatment to the world’s
poorest people, primarily in Africa. Carter and his center have been credited with helping to bring Guinea worm disease almost to extinction.
For this work, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
He came across as a down-toearth peanut farmer, and his presidential campaign stressed those Southern roots.
But he studied nuclear physics, was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served aboard a nuclear submarine for seven years.
The U.S. Navy renamed a building at the academy in his honor. The USS Jimmy Carter is a $3.3 billion nuclear submarine.
He was a writer, taught at Emory University for more than three decades and authored more than 30 books, including “Beyond the White House:
Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope,” “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power” and “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”
He wrote poetry and wrote for children. He wrote about his love of the outdoors and his sassy mother.
One of his biographers described Carter as the most dedicated, hard-working and intelligent U.S. president of the 20th century.
For decades, Carter taught Sunday school at a small Baptist Church in Plains, Ga. He flew commercial flights, sometimes greeting every passenger on board, toothy grin and all. He modeled decency.
He was devoted to Habitat for Humanity, and with his wife served as a volunteer for more than 35 years. He once showed up, tool-belt ready, after suffering a fall and sporting a
black eye.
The Carter Center was closed for Presidents Day weekend, but people still showed to pay tribute.
On Twitter, some recalled he left the White House with disastrous approval ratings and that he considered Donald Trump an illegitimate president because of Russia’s intense meddling in the 2016 election.
Comedian and activist Jon Stewart said Carter is “the best of us.”
“If you must leave us, go gently,” said actor-musician and author Steve Martin, noting Carter’s humility. “Thank you President Carter. Jimmy.”
One Habitat leader said Carter’s life was about one goal: loving your neighbor.
That may be the most fitting tribute of all.