A LIFE WELL LIVED
Simply a love story!
James Earl Carter, Jr., photograph by Ansel Adams, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1979
We are poised today on the brink of moving into a new and potentially unruly dimension for America in just three days when the inaugural events go into motion on Monday, January 20, 2025.
Therefore, it behooves us to step back to a few days ago when America showed the world another side of itself, one of its best, with the funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter.
James Earl Carter, Jr. born October 1, 1924 in Plains, Georgia, made it to the status of the only American President to reach the age of 100 when he passed on December 29, 2024.
Over the years, praise for Carter has been mostly focused on the humanitarian work he and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter did after the end of his single presidential term.
However, there was more to the man, and to his time in the White House, than meets the eye of his critics.
Some of the descriptive words that surfaced about him during the days of his funeral services are telling: decency, honesty, humility, care, concern, human rights, a willingness to put service above self—and love, this last being the most potent and from which, one could say, the others flow.
Yes, he was the thirty-ninth U.S. President. He was also Georgia’s Governor and State Senator, a businessman (peanut farmer), nuclear engineer, carpenter, human rights advocate, especially as a civil rights pioneer and women's rights supporter. He was an environmentalist and an author of 32 books. He was a 2002 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
His significant foreign policy achievements included his brokering of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in the Camp David Accords, and establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with China.
New!
Three-day Series
For three days, beginning today, we will highlight themes from Jimmy Carter’s story, using excerpts gleaned from eulogies, news reports, and the Carter Center. They leave a trail of love.
Theme 1: Character/Peacemaker
Theme 2: Visionary
Theme 3: Partnership
Enjoy!
THEME ONE: CHARACTER/PEACEMAKER
CHARACTER
Joseph Biden
United States President
Eulogy:
Jimmy’s enduring attribute: Character. Character. Character.
Jimmy Carter’s friendship taught me, and through his life, taught me, that strength of character is more than title or the power we hold. It’s the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity, respect. That everyone, and I mean everyone, deserves an even shot.
We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor. And to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all, the abuse of power. Today, many think he was from a bygone era. But in reality, he saw well into the future.
CHARACTER
Kamala Harris
United States Vice President
Eulogy:
I was in middle school when Jimmy Carter was elected president, and I vividly recall how my mother admired him. How much she admired his strength of character, his honesty, his integrity, his work ethic and determination, his intelligence and his generosity of spirit.
He was a president who, between the years of 1977 and 1981, appointed more Black Americans to the federal bench than all of his predecessors combined, and appointed five times as many women
James Earl Carter, Jr. loved our country. He lived his faith, he served the people, and he left the world better than he found it. May his life be a lesson for the ages and a beacon for the future.
PEACEMAKER
Gerald Ford (d. 2006)
Former United States President
Ford lost his presidential bid to Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Eulogy for his former rival was read by Ford’s son Steven Ford:
It was because of our shared values that Jimmy and I respected each other as adversaries even before we cherished one another as dear friends.
Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford reconnected on their return trip from Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat’s 1981 funeral in Cairo.
[I]t was somewhere over the Atlantic that Jimmy and I forged a friendship that transcends politics.
CHARACTER
James Earl (Chip) Carter III
Son
Eulogy:
Dad always told us you can’t care for others if you don’t care for yourself first.
He taught us the value of hard work, the importance of community, and the power of love. We’ll carry that forward.
CHARACTER
Jason Carter
Grandson
Eulogy:
He was the same person, no matter who he was with or where he was, and for me that's the definition of integrity.
That honesty was matched by love, it was matched by faith, and in both public and private, my grandparents did fundamentally live their lives in an effort, as the Bible says, to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with their God.
In the end, his life is a love story. And of course, it's a love story about Jimmy and Rosalynn, their 77 years of marriage and service.
But his life was also a broader love story. About love for his fellow humans and about living out the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.
I believe that love is what taught him and told him to preach the power of human rights, not just for some people, but for all people.
And that is a fundamental truth about my grandfather: It begins where it ends. When he saw a tiny 600 person village that everybody else thinks of as poor, he recognized it.
It was always a place to find partnership and power, and a place to carry out that commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.
CHARACTER
Joshua Carter
Grandson
Eulogy:
My grandfather spent the entire time I've known him helping those in need. He built houses for people who needed homes.
He eliminated diseases in forgotten places; he waged peace anywhere in the world wherever he saw a chance. He loved people.
CHARACTER
James Carter IV
Grandson
James Carter, IV recited the Beatitudes, an apt Scripture passage for his grandfather’s Christian life—well lived.
Here are three of the Beatitudes that specifically relate very well to Jimmy Carter:
-- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
-- Blessed are the peacemakers
-- Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness
…TO BE CONTINUED
