” Gimme Jimmy!”
“Grits and Fritz in 76!”
(Campaign slogans for the 39th President of the United States, the first one my own. )
Our dearest, living ex-President Jimmy Carter passed away yesterday at age 100. I am both sad and glad.
Glad, because he will be remembered on January 9th with a national day of mourning while President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Haris are still in office.
(Had he died much later, T-Rex would have made himself the corpse at this most august — majestic and grand — of memorials.)
My Voting Record
My first vote for President was for George McGovern in 1972. My second was for James Earl Carter, the Governor of Georgia and a peanut farmer.
I would have voted for RFK in 1968 but was too young to vote then, at just just 17.
I’m pleased to say that I’ve never regretted a single candidate I have ever voted for, but George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are among my favorites. (I voted for Dukakis/Ferraro and both Clintons when they ran their races, but not with equal enthusiasm. I always considered the Clintons Democrats in Name Only, or Republican Lite.)
The things about Jimmy Carter that drew me to him were…
His massive intelligence, his rock solid integrity, and his down-to-earth nature.
His accomplishments and legacy are secure:
Peace between Sadat and Begin.
Carter’s facilitation of the 1978 Camp David Accords, an agreement signed by Carter, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel, led to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty the following year. All these years later, the treaty survives.
Installed solar panels on the White House.
(Reagan took them all down. Grrr…)
Founded the Carter Center in 1982 to continue the couple’s “fundamental commitment to human rights and the alleviation of human suffering,” including efforts “to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.” The Carter Center observes elections around the world and Carter himself frequently served as a mediator.
And of course , for more than 35 years, the Carters volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.
Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for his efforts to peacefully resolve conflicts, advance democracy and human rights, and to promote social and economic development.
He continued to teach Sunday School in Plains into his mid-90’s
His take on the Baptist religion was NOT from the Southern Baptist perspective. He left that congregation in protest of its regulation that women can’t serve as pastors or ministers, and for other (so-called) “liberal” reasons. (Jesus himself embraced female disciples and teachers, so Jimmy was following Jesus, not a sexist, misogynistic religious order.)
He spoke truth to power.
He was a good man. That’s what drew me to him. He was ambitious, but not avaricious. He presented himself as honorable, humble, approachable, and amenable but far from acquiescent in matters where integrity or ethics mattered.
I miss him already.
But like ET, he’s right here (in my heart).
He always will be.
For Carter’s complete history, you can’t beat this, by Heather Cox Richardson:
