President Jimmy Carter: American Faith and Truth
By • January 9, 2025 0 316
President Jimmy Carter, who died Dec. 29, returned to the nation’s capital Jan. 7 and arrived at the U.S. Capitol to lie in state after his coffin was transferred from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the U.S. Navy Memorial.
The moving ceremonies — the procession, the honor guard, the eulogies in the Rotunda — are an American tradition, as is today’s funeral service at the National Cathedral with President Joe Biden and former presidents in attendance.
The Jan. 7 memorial service at the Rotunda was attended by his family, Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, members of Congress and other officials. The public also paid respects later that night, Wednesday and early Thursday.
“Jimmy Carter was that all too rare example of a gifted man who also walks with humility, modesty and grace,” said Harris, who recalled that she was in middle school during the Carter years.
A few of us at this newspaper recall first learning of Carter back in 1976, when our editor worked on the student newspaper at Georgetown University, the Georgetown Voice. One of the Voice’s columnists wrote presciently about then Gov. Carter’s good chances of winning the election and was quite proud of himself. After Vietnam, Watergate and Nixon, we students were taken with Carter’s down-to-earth and optimistic approach — and it was the Bicentennial of the U.S.A. and some of us went to the White House to see President Ford and Queen Elizabeth II.
At Carter’s inauguration in January 1977, we were astonished when he and Rosalynn took that famous walk along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House: “They’re walking!”
We felt these years would be special, as the new president — still an outsider — seemed at home in Washington, D.C., teaching Sunday school for his Baptist church and sending his daughter Amy to public school, including Hardy Middle School.
While he and his advisors Jody Powell and Hamilton Jordan might hang like to hang out and have a beer, they avoided cocktail parties in Georgetown. And while Carter always pledged to tell the truth, his relations with Congress stalled — and, when all was said and done, his high hopes and ambitions smashed into hard-edged realities: the oil crisis, national malaise, the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Carter’s accomplishments, such as the Camp David Accords, melted away, and he lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan in 1980. We students moved on, grew up and seemed to forget the 39th president.
In his many years as an ex-president, Carter remained the same good man, powered by his Christian values and love of America. His work for Habitat for Humanity is duly noted, of course. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
House Speaker Johnson recalled on Tuesday: “When Jimmy Carter walked out on the east front of the Capitol and took his oath of office, I was just four years old. He’s the first president that I remember. Looking back, it’s obvious now to me as an adult why he captured everyone’s attention. … Our republic, we honor President Carter, his family, and his enduring legacy that he leaves. Not only upon this nation, but upon the world.”
President Biden said of Carter on Jan. 9 at the National Cathedral: “Character, character, character” … “Through it all, he showed us how character and faith: Start with ourselves and then flows to others. At our best, we share the better parts of ourselves: joy, solidarity, love, commitment. Not for reward, but in reverence, to the incredible gift of life we’ve all been granted. To make every minute of our time here on Earth count. That’s the definition of a good life. The life Jimmy Carter lived—greatest 100 years.”
Today, Carter is on our minds. We suspect — with new appreciation — he will be remembered with kindness and love.
