This afternoon came the announcement that Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, had passed away today at the age of 100.
On a personal note, Carter was the first U.S. President of whom I was sentient. I would know who Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford were but only became aware of their import after they had left the White House. I remember when my parents would watch the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, he invariably led off the broadcast with, "President Carter today....." Mind you, I wasn't yet attuned to anything else Cronkite or his correspondents had to say about the events of the day. But sometime between the ages of four and five, I had become aware that Jimmy Carter held the most powerful office in the world. My awareness would grow during the Iran Hostage Crisis and the 1980 presidential election in which he was decisively defeated by Ronald Reagan.
Carter was the longest living U.S. President reaching his 100th birthday back in October despite having spent nearly two years in hospice care. When Carter turned 100, he was determined to cast an absentee ballot for Kamala Harris and did so just over two weeks after his birthday. Sadly, Harris did not prevail, but Carter will be spared the indignity of a second Trump presidency.
There are a number of things over which I have profound disagreements with former President Carter namely around Israel. But those disagreements are for another day.
Whatever his successes and shortcomings, on balance, Carter was an honorable public servant who did not use his office to enrich himself. Carter's greatest legacy arguably came to pass after he left the White House with his longstanding association with Habitat for Humanity. Carter along with former First Lady Rosalynn Carter would be involved in the construction of housing for people with low incomes in the United States and abroad. In this respect, former President Carter left the world a better place than how he found it. R.I.P.
No comments:
Post a Comment