Happy Birthday, Jimmy Carter

Revisiting the humanity of the 39th president on his 100th birthday

Former President Jimmy Carter in 2007. (Photo by Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images)

Jimmy Carter turned 100 today, the first former U.S. president to live to be 100. This was an opportunity for President Joe Biden to comment on the man that he calls “a good friend” who he admires “so darn much.” (A special birthday display with the number 100 was arranged on the North Lawn of the White House.) “Your hopeful vision of our country, your commitment to a better world and your unwavering belief in the power of human goodness continues to be a guiding light for all of us,” Biden said in a video.

This is Carter’s first birthday since the passing of his beloved wife, Rosalynn, who died last November. He went into hospice in February last year, but said through his grandson Jason in August that he hoped to make it to 100. “I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” Carter said.

In times like these, when we have reason to worry about demagogic, hateful leadership that attracts far too many Americans, it’s a gift to reflect on the humane quality of a man like Jimmy Carter. To that end, I wanted to share with you the essay I wrote last year when we first learned that Carter had entered hospice. What a wonder that he’s still with us—a reminder that our shared history has included good men like this.

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Jimmy Carter and the Enduring Power of Humanity

News this weekend that 98-year-old former President Jimmy Carter had entered hospice care has motivated me to reflect on his extraordinary life of service. Rather than adjudicate his four-year presidency and particularly his heartfelt commitment to human rights, it’s his life after the White House that I think will stand the test of time as a singular model of contribution and inspiration. His has been a quiet and powerful demonstration of humility and service.

At a time when too much of our political sphere is poisoned by cruelty and hate and malignant narcissism—and where too many self-described Christians appear driven by grievance and self-righteous aggression—the good works of Jimmy Carter offer a refreshing antidote and a necessary reminder of the power of humanity.

It’s well known that he’s spent decades applying his carpentry skills to building and renovating houses with Habitat for Humanity. Since 1984, in fact, he’s worked with over 103,000 volunteers in 14 countries to help construct or repair over 4,300 houses. If anyone harbored a shred of skepticism that his purpose was performative rather than earnest, his continuing commitment to this yearly effort as a nonagenarian should shed that doubt. (You may recall the photographs of Carter, age 95, his eyes and face bruised purple and red after a bad fall that required 14 stitches, still busy with power tools.)

Those who have worked with him in these annual, week-long house-building projects—known as the Carter Work Project to help attract volunteers and raise money—could testify to his genuine intention. Consider the comments of Karen Haycox, CEO of Habitat for Humanity in New York, where Carter and Rosalyn, his beloved wife of 72 years, first volunteered. “He is one hard worker,” she said. “He's the first on the site in the morning and very often the last one to leave by the end of the day."

At that first site in New York City, he and Rosalyn helped renovate a six-story, 19-unit apartment building known as Mascot Flats. The Carters gave up the small apartment they’d been provided so that a couple who devoted their honeymoon to the renovation could sleep there. Meanwhile, just four years after living in the White House, Jimmy and Roslyn slept with the other volunteers on the floor of a church basement. Asked about his effort of nearly four decades that has rotated every year between a US and an international destination, Carter said, “We have become small players in an exciting global effort to alleviate the curse of homelessness.”

Carter’s remarks about why he has done this work speaks clearly to his life of service: “Like other Habitat volunteers, I have learned that our greatest blessings come when we are able to improve the lives of others, and this is especially true when those others are desperately poor or in need.”

In an interview published by Habitat, Carter said this about who and what inspires him: “My earliest and most basic service inspirations have come from my Christian faith, encouraged by others who have been dedicated to serving others and learning to treat those who are served with mutual respect as equals.” Then he zoomed out to talk about what this means for America:

America is the most diverse or heterogeneous nation, comprised primarily by immigrants who were not afraid of an unpredictable future in a strange land. Almost all of them had great need when they arrived here and were then inspired to be of help to others. This concept of service to others is still a crucial element in the American character and has always prevailed in overcoming challenges and correcting societal mistakes.

I know I planned not to focus on his presidency, but I would like to revisit one moment from 1979 that has often been highlighted as a failure which likely helped sink his chances of winning reelection against Ronald Reagan. This was his so-called “crisis of confidence” speech that came to be known as his “malaise” address. Delivered amid the second oil crisis in the 1970s, Carter called for steps to reduce dependence on foreign oil and (presciently) to develop alternate energy sources. (You may recall that he installed solar panels on the White House roof, panels his successor proudly removed.)

But the speech also addressed the nation’s increasing disconnection from shared purpose and belief in government and democracy itself. Linking this to the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, as well as the “agony of Vietnam” and the “shock of Watergate,” he described a crisis of confidence. Delivered 44 years ago, his words not only still resonate, they offer a window into what drove him then and has continued to drive him to this day.

It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation…Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy…

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose…

As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.

Influenced by social theorist Christopher Lasch’s bestseller, The Culture of Narcissism, and following 10 days of discussions with what Carter described as “people from every segment of our society,” including “business and labor, teachers and preachers, mayors and private citizens,” the speech did not have the desired effect. As I noted in my 2011 book, Adrift, co-authored with William Harris, “Is it any wonder that Carter’s calls for conservation and sacrifice fell flat? Or that President Reagan’s antigovernment stance, combined with a deregulation fervor and a focus on getting rich, captured the nation’s attention and votes?”

But as we look back now, at a life of public service that has included more than four decades as an ex-president, we can see that Jimmy Carter was not simply making another speech in an effort to exploit a vulnerable, troubled public and grab votes. However you assess his political acumen, this is a man committed to humanity and meaning—and prepared to walk the talk right to the end. May his life inspire others to a life of service, be it in politics or beyond.

Steven Beschloss @StevenBeschloss

Saying it now: Jimmy Carter is the ultimate model of an ex-president who used his time after office to be of service to others.

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