Jimmy Carter's Enduring Humanity

The nation's 39th president died today at 100. His life of service and decency will long endure as a model for what an ex-president can do and be.

Former President Jimmy Carter in 2018. (Photo by Scott Cunningham via Getty Images)

When Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976, the country was still reeling from Watergate and the corruption and criminality of Richard Nixon, who resigned from the presidency to avoid impeachment. America needed a man of honesty and decency—and they got it with the former small-town peanut farmer, U.S. Navy veteran, Georgia governor and long-shot presidential candidate.

That good man left this earth today, age 100, dying at home in Plains, Georgia, according to his grandson, James. E. Carter III, known as Chip. His beloved wife and lifelong partner, Rosalynn, died just over a year ago on November 19.

There will be plenty of media coverage in the coming days detailing the successes and failures of his presidency. But at a time when we are about to face the presidency of a man utterly lacking in decency, honesty and humanity, I’d particularly like to share with you my essay from Feb. 20, 2023, when Carter first entered hospice care. It offers a reminder of how lucky the country has been to witness and benefit from his lifelong commitment to the vulnerable among us and making our world a better place.

Consider his words: "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.”

Thank you, Jimmy. We are better because of your extraordinary life of service.

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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 Rosalynn 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.

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