One of the better American Presidents – Jimmy Carter

Worldwide attention is riveted on the incomprehensible tantrums of tricky, tentacular, truculent, tenacious, tweeting Trump. Only one reason for his staying on in the White House and not attempting civility and even a reluctant handing over of the presidency can be adduced: not being right in the head. But remember he got the highest number of votes of any defeated presidential contender. He is also backed by hordes of white Americans and Republican Senators. He is such a contrast to Biden. Obama is a diamond to this clump of coal while John Kennedy and Bill Clinton glisten in spite of their minor flaws. To me the greatest of our times, barring Obama, is Jimmy Carter. He was no outstanding president, but his humanity shone forth. Of the five living U.S. presidents, Carter is the longest-lived president, the longest-retired president, the first to live 40 years after his inauguration, and the first to live beyond the age of 95. He and Rosalyn celebrated their 74 years of devoted marriage on July 7, 2020. 

He was not known very well beyond the State of Georgia when he came forward as Democratic contender against Gerald Ford, but served well as 39th Prez from 1977-81. He was the man with most heart and continued after retirement to work in social projects. His greatest achievement is co-founding the Carter Center advocating human rights for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Sites in Atlanta

I have a son living in Atlanta, Georgia, so would spend holidays with him. While he worked I went around, spending hours in the Carter Center, libraries and the small museum in the ground floor of the house down Peach Tree Street where in the basement, Margaret Mitchell wrote her one and only novel, a best seller for all time no sooner it was out. My son’s flat is bang opposite Fox Theatre but the film of Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind was first screened in another cinema. However the hotel where Clarke Gable and other stars stayed for the grand opening night is adjacent.

Seeing the 39th President

Imagine the wonder of what my son did during one of my holidays with him.

“Would you like to go to Plains and see and hear Jimmy Carter in the Baptist church there?”

Wouldn’t I just love it! It was a weekend when the Prez and wife were to be in Plains and one had to reserve seats in the Maranatha Baptist church on-line. So on a Sunday in September 2008, we attended Sunday School conducted by the President (even ex-presidents of the US are addressed as president).

A friend of the Carters first laid out detailed do-s and don’t-s in a friendly manner; following specified protocols was important. The main section in the church was reserved for visitors while the pews on either side were occupied by neighbourhood congregation; the well groomed women ‘Steel Magnolias’ in their elegant hats. Carter and wife walked in and he took his place below the simple alter. He said he and Rosalyn had returned from building houses in Africa. Then he got down to the business of the day, first asking those out of State to indicate themselves. Egged on by persons seated near us, I did so and said, “Out of country – Sri Lanka.”

His welcome was warm and he added, “We are saddened by the fighting over there in your island home. We pray for your country.” More surprising was when we were allowed to take photographs with the First Couple. We had been instructed not to speak to either, not to thank him, not to wish him, but just get the picture taken (which a person did) and move aside since so many wanted to do this. When my son and I went beside the couple, Carter spoke to me: (Surprise! Surprise!) “You are from Sri Lanka. Beautiful island. We wish you well and the country.” I had to thank him didn’t I, notwithstanding strictures? I wasn’t wearing sari. Maybe my brown skin was the telltale clue for recognition.

James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924 to peanut farmer Earl Carter and Lillian of Peace Corps to India fame. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 with a BSc degree and joined the US Navy, where he served in submarines. His father died in 1953 and Carter left his naval career and returned home to take up the reins of his family’s peanut-growing business. Carter inherited comparatively little due to his father’s forgiveness of debts and the division of the estate among the children. His sister took him on a blind date and he fell in love with his partner of the foursome, Rosalyn Smith and married her in 1946 and had three sons and Amy. They were 21 and 18 years of age when they married.

He joined the Democratic Party and rose to serve as a Georgia State Senator from 1963 to 1967 and as the 76th Governor from 1971 to 75. He opposed the political climate of racial segregation and supported the growing civil rights movement. An interesting tale resides here. When his mother was nogt around, the child Jimmy was cared for by a black sharecropper’s wife – Mrs Rachel Clarke. Carter admits she was one of the strongest influences in his life.

Preserved sites in Plains, Carter’s home included

The high school which he and Rosalyn attended; the farm in which he grew up; the hospital where his mother was a nurse and the small railway station that was the headquarters of his presidential campaign are now preserved sites under the aegis of the American National Park Service. The high school is a Jimmy Carter museum.

After the Sunday School service, my son drove me to Carter’s family farm. Pictures and voice presentations (Carter’s voice describing rooms in the house and the adjoining store) give the visitor a very clear picture of the life he led in his father’s 350 acre farm — extremely tough and necessitating long hours working behind a plough or gathering produce. They ran a store and invariably people wanting oil, sugar, flour or whatever would arrive during the time the Carters were at lunch. It was Jimmy who interrupted his meal to attend to the sale.

The impression that comes across is that of the closely knit family of two boys and two girls; very religious and almost uptight in upbringing. His father bought a radio when radios were luxuries and thus often, the house verandah would be full of neighbours come over to listen to some important news or speech. (All Southern houses have these open verandahs to beat the summer heat, with rockers and a swing). The toilet was converted to a water closet when Jimmy was a teenager, and still to be seen was a suspended bucket with holes in its bottom and a tap above which made do for their shower.

Plains had only one eatery naming itself Mother’s Diner. The Carters are supposed to be frequent visitors, though the food is limited in scope. Cheap though. They have built a far from sumptuous house close to the farm, where they live with guards around when they visit Plains. We peeped in as we passed the closed gate.

We stayed the weekend in The Plains Historic Inn and Antiques, exquisitely quaint, capturing in full measure the spirit, tone and atmosphere of this tiny Southern American city which incredibly threw up a president of the United States. The inn has seven theme rooms above the hall which displays and sells antiques, local crafts and books by and of the Carters. Each room was furnished in the style of a decade of Carter’s life, from the 1920s through the 1980s. For instance, the ’60s room has its bed, sofa, writing table and even bathroom fixtures in the 1960s style, posh though. LIFE magazines of the decade are on the bedside table and two books of the 60’s era. Prominently placed on the double bed was a wooden tray with two packets of peanuts, the major product of Plains. The breakfast area, where cereal, fruit juice, cookies and fruit are available for guests to help themselves to when they please, leads to a large verandah with rockers. It was sheer magic sitting out with a brilliant half moon above, or even in the afternoon, overlooking a lovely garden and the railway line and its quaint station which is now of historic interest, having been the headquarters of Carter’s presidential bid. The headquarters of Habitat for Humanity International is close by, so also the Andersonville Civil War Village, which too is a national historic site.

Carter quotes

Jimmy Carter has thirty books authored by him, apart from articles et al. Here are a couple of what he has said, pertinent to now; maybe said before the latest disgraceful calamity.

“I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement. I’ll never betray the confidence that any of you had in me. And I’ll never avoid a controversial issue.”

“Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.”

“We’ve become now an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that’s done the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards of the American political system ever seen in my life.”