Jimmy Carter is 100: Lessons In Uncommon Humility And Uncommon Success

The great Kentucky writer Wendell Berry once wrote, “I am done with apologies. If contrariness is my inheritance and destiny; so be it.” Well, I’m done with the ho-hum, fact-less statements that Jimmy Carter is a good man, but he was not a good President. If you are looking for another worn-out article along those lines, you better pass this one up. The fact is that Jimmy Carter is a good man and was a good President.

If this article makes it to print, it is because the “Man from Plains” officially made it to his 100th birthday on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, at his modest home, right off the main road in tiny Plains, Georgia.

Before we talk about Jimmy Carter the man, let’s really examine one heck of record for a short, four-year time as President and leader of the free world. First, there was never a shot fired or a bomb dropped in aggression by the United States military during Carter’s time as President. Before you start thinking Carter was some pushover on military issues (he served in the Navy on a nuclear submarine after all), or that only a wartime President can look tough, remember the words of Jesus that you might have even heard just a few days ago at your church, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” The Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt are the highest examples of his dedication to peace and became the foundation for much stability in the region and countless lives saved.

Back home as President, Jimmy Carter passed an astonishing 70 percent of his legislative priorities. While some not accustomed to the rough and tumble world of legislative “sausage-making” might scoff, it’s pretty darn good – especially for someone like Jimmy Carter who notoriously despised the usually unethical, but still all-too-common “back scratching” of politics. Modern Presidents, no matter how great a wheeler and dealer they may think themselves to be, would give their eyeteeth to have passed 70 percent of what they set out to do.

From 1977-1981, Jimmy Carter preserved over 157 million acres of land, that’s a space over five times the size of Mississippi in terms of acres. Carter created both the U. S. Department of Education and the U. S. Department of Energy which mean untold millions of funds for local schools and local projects right here in Mississippi. I don’t see anyone turning those dollars down when they pour into local coffers.

During his four years, he even deregulated the airlines and trucking industry in one of the most pro-business moves of any President in decades. That action alone, much overlooked, has saved consumers billions in costs for simple things like an airline ticket or a delivery to your home.

Over the years, I’ve been able to attend President Carter’s Sunday School class at his home church in Plains several times and carry friends and family to meet President Carter. Back in March of this year, I was at the Carter Center in Atlanta with his grandson, Jason Carter, and our CEO at Edelen Renewables, Adam Edelen. Jason, a former Georgia State Senator, now chairs the Carter Center’s board of trustees and our advisory board at Edelen Renewables.

As we all three made our way back to President Carter’s private office (which features a Murphy bed because Jimmy Carter wanted to save money), Jason said, “If you really want to understand Jimmy Carter the man, take a look at this.” He pointed to an ornate, expensively framed honorary degree from England’s Oxford University right next to a plain ole certificate of appreciation from the Wheeling, West Virginia Lion’s Club. Jason said they both held equal weight of importance in the eyes of Jimmy Carter, just like every person he ever met.
Maybe his view of everyone’s equal importance is why he came back to little ole Plains, never tried to sell his admirers cheap trinkets, but always pitched in as a helper of his fellow man. Maybe that’s why he, personally, helped build over 4,000 Habitat for Humanity homes.

Maybe he sees the value of every individual, no matter their status or even political beliefs, because he just didn’t recite some words from the Bible on Sunday and then be as hateful as he could get by with the rest of the week. Jimmy Carter views everyone as a child of the Almighty.

Robert Caro, in writing his Pulitzer Prize winner, “The Power Broker” opened with a line from Sophocles. I’ll end this final paragraph with it, too. “One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been.” Now that he’s turned 100 years old, it’s definitely Jimmy Carter’s “evening.”

It’s also clear that a peanut farmer turned nuclear engineer who ended up President of the United States has made this world a better place in almost every field of human life. What a splendid 100 years on earth well-spent!