News of Jimmy Carter’s death has released a flood of political memories about the former president, many of which are worth noting if for no other reason than to use it to measure the drift from values he used as goalposts to the public meanness we see having emerged all these years later.
Just how the passage of time reshapes assessments about people, contributions, events and values is something we probably do not give enough credence. As with all presidents, Carter was concerned with the moment, not history.
Judgments about his time in office are viewed now combined with the years of concerted effort after the White House spent pursuing global peace, health and democracy. Carter’s strongly felt personal evangelism reflected values radically at odds with what we hear from evangelical Christian groups now.
As a senior editor at The Los Angeles Times maybe 35 years ago, I got to meet with Carter twice, both after his presidency. Each time, he left editors impressed with his active life of personal decency and humor as well as evident command of both world perspectives and individual moments of personal interactions. He was equally at ease talking about global health and volunteer home-building.
It was during his years as president that I took on bigger editing responsibilities at The Providence Journal that required me to chart the news day before dawn. Beyond the high notes reaching the Camp David accords, international breakthroughs with China and Cuba, oil shortages and Olympic boycotts, and always human rights, what sticks in my mind was the day I had to wake my boss with the news that Carter’s military rescue mission to free hostages in Iran had failed miserably.
Personally, Carter was president when inflation had gone wild just as we were trying to buy a home in our move to Los Angeles, making it a difficult personal transition. It was years later that a visit to the Carter Center in Atlanta reflected deeper respect for its outreach efforts around the world.
Maybe the most lasting lesson of the Carter era in which is to remember perspective, as well as the importance of living by personal values. Character mattered more than winning.
