Features
State funeral of a Statesman – snippets
by Nanda Pethiyagoda
While the USA is respectfully giving its 39th President a state funeral in Washington DC and a final internment in Plains, Georgia, President-elect Donald Trump is threateningly shooting his mouth to Denmark over his claim for Greenland; Mexico over the US seizing control of the Panama Canal; and promising economic sanctions against Canada in case it does not humblingly hand itself over as the 51st Sate of the US. Hopes and bluster as big as himself. But the countries he threatens must be cautious and know his ideas are not pipe dreams, not at all, and his one aim, expressed even before he is ensconced in the White House, is to make himself great riding on the promise of Making America Great Again which has even coined a new acronym MAGA.
No greater contrast is possible in presidents and men as between Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump. I need not itemize these; obvious and more so as tributes are paid to Carter.
Funeral
Jimmy Carter died in his simple home which Rosalynn and he built to retire to, on December 29, aged 100-years. His remains lay at the Carter Presidential Center since Saturday January 4 and on Tuesday morning travelled with family to Washington DC, landing at Point Base Andrews in Maryland, by special Air Mission plane. A motorcade carried the casket to the Capitol where members of Congress were gathered. When departing Atlanta a band played music such as Amazing Grace in recognition of Carter’s strong Baptist religiousness.
The return of Carter to where he held office from 1977 to 81 as President is 44 years later, as one reporter said “after a humbling defeat.” He lost to Ronald Reagan after one term as Prez.
Kamala Harris’ tribute
I listened to the eulogy given b Kamala Harris in the Capitol with VIPs present including Nancy Pelosi (seated) and extended Carter family. The oration was superb, heartfelt and summarized Carter’s life.
She offered her condolences and that of the American people to the family and then quoted a line from a hymn: ‘May the work I have done speak for me.’ She said Jimmy’s work and his example would endure for generations because he lived every day to serve people.
She recalled she was in Middle School when Carter became President in 1977 and how jubilant her mother was. “She greatly admired his strength of character, honesty, work ethic, determination, intelligence and generosity of nature.” She went on to say Carter established a new model of president and ex-president. She itemized his achievements as prez like his energy policy, his vision of protecting the environment, doubled the area under parks, extended protection to the Redwoods, appointed more Blacks to positions of power and increased employment of women five times. “He rebuilt American faith in government and established global leadership. He was a forward looking president with a vision for the future.” She mentioned the Camp David Accord between Israel and Egypt, which still holds.
Harris noted that life after the presidency with Rosalynn by his side was even more packed with service and good work. She narrated an incident when the couple travelled by bus on a Habitat for Humanity project and opted to spend the night with them in a church. They were allocated a room, which Jimmy and Rosalynn gave over to a newly married couple who had sacrificed their honeymoon to serve. The ex-president and wife dossed down on the floor of the basement of the church with the others.
Another great achievement of his was ridding many African villages of a worm infection. On being congratulated for the project’s success, Carter passed on the praise to the workers.
She ended her sincere praise by saying Carter was “an all too rare example of a gifted man with grace, simplicity, sincerity. He lived his faith and left the world a better place than he was born to. He is a lesson for generations to come and a beacon for the future. “
An unlikely but firm friendship
Interesting anecdote of significance was by Peter Baker in the New York Times of Wednesday January 8 titled Presidential Odd Couple: after a tough race, Carter and Ford became friends. They faced each other in the 1976 presidential election with Gerald R Ford having succeeded the almost impeached Nixon. Carter won.
Jimmy Carter was a less known peanut farmer who was Governor of the State of Georgia while Gerald R Ford was a longstanding resident politician in Washington DC, a college football star from Michigan. But they had intriguing similarities that ultimately scored over their differences. Both were from relatively modest backgrounds with strong mothers. They were men of faith and served in the Navy. Both married once and stayed married and had three sons each, though Carter got a daughter too. Both owed their presidencies to Richard M Nixon and both disliked Ronald Reagan.
When Anwar Sadat died in 1981, Prez Reagan requested the two of them and Nixon to attend the funeral. The three boarded Air Force One not happily and the journey continued with strained relations among them. Baker writes that Ford tried ice breaking by suggesting: “Look, for the trip, why don’t we make it just Dick, Jimmy and Jerry.” Carter later said: “Oil and water, you know.”
Nixon did not return with them and that’s when the two – Carter and Ford – started their friendship as one way of getting over boredom on a 40 hour flight. It was cemented so much that families became close friends and each promised to speak at the other’s funeral. Carter obliged when his friend died on December 26, 2006. And now on Thursday January 9, at the state funeral of Jimmy Carter in the Washington National Cathedral, Steven Ford, third son of the former president will read a tribute written and left with instructions by Gerald Ford. So also Ted Mondale will read the eulogy written and left by his father, Walter F Mondale who was Carter’s VP.
So it will be an appropriate state funeral to a statesman and good man. He will of course return to Plains to be buried January 9, beside Rosalynn who died at 96, November 19, 2023. They spent 77 years together; surely fulfilling, happy, completely unselfish and companionable.