Goodbye to Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, dies at age 100

Dear Friends,

Sad news. Today, Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, has died at the age of 100. He served only 1 presidential term, losing a second chance to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Caption: Carter, with his wife Rosalynn and daughter Amy, waves to the crowd on Pennsylvania Avenue en route from the Capitol to the White House, January 20, 1977. Photo: Suzanne Vlamis/AP

People often speak of his presidency as a failed one. Someone on Blue Sky (@timlongman.bsky.social), a political science professor, paints a completely different picture, arguing that Carter's term as President was in fact 'groundbreaking':

. He promoted environmentalism, establishing the Department of Energy and expanding the National Park system.

Caption: Dec. 2, 1980: President Jimmy Carter holds up the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which declared 104 million acres in Alaska as national parks, wildlife refuges and other conservation categories, after signing it into law at the White House in Washington, D.C. (The Associated Press)

. He made human rights an element of US foreign policy.

. He promoted international peace, particularly promoting nuclear nonproliferation, the Panama Canal treaty, and the Camp David Accords (between Israel and Egypt).

Caption: Carter, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli PM Menachem Begin join hands at the White House in September 1978 after the Camp David accords. Photo: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images.

. He promoted diversity in government hiring.

. He created the Department of Education.

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And in his Substack post earlier today, Robert Reich, one of my favorite political commentators who served in 3 presidential administrations, including Carter's, reminds us that Carter was President of the US when the Voyager spacecraft were launched in 1977 to the outer solar system and beyond.

Read Carter's immortal words to our fellow galactic citizens, included on Carl Sagan's Golden Record, attached to the Voyager spacecraft. [Reich’s brief tribute to Carter can be found here].

This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America. We are a community of 240 million human being among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the planet Earth. We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization.

We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some – perhaps many – may have inhabited planet and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message:

“This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problem we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.”

-- Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, the White House, June 16, 1977

Caption: This gold aluminum cover was designed to protect the Voyager 1 and 2 "Sounds of Earth" gold-plated records from micrometeorite bombardment. The two identical, 12 inch gold-plated copper discs contain, among other information, greetings in 60 languages, samples of music from different cultures and eras, and natural and man-made sounds from Earth. Along with a message from President Carter, a message from U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim was also included.

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Rest in peace, Jimmy Carter. A more unselfish, giving, compassionate American President we're not likely to see again soon.

Best wishes to everyone,

Carolyn Porco