As of this Tuesday, October 1, Jimmy Carter is the first former president of the United States to turn 100 years old. In addition, he is the one who has survived his presidency the longest, more than four decades. He becomes a centenarian former president after 19 months in palliative care and with the desire to survive at least a few more weeks to be able to vote in the presidential elections on November 5 for Kamala Harris.
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Carter has been racking up praise after praise in this injury time. The tributes follow one another on the occasion of his centenary, although his physical state of prostration prevents him from fully enjoying them. The Carter Center announced on February 18, 2023 that the former president had decided to forgo other medical treatments and undergo palliative care in his usual modest home in Plains, Georgia, the town where his family was dedicated to growing peanuts. No one expected such a long survival.
The announcement generated a wave of messages of support and a re-reading of his presidency, which is now seen as somewhat misunderstood and unfortunate, but which gains with the passage of time. His 99th birthday, last October 1, already became the first farewell tribute in life in which the achievements of his presidency and those that followed were glossed. Nobody imagined at that time that he would survive another year under palliative care and that the tributes would multiply.
This Wednesday Carter was seen in the garden of his home in Plains (Georgia), transported in a wheelchair, dressed in gray, covered with a blanket and wearing a blue cap. He has been in the shade of the trees to witness a military flyover with four fighter planes.
Former President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday surrounded by family and friends in his backyard in Plains, Georgia. CBS News was there as he was wheeled outside, beneath the shade of his trees, to witness a military flyover with four fighter jets. pic.twitter.com/FKKd6XrHL6
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 1, 2024
A televised benefit concert Tuesday and the construction of 30 new homes are among the many celebrations marking Carter’s centennial. The concert, held at the Fox Theater in Atlanta in early September and which the former president was unable to attend, raised funds to support the Carter Center’s international programs. B-52s, BeBe Winans, Angélique Kidjo, Chuck Leavell and many others performed.
The new homes in St Paul, Minnesota, are part of thousands of homes that have been built thanks to the decades-long relationship that Carter and his late wife, Rosalynn, had with the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity. Carter repeatedly said that working with the organization was a way to put his Christian faith into practice.
In Pleins, 100 people have received American citizenship in a tribute ceremony. In the White House, a 100 with giant golden numbers in the garden has served to congratulate the former president.
Jimmy Carter and Rosalyn Carter, working on housing rehabilitation with the Habitat for Humanity organization, in New York. Bill Tompkins (Getty Images)
Carter, elected in 1976, was a one-term president, like Joe Biden now. His era was also affected by high inflation and international instability, which eroded his popularity. He was swept at the polls by Ronald Reagan in 1980, although some of his achievements are now recognized with distance.
Furthermore, Carter has been almost unanimously recognized as a great former president. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work in the search for peaceful solutions to international conflicts, the advancement of democracy and human rights, and the promotion of economic and social development, work that he has carried out through the Center Sump. His legacy also includes his work to eradicate the Guinea worm, a painful but forgotten disease.
The last public event in which he participated was the funeral of his wife, Rosalynn Carter, who died on November 19 of last year at the age of 96. Plagued by dementia, the first lady died a few days after it was announced that she was going into palliative care. Accompanied by his successors Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, Carter attended the response from the front row, sitting in a wheelchair and covered by a blanket woven in tribute to the family.
Jimmy Carter, in 1979 in Elk City (Oklahoma), when he was president. Bettmann (Getty Images)
His grandson Jason Carter spoke about him at the last Democratic convention, held in Chicago last August: “He and my grandmother gave their lives with an unwavering faith in God, respect for human dignity, honesty and the commitment to love their neighbors as to themselves. Those principles guided them throughout their lives, including their four years in the White House and the four decades after. For my grandfather it was never about fame, recognition, praise or awards. “His legacy is measured by the lives he has touched and the good he has done.”
Jason Carter also said at the Democratic convention that he nominated Kamala Harris as a candidate that his grandfather wishes he was there, that the Democrat embodied his legacy and that he couldn’t wait to vote for her. Early voting in Georgia, his state, one of the decisive ones, begins on October 15.
Congratulations to Jimmy Carter outside the White House. WILL OLIVER (EFE)
