Common Ground: Jimmy Carter

“I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.”

The Marine standing near the marble fireplace in the State Dining Room of the White House pointed out John Adams’s quote carved below the mantle in 1945. This breakfast before President Carter’s funeral might be our last visit to the White House.

After we finish packing our apartment, we’ll leave Washington, excited about our next chapter at home in Iowa. We’re aware that President Jimmy Carter, an “honest and wise” man has been a framing device for our public lives together.

A Cathedral of Memory and Meaning

The bus that takes the Cabinet to the National Cathedral passes the apartment in Dupont Circle and the home we rented in Cleveland Park during the Obama years. We have worshipped at the Cathedral and shared it with family and friends. Today the brilliant stained-glass light pays tribute to the man we’re here to honor and, for me, sparks reflection of a different sort.

A few Kennedy-like profiles stir in the rows in front of us designated for families of former presidents. In fifth grade I plastered my blue Schwinn bicycle with Kennedy-Johnson stickers. Across the country at Saint Philomena’s in Pittsburgh my future husband, now sitting beside me, was hoping for the first Catholic president.

I think back to my first presidential visit in Independence, Missouri. Do I remember refusing to shake President Truman’s hand when I was four years-old or has the story become so much a part of my personal history that it seems I do? I wanted the pen he offered so I took the bribe and shook his hand. It read: “I swiped this pen from Harry Truman.’’ Now the pen is framed with the letter the president thanking my dad for bringing his children to meet him.

And here, seventy-four years old, I’m waiting to pay tribute to President Jimmy Carter, sitting four rows behind the living presidents and first ladies who have now joined us. Beside me, my husband of 52 years, a member of President Obama’s Cabinet and President Biden’s as well.

From a College Question to a Lifetime of Public Service

We continue to marvel at our life together, which started with his pick-up line in October of l968, our first month in college in upstate New York, both of us far from home. “Who are you going to support in the election?’ he asked. “Humphry or Nixon?” “Humphrey, of course,” I answered. And here we are.

By force of will or a deal with God did Jimmy Carter at 100 years old, decide to bow out before Donald Trump could return to the White House? Or was it President Biden who called on God to give him the chance to give his righteous friend the send-off he so rightfully deserved?

Hearing The Cathedral Choir singing Stephen Paulus’s ‘’The Road Home” takes me back to our first Iowa Caucus. The summer of 1975 Tom and I had moved to my hometown, Mt. Pleasant, to work and raise a family.

President Jimmy Carter marked the beginning and the end of our public political lives. We stood for him in early 1976 in the Harlan Elementary School gym and we stand for him now at this service seen round the world in the first days of 2025.

All these years I have wandered

Oh, when will I know

There’s a way, there’s a road

That will lead me home.

In front of me the living presidents and first ladies mingle. Melania, stoic; her husband talking non-stop to anyone who will listen; Barack Obama, self-possessed, quietly confident striding in alone; Michelle making a statement with her absence. George Bush pokes his buddies, grinning, while stalwart Laura stands at his side. Hillary, regal, reserved, takes her seat while her husband schmoozes with the former vice presidents and the Bushes, avoiding the Trumps at the other end of the row. He’ll get to them eventually. They all know the eyes of the world are on them, watching our democracy’s peaceful transferal of power.

Except for the Trumps, we know them all.

Finally, President and Dr. Biden arrive--Joe and Jill, our friends since we first met them in 1987, 38 years ago. No way to have known then how our paths would continue to cross, including this tribute to Jimmy Carter who befriended President Biden in his early political years and helped start us on our own political journey.

The casket makes its way up the aisle draped in an American flag. My attention turns from days long past to the drama playing out before us.

Carter’s Legacy

In a world where authenticity seems rare, I thrill to the voices of two Carter grandsons honoring their grandparents with their childhood memories; grandparents at the White House, then grandparents down the road. Jason Carter, Board Chair of the Carter Center, describes with detail his grandparents’ kitchen.

Will our grandchildren remember bowling at the White House, rolling on the floor near the Christmas tree under the watchful eye of Martha Washington in the East Room or lunch in the WH mess?

Phyllis Adams sings “Amazing Grace”. How sweet the sound, indeed! I have never heard a voice quite so pure, music so serene. “And Grace will bring me home.”

The sons of President Gerald Ford and Vice President Walter Mondale read the eulogies their fathers wrote before they died. I know nothing of these sons, but their poise would make their fathers proud and their words honoring President Carter, written long ago, still resonate.

That Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford became friends after campaigning against each other in 1976 seems remarkable in our divisive political times.

Walter Mondale, Carter’s Vice President, later became “of counsel” at Dorsey & Whitney, a Minneapolis Law firm with an affiliate in Des Moines where Tom worked before joining the Obama Cabinet. Mondale’s passion for the Boundary Waters brought the two together when Tom became Secretary.

A titan of Civil Rights, Ambassador Andrew Young rises from his wheelchair to deliver a tribute to an unlikely friend and fellow Georgian. As governor Tom visited Africa with Ambassador Young to promote the use of technology to improve crop production.

A few rows in front of us President Joe Biden rises for his official eulogy. In speeches he made during his first presidential campaign he quoted Plato, saying the price we pay for not getting involved is that we end up being governed by those less qualified than we are. This sentiment led Tom and me to campaign for him in Iowa. In December of 1986, a disgruntled citizen shot and killed our small-town mayor. When Joe Biden dropped out of his presidential race in 1987, Tom took his warning to heart and ran to replace our mayor. Surprising everyone, even us, he won.

And here we are.

Coming Home: The Road That Still Leads Forward

In his tribute to his mentor, the President says Jimmy Carter was a man of character. “Jimmy Carter showed us what it means to be a good and faithful servant, not just to God but to the people” And he admonished us all: “We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all, the abuse of power.”

I will take those words home with me.

As we celebrate a life well-lived at the Cathedral, we celebrate our own political journey, knowing that even as we come home again to small town life in Iowa, we are never finished building our own characters. We are not done being part of the Iowa story, the American story. We know that the character of our nation continues to be built, if not by us by those who come after.