The United States said goodbye to its oldest living president, President Jimmy Carter, who served as commander-in-chief from 1977 to 1981. He was 99 years old.
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00:00The United States has said goodbye to its oldest living president, President Jimmy Carter,
00:05who served as commander-in-chief from 1977 to 1981. He was 100 years old.
00:11In the last years of his life, President Carter experienced a number of serious health conditions
00:15but was declared cancer-free in 2015 following treatment for melanoma, which had spread to
00:20his brain and liver. To the surprise of no one who knew him, he refused to give up his
00:24Sunday school teaching duties during his cancer treatment. Several years later, he had surgery
00:28to relieve pressure on his brain. He also experienced numerous falls, requiring medical
00:32care and stitches to patch him up.
00:34Still, he enjoyed being active and involved in public life until relatively recently,
00:38being unable to travel to attend President Biden's inauguration in 2021. However, Biden
00:43did pay him a visit a few months later.
00:45You can see former First Lady Rosalynn walking the Bidens out of their home.
00:50This was a notable occasion, making Biden the first sitting president to visit the Carters
00:54in their home.
00:55In mid-February 2023, the Carter Center provided an update on the former president. It read,
01:00After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided
01:04to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of
01:08additional medical intervention. He has the full support of his family and his medical
01:12team. The Carter family asked for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concerns
01:16shown by his many admirers.
01:18In November of the same year, his beloved wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, was also put on
01:22hospice care. She died at home on November 19 with her family by her side. She was 96
01:28years old. Despite his fragile state, President Carter attended her memorial services in Georgia.
01:33Here comes former President Jimmy Carter, who has been in hospice care since February.
01:41Even though President Carter only served one term, his legacy has only become more apparent
01:45with time. As the Miller Center at the University of Virginia puts it,
01:49Along with his predecessor, Gerald Ford, Carter must be given credit for restoring the balance
01:53to the constitutional system after the excesses of the Johnson and Nixon imperial presidency.
01:59His presidency was informed not only by lessons he learned as governor of Georgia from 1971
02:04to 1975, his home state, but also by his time spent running his family peanut businesses,
02:09Carter Farms and Carter Warehouses. He was characterized by modesty, empathy, informality,
02:14and a rejection of pork-barrel politics. He refused to be carted around in a limousine
02:19on Inauguration Day, often addressed the nation wearing a cardigan, hated backroom
02:23political dealings, pardoned Vietnam-era draft dodgers, and lived his entire life in the
02:28same home he bought in 1961.
02:30Carter's administration was known for increasing jobs upwards of an additional 8 million nationwide,
02:36and the national budget deficit fell during his four years in the Oval Office. He was
02:39responsible for the creation of the Department of Education and was known for his efforts
02:43to increase diversity in the government workforce. He also preserved 157 million acres of the
02:48natural lands in the United States. Unfortunately, his administration was plagued by congressional
02:53pettiness, national energy crises, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The
02:59Iran hostage crisis and his administration's response to it was also considered a major
03:03factor in why he lost re-election in 1980.
03:06The government of Iran must recognize the gravity of the situation which it has itself
03:13created."
03:14Despite all of that, it's what President Carter did after his presidency that people remember
03:19most. Not one to be waylaid, he and Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in 1982, shortly
03:24after his presidency ended. The center's tagline, Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope,
03:29is no pie-in-the-sky phrasing. The Carter Center has almost completely by itself been
03:34responsible for the eradication of guinea worm, a horrifying disease that afflicted
03:38African nations for decades, whereby crustaceans in infected water lay eggs inside the human
03:42body, and meters-long worms burrow out through the flesh. There were 3.5 million cases in
03:491980, and in 2016, there were only two. As President Carter said, no one else was addressing
03:54the disease, so he decided to take care of it.
03:57And so, over 30 years, the Carter Center contacted 203,600 villages to teach them about water
04:03filtration, sanitation, and medical practices. He and Rosalynn were also known for contributing
04:08one week of their time each year to help build homes throughout the world with Habitat for
04:11Humanity. Notably, they volunteered with many others to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina
04:16devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005.
04:19As far as American presidents go, President Carter was possibly the most human of them
04:23all, and his example will hopefully continue to inspire future generations.
04:28Rest in peace, Jimmy.