195. Jimmy Carter’s Enduring Legacy: Peace, Music, and Leadership

[00:00:06] Welcome to episode 195, which is a Girl Take the Lead soundbite, which is a shorter episode that may be a bit more about a topic we've covered or quick inspiration like our episode today. And I'm your host, Yolanda Canny.

[00:00:21] This month, we've been talking about grief. And this episode could be an example of anticipatory grief because we're talking about Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States.

[00:00:36] who recently on October 1st celebrated his 100th birthday.

[00:00:43] You know, there are a ton of things to admire about him.

[00:00:48] I recently shared some of them with some millennials I know who said, wow, I had no idea.

[00:00:55] So I'll take the opportunity today to share some of my learning with you about this great man.

[00:01:02] Enjoy the listen. And here you go.

[00:01:09] Here are some facts about President Carter.

[00:01:12] He defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 election, and that was the first election I ever got to vote in.

[00:01:20] I was so excited.

[00:01:22] Gerald Ford was the 38th president upon the resignation of President Richard Nixon on August 9th, 1974.

[00:01:33] And Ford was a Republican from Michigan, and he had been appointed vice president on December 6th, 1973, following the resignation of Spiro Agnew from the office.

[00:01:49] He was pretty crazy in the 70s.

[00:01:54] He had one of the highest approval ratings when taking office at 75%.

[00:01:59] And then on the very low side, when he left at about 34%.

[00:02:05] He is the longest living president in history.

[00:02:11] He was born and raised in Plains, Georgia, which had a population of 653 people at the time of his election.

[00:02:21] And that is a small town.

[00:02:23] Oh, yeah.

[00:02:24] He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and joined the U.S. Navy Submarine Service.

[00:02:32] Carter served on the submarine SSK-1 as an executive officer, engineering officer, and electronics repair officer.

[00:02:43] He also served in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, rising to the rank of lieutenant.

[00:02:51] Carter's awards include the American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, China Service Medal, and National Defense Service Medal.

[00:03:02] As a submarine officer, he also earned the Dolphin Badge.

[00:03:07] So what is a Dolphin Badge, you might ask?

[00:03:10] It's a uniform breast pin worn by qualified submariners to indicate their submarine expertise.

[00:03:20] The Dolphin is one of the Navy's oldest warfare devices and a source of pride for the submarine community.

[00:03:28] The qualification process to earn the Dolphin pin is extensive and can take about a year.

[00:03:36] It covers almost every system on the submarine.

[00:03:41] In February 2005, the USS Jimmy Carter was commissioned.

[00:03:47] It is the Sea Wolf class, which is a class of nuclear powered submarines in the United States Navy.

[00:03:56] The USS Jimmy Carter is the third and final submarine in the class and does secret missions.

[00:04:04] Carter's knowledge of nuclear reactors and energy was useful when he became president in 1977.

[00:04:13] He also helped save a Canadian nuclear reactor after a meltdown.

[00:04:21] And this man was all about peace.

[00:04:25] Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders on his second day in office.

[00:04:31] He successfully pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal treaties and the second round of the strategic arms limitation talks or assault talks.

[00:04:45] He also confronted stagflation.

[00:04:49] The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements made by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978,

[00:05:05] following 12 days of secret negotiations at Camp David.

[00:05:11] The Panama Canal treaties were signed by President Jimmy Carter and the Panamanian Chief of Government on September 7, 1977.

[00:05:20] The treaties established the governing standards for the Panama Canal until 1999 and guaranteed the canal's neutrality.

[00:05:30] The treaties were controversial in the United States, particularly among conservatives.

[00:05:36] The Senate's approval of the treaties was difficult with strong opposition from the public and Congress.

[00:05:42] However, the Senate ratified the treaties by a vote of 68 to 32 and Carter signed the implementation legislation into law on September 27, 1979.

[00:05:56] The salt talks were a series of negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union to limit their nuclear weapons.

[00:06:06] And stagnation in the 1970s was a period with both high inflation and uneven economic growth.

[00:06:15] High budget deficits, lower interest rates, the oil embargo and the collapse of managed currency rates contributed to stagflation.

[00:06:26] However, he created a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology.

[00:06:36] His administration established the U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Education.

[00:06:44] Building on important environmental work as president, Carter installed the first solar panels at the White House and saved millions of acres in Alaska from development.

[00:06:57] This was long before climate change was widely recognized.

[00:07:02] The end of his presidency was marked by the Iranian hostage crisis, an energy crisis, the Three Mile Island accident, the Nicaraguan Revolution, and his Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

[00:07:19] In response to the invasion, Carter escalated the Cold War by ending detente, imposing a grain embargo against the Soviets, enunciating the Carter Doctrine, and leading the multinational boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

[00:07:40] He lost the 1980 presidential campaign in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, the Republican nominee.

[00:07:50] Yeah, he wasn't very popular with a lot of these things.

[00:07:55] Post-White House, he established the Carter Center to promote and expand human rights.

[00:08:01] And in 2002, he received a Nobel Peace Prize for related work.

[00:08:07] He traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations and monitor elections.

[00:08:14] Carter is a key figure in the nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity.

[00:08:21] He's also written several books, ranging from political memoirs to poetry, while continuing to comment on global affairs, including two books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

[00:08:35] Okay.

[00:08:37] Okay.

[00:08:37] So as if that was not enough, I came to admire him greatly as I watched a documentary on my flight to Memphis recently called Jimmy Carter, Rock and Roll President.

[00:08:51] And you don't need to go to Memphis to watch it.

[00:08:54] And it looks like it's streaming on most platforms, and I'll have some in the show notes for you.

[00:08:59] These are some of my takeaways from the film.

[00:09:02] One, Jimmy saw music as the one thing we all have in common, no matter where we live.

[00:09:11] And he loved all kinds of music.

[00:09:15] And it's what he says held America together, no matter the genre.

[00:09:23] Two, some of his closest friends were musicians.

[00:09:28] Willie Nelson.

[00:09:30] Let's start there.

[00:09:31] Carter and Nelson were close friends and would sometimes perform together.

[00:09:37] Carter said this.

[00:09:39] During the Iranian hostage crisis, I would play Willie Nelson music primarily so I could think about my problems and say a few prayers.

[00:09:54] And there was Johnny Cash.

[00:09:56] And there was Johnny Cash.

[00:09:57] Did you know that Johnny Cash and President Jimmy Carter were cousins?

[00:10:03] And Greg Allman, the Southern Rock group, was known for being rowdy and doing drugs and getting into fights.

[00:10:14] Just a whole different kind of thing, really, than any of the other artists.

[00:10:20] Other politicians would have considered that political kryptonite.

[00:10:25] But not Carter.

[00:10:27] In the film, he credits the band with helping him drum up support so he could reach the White House.

[00:10:35] Greg Allman, in fact, was among Carter's first guests after his election win.

[00:10:43] Bob Dylan.

[00:10:44] Bob Dylan.

[00:10:45] Bob Dylan.

[00:10:45] Oh, my goodness.

[00:10:46] He said the story of the first time he and Carter met.

[00:10:51] The first thing he did was, quote, my songs back to me.

[00:10:55] It was the first time that I realized my songs had reached into, basically, the establishment world.

[00:11:06] He called Carter, quote, a kindred spirit to me of a rare kind.

[00:11:15] Carter also hosted many musicians at the White House, including those who helped him get elected.

[00:11:22] Carter also hosted a White House jazz fest in 1978, featuring performances from Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Max Roach, and Sammy Rowlands.

[00:11:44] Carter was also a musician who enjoyed playing and repairing guitars.

[00:11:50] Number three, there's a story in Willie Nelson's memoir that he smoked pot on the White House roof with one of Carter's aides.

[00:12:00] But Jimmy corrects him to say it was his son Chip, not one of his aides.

[00:12:08] Oh, gosh.

[00:12:09] Before.

[00:12:10] He used music as a marketing strategy to attract voters to his campaign events.

[00:12:16] It was his idea, and he was the first to do it.

[00:12:21] Some of the musicians who performed at fundraising concerts for Carter included the Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels, and John Denver.

[00:12:37] This is such a way to win this marketer's heart over.

[00:12:41] And number five, I loved it in the film when he was committed to getting the hostages home alive, and he said, quote,

[00:12:51] what is the right thing to do is not always what is politically advantageous.

[00:12:59] There's a story before Jimmy Carter, rock and roll president, premiered.

[00:13:04] Jason Carter, the president's grandson, was asked about the title.

[00:13:10] Jason said this, that his grandfather said that the two things he most was proud of in the world are,

[00:13:20] one, having a U.S. naval submarine named after himself, and two, being called the rock and roll president.

[00:13:30] And most of us know that he's hanging on so he can cast his vote for Kamala and see her elected president.

[00:13:41] As we end today's episode, I'd like to share the following words from President Carter.

[00:13:49] And I'm thinking if we asked him what he'd tell his 20-something self, it might be something like this, quote,

[00:13:57] earlier in my life, I thought the things that mattered were the things that you could see,

[00:14:05] like your car, your house, your wealth, your property, your office.

[00:14:13] But as I've grown older, I've become convinced that the things that matter most are the things that you can't see,

[00:14:23] the love you share with others, your inner purpose, your comfort with who you are.

[00:14:34] And I love this one, which he said, and I think it's about generosity and leadership, quote,

[00:14:42] A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained.

[00:14:54] It can afford to extend a helping hand to others.

[00:14:59] It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness

[00:15:09] and other signs of insecurity.

[00:15:14] And lastly, I love this one about friendship, quote,

[00:15:19] I'm proud of my relationship with the Allman Brothers Band.

[00:15:24] They are good people.

[00:15:26] They are my friends.

[00:15:29] And anybody who wants a president who doesn't like music like this

[00:15:34] and who doesn't like people who make music like this

[00:15:39] should simply vote for another man.

[00:15:48] Thank you for listening today.

[00:15:50] We sure hope you enjoyed this episode and found it inspirational.

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[00:16:33] So here are three takeaways from our episode.

[00:16:36] One, Jimmy Carter certainly deserves to be called the rock and roll president.

[00:16:43] He saw music as the one thing we all have in common, no matter where we live.

[00:16:50] Two, he inspires us to have faith, do what we believe to be right,

[00:16:58] no matter how much others see this as inappropriate.

[00:17:05] Three, while some will not look kindly on his time as president,

[00:17:11] he is an aspiring, decent human being.

[00:17:16] Thank you, Mr. President, for all you have done.

[00:17:21] I am already grieving our loss.

[00:17:28] Our next episode will kick off some episodes about technology and conflict.

[00:17:34] Whoa, what a great combination.

[00:17:38] So please join us again and talk to you soon.

[00:17:42] Bye.