“Top” Ten Losses of 2024: Jimmy Carter (#1)

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Along with the music people I’ve been looking back at people from other walks of life who left us in 2024. To close out the month, and the list, there can really be only one choice. His death left a gaping hole in our country. Here’s the biggest loss of 2024, not only for me but for a lot of people worldwide. #1: Jimmy Carter I enlisted in the Navy in 1979, so President Jimmy Carter — himself a Naval Academy graduate (the only Naval Academy graduate to ever be president) — was my first Commander in Chief. And I’ll tell you something funny: I didn’t vote for Jimmy Carter. I was too young in 1976, and I voted for the independent John Anderson in 1980. Personally, I don’t think Carter was that good a president. However, to be fair, he had a lot of problems that weren’t all his fault (inflation that was synonymous with the last half of the 70s…his predecessor, Gerald Ford, gave us the cutesy but ineffective “WIN: Whip Inflation Now” slogan), and the Iranian hostage crisis. To his credit, he DID try a rescue operation; however, it failed. (If it had succeeded he probably would have been reelected.) I mentioned this in a response to someone else’s discussion last month: I personally think Jimmy Carter was way too honest to be president. That’s a stinging indictment on us as a people who prefer liars. Still, he helped broker the Mideast Peace Plan (which sadly cost Anwar Sadat his life in 1981 for daring to make peace with Israel) as the crowning achievement of his presidency. It was after he left office that he made a bigger difference, working with Habitat for Humanity. I’m sure you’ve seen that photo of him, bruised from a recent fall, at the age of NINETY FIVE, out working with Habitat for Humanity to build a house. Despite the 1978 peace accomplishment, Carter didn’t win a Nobel Peace Prize until 2002. (To be fair, Sadat and Menachem Begin rightfully got the 1978 prize.) I would say that Jimmy Carter wore his faith on his sleeve, but no, that’s too tame. The man LIVED his faith. Along the way, he made the world better. Salute, President Carter. Thank you for reading. Jimmy Carter Born James Earl Carter, Jr., October 1, 1924, Plains, Georgia Died December 29, 2024, Plains Georgia (natural causes) (age 100) Here’s a CBS Sunday Morning article about the then-81-year-old former president and his devotion to God and people: