By Marian Wright Edelman
This has been a week of mourning for former President Jimmy Carter and public recognition of his legacy and impact at home and around the world. President Carter once called justice, truth, humility, service, compassion, and love “the guiding lights of a life,” and those principles were the threads woven through the long lists of his own accomplishments. From people who shared why they gathered to watch his funeral motorcade and stood in long lines to pay their respects in Georgia and at the U.S. Capitol, to the honored speakers at the state funeral ceremony held at Washington National Cathedral, two words in particular were heard again and again: character and service.
In his eulogy, President Joe Biden called character President Carter’s “enduring attribute,” and said, “It’s an accumulation of a million things built on character that leads to a good life and a decent country—a life of purpose, a life of meaning.” He shared key questions to ask while defining a good life: “Are we striving to do things—the right things? What are the values that animate our spirit? Do we operate from fear or hope, ego or generosity? Do we show grace? Do we keep the faith when it’s most tested?” President Biden added: “[President Carter] showed us how character and faith start with ourselves and then flow to others. At our best, we share the better parts of ourselves: joy, solidarity, love, commitment—not for reward, but in reverence for the incredible gift of life we’ve all been granted. To make every minute of our time here on Earth count, that’s the definition of a good life—a life Jimmy Carter lived during his 100 years. To young people, to anyone in search of meaning and purpose, study the power of Jimmy Carter’s example.”
It was clear that many mourners were deeply inspired by the example of character and service they saw in President Carter’s life. Will children and young people today continue to be inspired by their importance? Who will be the next leaders setting those examples? Will young people learn to be motivated by generosity, humility, solidarity, and compassion? Who will be the visible models of servant leadership children and young people can look up to as they become the next generation of leaders the nation and world need today and tomorrow?
One of the lessons of President Carter’s life was that he did not make an impact only because he was a president: he made an impact as a husband, father, and grandfather, a volunteer, a Sunday School teacher, and in the dozens of other roles that mattered throughout his long life. Character and service are values that can and should be transcendent in every sphere.
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Lord I cannot preach like Martin Luther King, Jr.
or turn a poetic phrase like Maya Angelou and Robert Frost
but I care and am willing to serve.
I do not have Harriet Tubman’s courage,
or Eleanor Roosevelt’s and Wilma Mankiller’s political skills
but I care and am willing to serve.
I cannot sing like Marian Anderson or Fannie Lou Hamer
or organize like Ella Baker and Bayard Rustin
but I care and am willing to serve.
I am not holy like Archbishop Tutu,
forgiving like Nelson Mandela, or disciplined like Mahatma Gandhi
but I care and am willing to serve.
I am not brilliant like Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois or
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, or as eloquent as
Sojourner Truth and Booker T. Washington
but I care and am willing to serve.
I have not Mother Teresa’s saintliness, The Dalai Lama’s or
Dorothy Day’s love, or Cesar Chavez’s
gentle tough spirit
but I care and am willing to serve.
God it is not as easy as in the 60’s
to frame an issue and forge a solution
but I care and am willing to serve.
My mind and body are not so swift as in youth
and my energy comes in spurts
but I care and am willing to serve.
I’m so young
nobody will listen
I feel invisible and hopeless and I’m not sure what to say or do
but I care and am willing to serve.
I can’t see or hear well or speak good English,
I stutter sometimes, am afraid of criticism,
and get real scared standing up before others
but I care and am willing to serve.
God, use me as You will today and tomorrow to help build
a nation and world where every child is valued and protected.
where no child is left behind and everyone feels welcome and justly treated.
**
May we all, like President Jimmy Carter, remain ready and willing to care and serve.