Remembering Jimmy Carter: Praise from US and Foreign Leaders
Joe Biden led US presidents and other world leaders in paying tribute Sunday to Jimmy Carter, who died aged 100. “America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House. He added later in a televised address that Carter “lived a life measured not by words, but by his deeds.” President-elect Donald Trump said Americans owe Carter “a debt of gratitude.” Among former US presidents, Bill Clinton said his predecessor had “worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world.” George W. Bush said Carter “dignified the office. And his efforts to leave behind a better world didn’t end with the presidency.” Barack Obama hailed Carter for teaching “all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service.”
‘Lover of democracy’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the 39th US president “was early to recognize that protecting our shared planet and promoting global public health were vital to national security interests.” At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Carter would be remembered “for his solidarity with the vulnerable, his abiding grace, and his unrelenting faith in the common good and our common humanity.” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted Carter’s post-presidency work with his foundation “saved countless lives and helped bring many neglected tropical diseases close to elimination.” Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hailed Carter as “a lover of democracy and defender of peace,” noting his pressuring of Brazil’s dictatorship to release political prisoners. Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised Carter as “a symbol of humanitarian efforts” for his role in brokering the historic 1978 Camp David Accords, which established peace between Egypt and Israel.
‘Look to the stars’
Carter’s legacy lies even beyond Earth, as NASA Administrator Bill Nelson pointed out Sunday. The space agency’s Voyager 1 probe, launched in 1977 and still flying through the stars, carries a recorded message from Carter “that captures his core goodness and grace.” Carter says in the recording: “This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. “We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations.” Nelson, in a statement, added that “President Carter understood an important truth: that we find common ground when we look to the stars.”
