“We told the truth. We obeyed the law. We kept the peace.”
Those simple words are inscribed in large letters on the wall of the Carter Center in Atlanta.
More than a fitting epitaph for President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, who died Dec. 29.
Truth, law and peace are lodestars for leaders in public service and all kinds of occupations. This is especially so for lawyers who historically have achieved a disproportionately large presence as leaders in the public and private sectors.
For example, of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 25 were lawyers, almost 45%. These brave patriots were in effect signing their own death warrant.
The approaching 250th anniversary of the Declaration, which the American Bar Association is preparing to observe over two years, should remind us that leadership also requires courage.
Not only the courage to face the prospect of physical harm, but also the courage to do the right thing regardless of political risks and self-interest.
That was the subject of President John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Profiles in Courage,” and it is a recurrent theme of the multitudinous tributes honoring President Carter since his death.
Although lawyers are a small fraction of the population, (0.4% according to the ABA, four for every 1,000 people), more than 10% of academic institutions are led by lawyers, roughly 10% of the CEOs of the Fortune 500 have law degrees, tens of thousands work as government lawyers at every level and by far, law remains the most common occupation of members of Congress.
In the current 119th Congress, 30% of the members of the House and more than 50% of the members of the Senate have law degrees and practiced law.
Of the 45 people who have served as U.S. President, 27 studied and practiced law.
A handful, including both Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson, attended law school but dropped out before graduating.
Of course, almost all judges are lawyers.
As our students work toward graduation, which concludes their formal legal education, we are determined to prepare them to be ready to begin their lifelong practical education as lawyers and likely leaders.
This includes a new course, Leadership in Law, created and taught by Academic Dean Courtney Barclay.
Her students will learn and practice principles and skills for effective leadership in law practice and other roles.
Inside and outside the classroom we will continue to make good use of lessons about leadership and purposeful service that can be gleaned from role models worth emulating, starting close to home with the outstanding bench, Bar and civic leaders of our city, throughout Florida, and studying leaders on the national and global stages.
For example, the beautiful life of Jimmy Carter is a rich case study for lawyers at all stages of their careers.
That is because with the privileges of our honorable profession come professional public responsibilities.
We can use our knowledge and skills to do well, but we must strive to do good.
Carter’s relentless perseverance to make the world better for others is a shining beacon for us all.
Carter has been described as a man from a bygone era. That is so only in the sense that he, perhaps rivaled only by Thomas Jefferson, was a Renaissance man.
In truth, Carter always was a trailblazer, a man ahead of his time, even as a newborn, considering that Carter is the first U.S. president born in a hospital.
The restless striving that helped clear his improbable untrod path from the farmland of small-town Georgia to the White House and four decades as one of the most stubbornly impactful humanitarians on the planet was evident from when he graduated first in his high school class in Plains, Georgia, at 16, entered the U.S. Naval Academy, and graduated as an officer and engineer.
Carter continued to demonstrate his penchant for plowing fresh ground by becoming a commander in the famously storied new nuclear submarine force led by the notably demanding Admiral Hyman Rickover.
Carter’s strength of character and virtue drove his unlikely rise as a contrarian anti-segregationist Southern governor who defeated a sitting U.S. president, and then despite the loss at the polls that ended his career as an elected politician after one term as president, reborn as a tireless global champion for the well-being of people and the world we live in.
Actually, from start to finish during his single term, America got two terms of work out of Carter. A few days after he was sworn in, Carter moved to heal old wounds.
He granted amnesty to Vietnam War draft evaders and his daughter, Amy, began fourth grade in a historically Black public elementary school a few blocks from the White House.
He successfully pursued the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt which stand to this day, the Panama Canal treaties, and the SALT II Strategic Arms Limitation.
Working with Congress he established the federal Energy and Education Departments, sought and signed legislation limiting strip mining and created the vast Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while doubling the land dedicated to national parks and wildlife preserves.
Carter wrestled with “stagflation,” energy crises, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdown, the Nicaraguan revolution, the end of détente and the renewed cold war over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which precipitated embargos and the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and of course the Iranian hostage crisis and the disastrous failed rescue attempt.
In 1977 during Carter’s inauguration, my wife, Marla, and I somehow wormed our way into the front row of the enormous crowd lining the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route.
Unabated patriotism and pride from the recent bicentennial observances bolstered the collective sense of relief and expectation for Carter’s presidency in those days when the country still felt the painful fractures of the Cold War, civil rights movement, Vietnam and the Watergate scandal.
Suddenly, the new president’s long black limousine stopped right in front of us. Carter and his beloved Rosalynn got out and started walking, hand-in-hand, toward the White House. He flashed his signature toothy grin, waved, and the crowd roared its delighted approval.
Every person among the thousands there felt as if Carter was waving and smiling at each of them.
After losing the 1980 presidential election in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, the Carters devoted themselves energetically to a life of service to others, including work in communities building housing for less advantaged Americans, humanitarian and social good works at home and abroad such as monitoring elections, advocating environmental protecting, peace and world health causes, even being credited with eradicating a lethal infectious disease spread by Guinea worm parasites that each year preyed on millions of people in Africa and Asia.
The Carters remained true to their humble mission even as accolades piled up such as the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as unusual honors such as naming a naval ship and a fish species after Carter.
Throughout it all, Carter taught Sunday school deep into his nineties.
Practicing what he preached, he leveraged his fame, not for personal profit, but to advocate for human rights and extend love for all one’s neighbors in hot spots all over the world courageously and often controversially.
True to scripture, Carter would turn the other cheek and try to embrace even his political adversaries. Repeatedly, he displayed the kind of magnanimous dignified spirit we should expect and seek in our leaders.
For example, on Aug. 25, 2009, news of my former boss, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s death reached us on our mobile phones just before the flight attendants secured the door for a long flight home after a trip to Israel.
We had been talking about Kennedy’s failing health the previous evening at dinner in the gardens of the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem.
At that dinner, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were, to our surprise, enjoying a quiet meal a few tables away. We asked the headwaiter to deliver a note thanking them for their continuing public service. Carter’s unexpected return note was extraordinarily gracious.
As we continued our dinner, we recounted the bitter democratic presidential primary fight in 1980 between Carter and Kennedy.
We especially recalled the awkward moment on the convention stage between the two when, after Carter secured the nomination, he unsuccessfully tried to get Kennedy to shake hands and pose together.
It must have been painfully embarrassing for the sitting president and chosen party leader to unsuccessfully chase the iconic senator around the large convention stage for a photo op of unity that never happened, but Carter tried.
After we landed in Philadelphia, as we walked through the concourse, the first voice we heard, delivering a touching elegy for Kennedy, was Jimmy Carter, on the airport television, speaking via satellite link from Israel. We cried.
We can teach our students and children that Carter’s fine example is not unattainable sainthood.
For starters, we can point to other role models whose leadership is worth emulating.
Those on opposite sides of the political spectrum who are very different people can become friends.
Those who display courtesy, mutual respect, a shared love of our constitutional institutions can get along despite strong disagreements about policy.
In a civil society, we can agree to disagree, find common ground, elevate and move forward in pursuit of a more perfect union.
The respectful attention deservedly being paid to Carter’s remarkable life and career in public service provides us with a powerful teaching moment.
We can remember Carter’s example when teaching, speaking with each other and certainly when we are with children, about what government officials, public figures and good leaders say and do about the controversies of our day.
That’s not a bad lesson from a life well lived by a Sunday school teacher.