With the passing of Jimmy Carter the last vestiges of an era have gone.
It is fitting to remember a time when:
- a peanut farmer from Georgia could be elected president
- the rule of law was mighty enough to topple a president
- the majority of Americans cast their vote for an honest government
A time to remember the men and women who matured during the Great Depression and then answered the call to duty in the Second World War.
A generation more given to service than selfishness.
It can be said that a crisis exposes the best and the worst in us. Certainly in the Watergate affair we witnessed a graphic testimony to these conflicting forces.
A time of great villains and great heroes.
At the time I was a young man working in Washington D.C. I had the good fortune to work for a nonprofit with a group of really outstanding individuals who toiled in impoverished communities around the world.
Joe Thomas and Neil Vance, who worked with me in Washington, remain two of my dearest friends.
When the Watergate story broke I had a front row seat and was in a position to follow the developments in real time. I even attended one of the fabled hearings.
It was a tale of agony and ecstasy.
- Agony in that the president and many in his cabinet broke the law
- Ecstasy in that the rule of law held, supported by most Americans
I was proud to be an American and felt the true power of — E Pluribus Unum.
I want to share a personal memory…
It occurred late one night at a baggage carousel in the airport at Minneapolis-St. Paul.
It was shortly after Carter’s inauguration. I had been on a weather-delayed flight from Washington to Minneapolis and we had landed after 10 p.m.
My bag, along with that of another passenger, had been misplaced and we were left waiting for what seemed like an eternity.
The other passenger with whom I was standing turned out to be none other than Senator Hubert H. Humphrey.
It seemed so serendipitous since I had just read the speech he had given on the Senate floor the day before.
As it turned out, it would be his last.
For those of you too young to remember Hubert Humphrey, he was a former Vice President, a United States Senator and the Democratic candidate for President in 1968.
He had been a pioneer in the fight for civil rights.
He helped usher in a whole new age in the civil rights movement with his fiery speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1948.
“Friends, delegates, I do not believe that there can be any compromise on the guarantees of the civil rights.” ~ Hubert Humphrey
It was Humphrey who shepherded into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
As we stood waiting I couldn’t help but take note of his drawn, weary face.
I thought, how could THIS man be the SAME who had given such a rousing speech the day before. A speech that sounded like marching orders for a new generation of leaders.
“We stand at such a moment now — in the affairs of this nation. Because, my fellow Americans, something new, something different has happened. It is the end of an era and is the beginning of a new day…”
He closed with the immortal Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:
“Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.”
A farewell address of a man with only weeks to live.
I knew I must say something.
So I walked over, reached out and clasped his hand with both of mine and said, “Senator, I just want to tell you what a cherished gift you’ve been to the nation and such an inspiration to so many in my generation. All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you.”
What he said next was something I’ve never forgotten.
He smiled, winked, and said,
“Young man, now it’s your turn.”
A summons that stayed with me for 50 years.
With the passing of Jimmy Carter a new generation has been summoned to serve their nation with the same measure of honor and sacrifice as the last.
Let our prayer be that those men and women summoned come forward — and let them come quickly.
Just a thought…
Pat