Following the death of former President Jimmy Carter, Bay Area residents and politicians remembered the impact of his presidency and the instance he set as a public servant.

California State Senator Scott Weinerwho represents San Francisco, Broadmoor, Colma, Daly City and parts of South San Francisco, called Carter a “great American” who “continued his public service for the rest of his life after leaving office and his love for all people everywhere.” showed”. in a post on X.

The Carter Center confirmed on social media platform He was 100 years old, the longest-living president in American history.

Vice President Kamala Harris was positive about his time in office, writing, “As president, he protected our air and water, promoted transparency in government, and brokered a historic peace treaty between Egypt and Israel at Camp David.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an announcement highlighting Carter's efforts as “a tireless champion of human rights and democracy whose unparalleled dedication to service has made the world a better place.”

“President Carter was a man of rare character – whose convictions were true and deeply held, whose moral compass never wavered,” Newsom said. “He saw the common humanity in all of us, building bridges between people of different faiths and factions abroad while working to meet the needs of people at home. Despite tremendous challenges and difficult times, his radiant energy and spirit never faltered.”

Lateefah Simonan Emeryville resident who was elected to Congress this 12 months posted

Carter's influence prolonged to the Bay Area, as state Sen. Dave Cortese, who represents Silicon Valley, fondly recalled a dinner and conversation with the previous president.

“One of our lasting memories is having dinner and a great conversation with President Carter at the home of Mike and Mary Ellen Fox in Saratoga. I was lucky enough to sit right next to him,” Cortese said.

Some Bay Area residents also mourned the late former president. Janine Von Furst, a 70-year-old Alameda resident, says she met Carter briefly on a visit to Washington, D.C., when she was an intern for Illinois Senator Adlai Stevenson III.

“He couldn’t have been a nicer or more appreciative man. RIP,” Von Furst said.

Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi said she and her husband mourned the previous president and expressed gratitude for his life.

“At the heart of President Carter’s public service was his passionate commitment to honoring the spark of divinity in every person,” Pelosi said. “He has always championed that spark: whether as a Sunday school teacher at his beloved Marantha Baptist Church, brokering the landmark Camp David Accords to pave the way to peace, or building homes with Habitat for Humanity.”

Carter was known for his work “Habitat for Humanity.” In fact, Carter and his wife Rosalynn made a stop within the Bay Area in 2016 as a part of their national tour celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Habitat's Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project.

To raise awareness of the necessity for inexpensive housing, the couple helped renovate a house in east San Jose.

“Sometimes people say to us, 'Well, you're only working on one house,'” Carter told The Mercury News in 2016. “But look at the impact on this couple here if they get their house. This is profound. Second, Habitat is an example of how we can all help hard-working, low-income, middle-class people and stand up for the basic human right to a decent place to live.”

The Greater SF branch of Habitat for Humanity also wrote of the previous president: “As a father, husband and volunteer, former President Carter was instrumental in making Habitat for Humanity what it is today.”

Senator Adam Schiff wrote on X“President Jimmy Carter leaves a legacy like no other.” Unceasing in his service, unwavering in his dignity and revered for his commitment to our shared humanity. He fought the nice fight and kept the religion – and now he has finished his race.”

California State Senator Jesse Arreguínwho represents Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley, Richmond and a number of other cities in West Contra Costa County, also wrote on . “the promotion of human rights, social justice and peace.”

Originally published: December 29, 2024 at 5:04 pm PST

policy

ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who tried to revive virtue within the White House after the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War, then recovered from a landslide defeat to turn out to be a world champion of human rights and democracy, has died. He was 100 years old.

The Carter Center said the thirty ninth president died Sunday, greater than a yr after entering hospice care, at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died in November 2023, lived most of their lives .

Carter, a moderate Democrat, ran for president in 1976 because the little-known governor of Georgia with a broad grin, exuberant Baptist faith and technocratic plans for efficient government. His promise to never deceive the American people was well received after Richard Nixon's disgrace and the U.S. defeat in Southeast Asia.

“If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. “I don’t deserve to be your president,” Carter said.

Carter's victory over Republican Gerald Ford, whose fortunes plummeted after Nixon's pardon, got here amid the pressures of the Cold War, turbulent oil markets and social unrest over race, women's rights and America's role on this planet. His achievements included brokering peace within the Middle East by detaining Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David for 13 days in 1978.

But his coalition splintered under double-digit inflation and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His negotiations eventually brought all of the hostages home alive, but in a final insult, Iran didn’t release them until the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, who had defeated him within the 1980 election.

Humbled and at home in Georgia, Carter said his faith required him to do every little thing he could for so long as possible to attempt to make a difference. He and Rosalynn co-founded the Carter Center in 1982 and spent the following 40 years traveling the world as peacemakers, human rights activists, and advocates for democracy and public health.

Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Carter helped reduce nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiate ceasefires in Bosnia and Sudan. As of 2022, the middle had monitored at the least 113 elections worldwide. Carter was determined to eradicate Guinea worm infections as one in every of many public health initiatives. In their 90s, the Carters built homes with Habitat for Humanity.

The general statement that he was higher as a former president annoyed Carter. His allies were pleased that he lived long enough to see biographers and historians revisit his presidency and declare it more impactful than many believed on the time.

Fueled by voters in Iowa after which throughout the South in 1976, Carter ran a no-frills campaign. Americans were captivated by the intense engineer, and while an election yr Playboy interview drew laughter when he said he had “looked at a lot of women with lust.” I actually have often committed adultery in my heart,” voters who were bored with political cynicism found this appealing.

The first family set an off-the-cuff tone on the White House by carrying their very own luggage, attempting to silence the Marine Band's traditional “Hail to the Chief” and enrolling daughter Amy in public schools. Carter was mocked for wearing a cardigan and urging Americans to show down their thermostats.

But Carter set the stage for an economic revival and significantly reduced America's dependence on foreign oil by deregulating the energy industry in addition to airlines, trains and trucking. He created the Departments of Energy and Education, appointed record numbers of girls and non-whites to federal office, preserved tens of millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness, and pardoned many of the draft dodgers in Vietnam.

He emphasized human rights, largely ended support for military dictators and addressed bribery by multinational corporations by signing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He convinced the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal Treaties and normalize relations with China, a results of Nixon's efforts to woo Beijing.

But paralyzing shifts in foreign policy took their toll.

As OPEC raised crude oil prices and drivers had to attend in line to replenish with gas as inflation hit 11%, Carter tried to encourage Americans to beat “a crisis of confidence.” Many voters as a substitute lost faith in Carter after the infamous speech, which the media called his “malaise speech,” though he never used that word.

After Carter reluctantly agreed to confess the exiled Shah of Iran to the United States for medical treatment, the American embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979. Negotiations to quickly release the hostages failed, after which eight Americans died in a top-secret military rescue attempt gone fallacious.

After the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Carter also needed to make a U-turn on the SALT II nuclear weapons treaty. Although historians later credited Carter's diplomatic efforts with hastening the top of the Cold War, Republicans characterised his soft power as weak. Reagan's appeals to “Make America Great Again” were well received, and he defeated Carter in all but six states.

James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924 and married his compatriot Rosalynn Smith in 1946, the yr he graduated from the Naval Academy. He brought his young family back to Plains after his father's death and gave up his Navy profession. They soon turned their ambitions to politics. Carter reached the state Senate in 1962. After rural white and black voters elected him governor in 1970, he gained national attention by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.”

Carter published greater than 30 books and remained influential as his center focused its democracy advocacy on U.S. politics and oversaw an audit of the 2020 presidential election ends in Georgia.

After a cancer diagnosis in 2015, Carter said he was “completely comfortable with whatever comes.”

“I had a wonderful life,” he said. “I had thousands of friends, I had an exciting, adventurous and fulfilling life.”