Encounters with a Former President
And Gandhi's Seven Sins
There once was a time, now no longer true for Democrats, when if Iowans wanted to see, meet, probably even visit with a candidate seeking to become president of the United States, you could. It wasn’t especially difficult. They came around, perhaps to your county, certainly to your region… and spoke, took questions, engaged with potential voters. For maybe a four-month period every four or eight years, presidential aspirants were about as accessible as U.S. Senate or U.S. House candidates. As many have noted, this is largely because of a certain presidential campaign in 1976.
This is my way of introducing that, over the years, I had numerous small encounters with the late President Jimmy Carter. I chuckle at the thought, in part because in his presidential campaigns, I was never a staunch Carter supporter.
For many Iowans, me included, Jimmy Carter’s recent death brings forth a fresh wave of memories. His breakthrough moment on the national stage came in Iowa’s precinct caucuses in 1976… enough to power him not only to secure the Democratic Party nomination but also to gain the White House. I wasn’t yet sold on him in the winter of ’75-’76 and was a steadfast “uncommitted”… holding out for something better (in retrospect, probably a longshot hope that my hero, Hubert Humphrey, might once again mount a challenge).
My first Carter encounter took place in December 1974. The week before he formally announced his presidential campaign, Carter attended the first Democratic Party mid-term conference, in Kansas City. I was there, a very green 20-year-old delegate; he was simply working the crowd, quietly, persistently, one or two individuals at a time. We chatted for maybe three minutes, just the two of us. I remember him saying his son Chip was about my age (he’s actually four years older).
As I recall, he told me he was running for president; let’s face it – it wasn’t exactly a secret. I had been getting mailings from him for months. What I recall about our first conversation is that he had all the time in the world. And why not? He was still “Jimmy Who?” and there wasn’t any realistic chance of him actually becoming president. Ha.
In 1975, Carter was one of several speakers at the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner and my college roommate, Randy, and I attended, got his autograph, had our photo taken with him. Randy had a pack of cigarettes bulging out of his pocket, making him reluctant to show his mother. (I told him to say it was a pocket New Testament.) The impression, again, was one of easy accessibility and a candidate with ample time to visit, listen, and engage.
Jimmy Carter attended the same event in the fall of 1977, when I invited my two youngest brothers to tag along. Ah, but that was different. Then we were seeing the President of the United States.
Mid-January 1978 was one of the most eventful weeks of my life. I was on staff at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and pursuing a relationship with a wonderful woman I had known since our freshman year at Luther, fall of 1972. She had taken a management training position at General Mills in the Twin Cities and, on Friday, the 13th, I was driving north from Decorah to spend the weekend with her. Enroute, a news report said Hubert Humphrey was nearing death. After our restaurant dinner, we learned indeed HHH had died; the funeral would be on Monday, January 16.
I decided to stay one extra day and attend. I had to wait in a long line outside the church for maybe 90 minutes before getting in. Dang, it was cold, a low of -11, a high of +3 that day in St. Paul. [Sidebar: that night, Paula and I decided to marry, something that happened in August, 1978.]
Jimmy Carter spoke at Humphrey’s funeral. It was the first of two times I saw him that week. On Thursday, I flew to Washington D.C., part of a group of several hundred Iowans. We listened to Carter’s first State of the Union address in the East Room of the White House. I fondly recall telling Randy, then working for the Iowa Democratic Party and also an attendee, that I was going to get married… to Paula. His response: “That’s GREAT! Paula who?” I admit to having dated several women with that name.
After the speech, the President joined us in the East Room for a formal receiving line. I recall being asked by Rosalynn Carter for my name, after which she turned to the President and said, “Jimmy, this is Kurt Meyer.” At which point, President Carter said something like how glad he was we could both share in this gathering. I mentioned how much I appreciated his kind words about Humphrey that concluded his State of the Union:
“(T)oday, the flag of the United States flew at half-mast from this Capitol and from American installations and ships all over the world, in mourning for Senator Hubert Humphrey. Because he exemplified so well the joy and the zest of living, his death reminds us not so much of our own mortality, but of the possibilities offered to us by life. He always looked to the future with a special American kind of confidence, of hope and enthusiasm. And the best way that we can honor him is by following his example.
Our task – to use the words of Senator Humphrey – is "reconciliation, rebuilding, and rebirth." Reconciliation of private needs and interests into a higher purpose. Rebuilding the old dreams of justice and liberty, and country and community. Rebirth of our faith in the common good. Each of us here tonight – and all who are listening in your homes – must rededicate ourselves to serving the common good. We are a community, a beloved community, all of us. Our individual fates are linked, our futures intertwined. And if we act in that knowledge and in that spirit, together, as the Bible says, we can move mountains.”
Jimmy Carter was never known as a great orator, but these words were spot on, both then and now. I’m grateful for examples of Jimmy Carter and Hubert Humphrey and will draw strength from their lives while I draw breath. I close with one last excerpt, from Carter’s eulogy at Humphrey’s funeral:
“Not too long ago I invited Senator Humphrey to go to Camp David to spend the weekend with me. He had never been there before, and he was effusive in his thanks, telling me over and over how great a favor I had done for him. It was the greatest favor I ever did for myself.
We spent two days on top of a mountain, in front of a fireplace, just talking and listening. … he never said a word of criticism. He tried to search in his own mind, no matter who it was, and find something good to say. … He and I talked about religion, about how deep his faith had grown since he became very ill. We talked about sin and how we know that everyone sins and we fall short of the glory of God, but how God forgives us.
Just a few days ago I was in India… and one of the Indian leaders took me over to a wall, and there on the wall there was a quote from Gandhi and the title of it was, "The Seven Sins." I thought about Senator Humphrey's discussion on sin, and I jotted it down. According to Gandhi, the seven sins are wealth without works, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, and politics without principle. Hubert Humphrey may have sinned in the eyes of God, as we all do, but according to those definitions of Gandhi's, it was Hubert Humphrey without sin.”
Gandhi’s words apply equally to President Carter. Character. Integrity. Servanthood. Thank you, Jimmy Carter, for your remarkable lifelong and long-life illustration.
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I’m pleased to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. My talented colleagues:
Juxtaposing Humphrey and Carter with Gandhi seems very appropriate! Nice job!