The Executive Committee and membership of Democrats Abroad Greece join millions of fellow Americans in mourning the passing of former US President Jimmy Carter, Democrats Abroad Greece has announced in a statement, following his death on Sunday at the age of 100.
Carter, the longest-lived American president, died roughly 22 months after entering hospice care, at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November, 2023, spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said.
“Carter was one of the most significant humanitarians of our time, and we are proud to call him a member of the Democratic Party. He sought tolerance where there was conflict and unity where there was division. He was among the first to recognize that poverty and inequality were threats to international peace that would outlast the Cold War,” the Democrats Abroad Greece statement noted.
“The foreign policy of the Carter Administration sought to restore respect for America as a proponent of democratic values in Latin America, the Middle East, and elsewhere. His personal integrity made him an effective broker of the Camp David Accords. After his presidency, he continued to work on repairing the damage of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus while restoring America’s historic friendship with post-dictatorship Greece,” the statement read.
“He was distinguished above all by a deep commitment to the ideal of service, and he understood that the American Dream was realized through its sacrifices, including the Marshall Plan, the Peace Corps, and the opportunities created for refugees and political exiles to seek shelter and a better life. He will always be remembered as a champion of Habitat for Humanity, and as an advocate and observer of fair elections throughout the world,” the statement continued.
“Today we need the example of his leadership more than ever, and we will never forget him,” it concluded.
Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business.
“I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything,” Carter told the AP in 2021. “But it’s turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years.”
Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a cancer diagnosis in his 10th decade of life.
“I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015. “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.”
[AP, Kathimerini]