[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 32 (Monday, August 16, 1999)]
[Pages 1605-1607]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Former 
President Jimmy Carter 
and Rosalynn Carter in Atlanta

August 9, 1999

    President and Mrs. Carter, members of the Carter family, including 
grandchild number 10, Hugo, who's right outside--[laughter]--members of 
the Cabinet who are here, friends of the Carters, Mr. Mayor. Let me say 
to all of you what a great pleasure it is for me to be here today. I 
flew down on Air Force One today with a number of former Carter 
administration members who, many of them, are in our administration, 
many others are mutual friends; and we relived old stories.
    I remember in 1974, Governor Jimmy Carter had a role in the 
Democratic Party, and he was trying to help us all win elections. And I 
was running for Congress, and he sent Jody Powell to northwest Arkansas 
to help me. I should have known something was up. [Laughter] Thank 
goodness he failed, and I lost that election. [Laughter]
    In 1975, Jimmy Carter came to Arkansas to give a speech, met with me 
and my wife and others, and we signed on. In 1976, my home State was the 
only State besides Georgia where President Carter got more than 65 
percent of the vote. So it's a great personal honor for me to be here 
today.
    Over the past several years, the President and Mrs. Carter have 
received many awards, all of them well-deserved. Rosalynn has received 
more than a dozen just from children's organizations alone. President 
Carter has been knighted in Mali, made an honorary tribal chief in 
Nigeria and Ghana. There are at least three families in Africa he's met 
who have named their newborn child Jimmy Carter. [Laughter]
    Now these are hard acts to follow. [Laughter] But today, it is my 
privilege, on behalf of a grateful nation, to confer America's highest 
civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, on Jimmy and Rosalynn 
Carter.
    Twenty-two years ago, when presenting this same award posthumously 
to Dr. Martin Luther King, President Carter said, ``There are many 
Americans who do great things, who make us proud of them and their 
achievements, and who inspire us to do better ourselves. But there are 
some among those noble achievers who are exemplary in every way, who 
reach a higher plateau of achievement.''
    It is in that spirit that we look back on two extraordinary lives 
today. In the past, this award has been presented to people who have 
helped America promote freedom by fighting for human rights or righting 
social wrongs or empowering others to achieve or extending peace around 
the world. But rarely do we honor two people who have devoted themselves 
so effectively to advancing freedom in all those ways. Jimmy and 
Rosalynn Carter have done more good things for more people in more 
places than any other couple on the face of the Earth.
    To be sure, there have been other Presidents who have continued to 
contribute to the public good once they left office: Thomas Jefferson 
founded the University of Virginia; John Quincy Adams returned to 
Congress for eight terms and fought slavery; William Howard Taft became 
Chief Justice.
    But the work President Carter has done through this extraordinary 
Carter Center to improve our Nation and our world is truly unparalleled 
in our Nation's history. We've all gotten used to seeing pictures of 
President Carter building homes for people through Habitat for Humanity. 
But the full story lies in pictures we don't see, of the 115 countries 
he's visited since leaving office, to end hunger and disease and to 
spread the cause of peace; by the more than 20 elections he's helped to 
monitor, where democracy is taking root, thanks in part to his efforts; 
of the millions in Africa who are living better lives thanks to his work 
to eradicate diseases like Guinea worm and river blindness; of the 
dozens of political prisoners who have been released, thanks in part to 
letters he has written away from the public spotlight.
    I was proud to have his support when we worked together to bring 
democracy back to Haiti and to preserve stability on the Korean

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Peninsula. I am grateful for the many detailed, incisive reports he has 
sent to me from his trips to troubled nations all across the globe, 
always urging understanding of their problems and their points of view, 
always outlining practical steps to progress.
    To call Jimmy Carter the greatest former President in history, as 
many have, however, does not do justice either to him or to his work. 
For, in a real sense, this Carter Center is not a new beginning, but a 
continuation of the Carter Presidency.
    The work President Carter did in those 4 years not only broke 
important new ground, it is still playing a large role in shaping the 
world we live in today. One of the proudest moments of my life was the 
day in 1993 when Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shook hands on the 
South Lawn of the White House. That day was made possible by the courage 
of the people of the Middle East and their leaders, but also by another 
handshake 20 years before and the persistence of President Carter as he 
brokered the Camp David Accords. I know it is a great source of pride 
for him that, 21 years later, not a word of that agreement has been 
violated.
    If you talk to any elected leader in Latin America today, they will 
tell you that the stand President Carter took for democracy and human 
rights put America on the right side of history in our hemisphere. He 
was the first President to put America's commitment to human rights 
squarely at the heart of our foreign policy. Today, more than half the 
world's people live in freedom, not least because he had the faith to 
lend America's support to brave dissidents like Sakharov, Havel, and 
Mandela. And there were thousands of less well-known political prisoners 
languishing in jails in the 1970's who were sustained by a smuggled news 
clipping of President Carter championing their cause. His role in saving 
the life of the present President of South Korea, President Kim, is well 
known.
    His resolve on SALT II, even though it was never ratified, helped to 
constrain the arms race for a full decade and laid the groundwork for 
the dramatic reductions in nuclear weaponry we have seen today. By 
normalizing relations with China, he began a dialog which holds the 
promise of avoiding a new era of conflict and containment and, instead, 
building a future of cooperation with the world's most populous nation.
    Here at home, his work on deregulation helped free up competitive 
forces that continue to strengthen our economy today. His work on 
conservation, particularly the Alaska Lands Act, accelerated a process 
that has created the cleanest air and water in a generation. His 
advocacy of energy conservation and clean energy will loom even larger 
in the years ahead as our Nation and our world finally come to grips 
with the challenge of climate change. And by hiring and appointing more 
women and more minorities than any other administration to that point, 
he set a shining example of the one America we all long to live in.
    During the Carter years, Rosalynn Carter also brought vision, 
compassion, tireless energy, and commitment to the causes she advanced. 
Just as Eleanor Roosevelt will be remembered for her work on human 
rights, Rosalynn Carter will always be remembered as a pioneer on mental 
health and a champion of our children.
    For more than 30 years, she has made it her mission to erase the 
stigma surrounding mental health. As First Lady of Georgia, she used to 
travel dusty backroads to meet with people and volunteered her time at a 
State hospital. She took what she learned to the White House, where she 
chaired the President's Commission on Mental Health with style and 
grace. Afterwards, she initiated the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental 
Health Policy and has worked to promote action on mental health 
worldwide.
    We have made some progress in the last few years in extending health 
coverage and health insurance policies to mental health conditions, 
thanks in large measure to Tipper Gore's efforts, and in broadening 
public understanding and support for further action. It would not have 
happened if Rosalynn Carter hadn't done what she did first. Thanks to 
her work, I believe we will see the day not too long away when mental 
illnesses are treated just like any other illnesses and covered just 
like any other illnesses.
    We also owe her our gratitude for her efforts to ensure that all our 
children are immunized. Two decades ago, she helped

[[Page 1607]]

America see that while many vaccines were being discovered, too few 
children were being vaccinated. She traveled across our country and 
became so recognized as a leader on immunization that people used to 
joke that every time she showed up, the kids would start to cry, because 
they knew somebody was going to get a shot. [Laughter]
    Her work inspired President Carter to launch a nationwide campaign 
to immunize all children by the time they enter school, an effort we 
have built on. I can tell you that in the last 2 years, we can say for 
the first time in history, 90 percent of America's children have been 
immunized against serious childhood diseases. That would not have 
happened if Rosalynn Carter hadn't started this crusade more than two 
decades ago. We have seen this kind of commitment in all of her 
endeavors, from her work to organize relief for Cambodian refugees to 
her constant efforts to ensure that women get equal pay for equal work.
    The extraordinary partnership between these two remarkable Americans 
has remained strong for more than 50 years now. To see it merely as a 
political journey tells only part of the story. At its heart, those of 
us who admire them see their journey as one of love and faith. In many 
ways, this Center has been their ministry.
    In his book ``Living Faith,'' President Carter recalls a sermon that 
says, when we die, the marker on our grave has two dates: the day we're 
born and the day we die--and a little dash in between, representing our 
whole life on Earth, the little dash. To God, the tiny dash is 
everything.
    What a dash they have already made.
    By doing justice, by loving mercy, by walking humbly with their God, 
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are still living their faith, still making the 
most of the dash in between the numbers.
    It will be hard for any future historian to chronicle all the good 
work they have done. It will be quite impossible for anyone to chronicle 
all the good works they have inspired in the hearts and lives of others 
throughout the world. Today, we do all we can; a grateful nation says 
thank you.
    Colonel, read the citation.

[At this point, Col. Carlton D. Everhart, USAF, Air Force Aide to the 
President, read the citations, and the President presented the medals.]

Note: The President spoke at 7:05 p.m. in the chapel at the Carter 
Center. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Bill Campbell of Atlanta; 
former Presidential Press Secretary Jody Powell; Chairman Yasser Arafat 
of the Palestinian Authority; President Vaclav Havel of the Czech 
Republic; former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa; and President 
Kim Dae-jung of South Korea. The transcript made available by the Office 
of the Press Secretary also included the remarks of President and Mrs. 
Carter.