"Jimmy Carter served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977-1981, and previously served as the 76th Governor of Georgia as well as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, a Dec. 30 news release from the state said. In 1982, President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, founded the Carter Center in Atlanta to continue their shared passion for improving human rights, public health and enhancing democracy around the globe."

"While serving as the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter—who died on December 29 at age 100—brokered a peace deal between Israel and Egypt, pioneered a federal energy program and reassured a nation that was still shaken by the Watergate scandal. Carter’s greatest legacy, however, might just be the way he approached life following his presidency.

Carter, inaugurated at age 52, was relatively young when he took the highest office in the nation. He had decades of possibility ahead of him when he left the White House in 1981, and he chose to devote the latter half of his life to continued public service. In 1982, in partnership with Emory University, he established the Carter Center, an organization dedicated to promoting peace and well-being around the globe. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, who died in November 2023 at age 96, famously volunteered with Habitat for Humanity for decades, and he brought to action what most presidents only speak about, says Claire Jerry, curator of political history at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

“He doesn’t just talk about housing issues; he’s building houses. He doesn’t just talk about fair elections; he’s traveling the world to ensure that they happen. He’s actually doing the things that other people only give words to.”

"Carter will be remembered for governing with a sense of morality and honesty, in his approach to both foreign affairs and domestic matters. The late president said in 1978, “Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy.” He maintained his commitment to human rights in his projects with the Carter Center, and he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”

To read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/the-lasting-legacy-of-jimmy-carter-dead-100-180981669/

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According to a proclamation signed by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954, because Carter is a former president, flags are to remain at half-staff for 30 days from the day of Carter’s death. However, this will not be the case in many places for the late President Carter. Texas has been the first state to say that all flags will be flown at full staff instead to honor Donald Trump. Additionally, at the request of President-elect Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson has suspended the mourning period to allow flags at the U.S. Capitol to fly at full-staff for the inauguration."

Flags are flown at half-staff “when the whole nation is in mourning,” the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs explains.

But, due to where we now are in a divided country, this will not be the situation in memory of President Carter.

Notably, flags were at half-staff when Richard Nixon was sworn in for his second term in January 1973 due to Nixon himself having ordered them lowered after the death of former President Harry S. Truman. That makes Trump demanding all the attention for himself (and disregarding honoring a former President) unique and a first in US history.

I remember Jimmy Carter from my childhood. He was a good man of ethics who really cared about others.