Profiles in Character: Jimmy Carter and Mattie Stepanek Demonstrate the Best of America
James Earle Carter, Jr. passed away in his one hundredth year on December 29, 2024. Naval officer, peanut-farmer, Democratic Party activist and Governor of Georgia, he became the 39th president in 1979. Though he was regarded by historians as an average president, ranked 26th of 44 chief executives, he was anything but an average man. Shepherding the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel was his signal foreign policy achievement and paved the way for the peace treaty between these nations in 1979. Yet most Americans know him best for his post-presidency efforts to eradicate diseases in Africa and Latin America through the Carter Center and his participation in building homes for low-income people through Habitat for Humanity’s Carter Work Project, which has provided homes for over 4,400 families in 14 countries. He is also admired for teaching twice-monthly Sunday-school classes in Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, where he was born and raised.
As President Joseph Biden said in his eulogy of Carter, his “enduring attribute” was “character, Character. Character.” His friendship, Biden added, “taught me, and through his life taught me, the strength of character is more than title or the power we hold. It’s the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. That everyone, and I mean everyone, deserves an even shot.”
Jimmy Carter epitomized civic virtue in his public and private life, and he helped foster it in others by his personal example, by teaching and by strengthening institutions that help make democracy work. A lesser-known experience in his life - his friendship with a dying young boy – shows us that responsible citizenship is not limited to mature and accomplished adults but can begin in the dreams and actions of anyone who can see beyond himself and cares about the public good.
'Mommy, he's humble,” young Mattie Stepanek told his Mom after learning about Jimmy Carter. “He's not just a peacemaker, he is not just a world leader, he's not just smart. He's humble.'" Mattie had been diagnosed at six with an incurable form of muscular dystrophy, one that had already claimed the lives of three older siblings. Confined to a wheelchair, Mattie understood that his life would be short.
Asked by hospital staff what his last wishes were, Mattie told them he wanted to meet the former president. A 15-minute phone call, arranged through the Make-a-Wish Foundation, followed in which these two people, separated by nearly three-quarters of a century in years, shared many topics including the passion of both for world peace. When Carter had to end the call, he asked if he could call Mattie back to talk more. Advised that the ICU could not take incoming calls, he told Mattie to call him. “So the president gave Mattie his private phone number, his private email, his private everything," Mattie’s Mom Jeni recalled.
Seven months later, Carter surprised Mattie by joining him on stage during a broadcast of Good Morning America. They hugged, cementing what had thus far been a virtual friendship. In the next few years, before Mattie died at 13, he published seven books, including a set of essays and poetry titled Just Peace, which resulted from a collaboration with Carter and included some of the correspondence between them.
Jeni Stepanek published the book after Mattie died and Carter delivered a eulogy at his funeral. Carter related a story about Mattie which captures the civic virtue of this young boy:
“He talked about when he and Jeni were not well off and some local churches, I'm sure not the one represented here this morning, would take up a food collection and send it to them. Mattie used to examine the labels on the food and quite often he said he would find that the date had expired and that people were giving poor people inferior food that they didn't want to use themselves. And Mattie said, "If my books make a lot of money, we're going to get food that's brand new and make sure that poor people get the best food, even if we have to eat the old, outdated food in our house."
Speaking of his wife and himself, Carter said: “We have known kings and queens, and we've known presidents and prime ministers, but the most extraordinary person whom I have ever known in my life is Mattie Stepanek.”
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