Chapter 12

Taking Care of God’s World

Jimmy worried about the nation’s energy problems. Beginning a few years before Jimmy took office, Americans faced shortages of gas and oil. Not only did prices increase, but many gas stations closed because they had no gas to sell. Heating oil was in short supply too. These problems put energy at the top of the list of issues Jimmy intended to tackle.

Two weeks after taking office, he held a fireside chat with the American people. Dressed in a warm sweater, he sat beside a cozy fireplace at the White House and asked people to turn down the heat. He said, “All of us must learn to waste less energy. If we learn to live thriftily and learn the importance of helping our neighbors, then we can find ways to adjust.” If every family used less energy, energy use nationwide would drop. As use dropped, so would prices. Jimmy tried to convince people that using less energy today saves energy for the future. He asked people to lower their heat to sixty-five degrees during the day and to fifty-five degrees at night.

Jimmy led by example. He lowered the temperature in the White House. It got so chilly that Rosalynn wore long underwear all day long. During the summer, he turned off the air conditioning, and the temperature inside the White House soared to one hundred degrees. When he learned that there were 325 televisions and 220 radios in the White House, Jimmy ordered dozens of them unplugged. He did not expect the American people to do something he wasn’t willing to do himself.

President Carter developed an energy plan. He wanted the United States to reduce its use of foreign oil and to find other sources of energy. Members of Congress discussed and debated Jimmy’s energy proposals for months. It took three years before they passed the bill. It encouraged companies to build cars that used less gas, home appliances that required less electricity, and houses with better insulation. The energy bill encouraged carpooling too and rewarded people for using solar energy in their homes and office buildings. New taxes encouraged people to save energy, and the law required oil companies to set reasonable prices.

It seemed as if almost nothing happened as easily or quickly as President Carter would have liked. Later he remembered the loneliness that he felt as he made important decisions. He wrote, “I prayed a lot — more than ever before in my life — asking God to give me a clear mind, sound judgment, and wisdom in dealing with affairs that could affect the lives of so many people in our own country and around the world.”

During his first four months in office, people felt that President Carter was off to a good start. A poll showed that 75 percent of the American people approved of his work. They were pleased that he was dealing with the nation’s energy problems. They considered him honest and hardworking.

Worship

The Carters joined First Baptist Church in Washington, DC. In earlier years, Presidents Martin van Buren, Franklin Pierce, Lyndon Johnson, and Harry Truman had worshipped there. The Carters attended worship services at First Baptist Church seventy-three times while Jimmy was president. Amy attended Sunday school and became a baptized member of the church. The Carters always sat in the same pew every week. Before they arrived, the Secret Service checked the area. At the end of the service, the pastor asked the congregation to remain seated until the First Family left. That way, the Carters would not be mobbed by curious well-wishers. The church had followed this same practice years earlier when President Truman had worshipped there.

Wherever the Carters went, crowds followed. That made attending church difficult, but it didn’t stop them from going. Many tourists visited First Baptist Church when the Carters attended, and protestors often marched outside.

On fourteen Sundays during his presidency, President Carter taught the church’s adult class. About fifty people attended the class, which was held in a large area at the rear balcony of the sanctuary. Rosalynn usually read the Scripture and then Jimmy gave the lesson, which was always based on a Bible passage. The members of the class never knew ahead of time whether or not President Carter would be teaching. They enjoyed their regular teacher, but it was a special treat to have the president give the lesson.

Sometimes the Carters went home to Plains for the weekend. Once, unannounced, they went to church in Calhoun, Georgia. Jimmy thanked the congregation for letting him attend, saying, “The fact I was elected president doesn’t make me any better than you are, or closer to God.”

The Carters spent many Sundays at Camp David in the hills of Maryland. The Carters loved it there and visited sixty-seven times in the four years that Jimmy was president. It was the one place they could worship in privacy. A chaplain from the nearby army base led the service.

Many years after he left Washington, Jimmy revealed a big secret. Sometimes he only pretended to stay at Camp David. Instead, he and Rosalynn went fishing in Pennsylvania. They didn’t want reporters tagging along on the fishing trip, so the Carters took the helicopter to Camp David as if they were staying there. The reporters covered the president’s arrival at Camp David and then they headed for motels in a nearby town. That’s when Jimmy and Rosalynn slipped back into the helicopter and flew to Spruce Creek in Pennsylvania to fish. Jimmy had loved fishing as a boy. As an adult, he found it fun and relaxing. Jimmy Carter wasn’t the only president who enjoyed fishing. George Washington, Chester Arthur, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, and Grover Cleveland had also shared his love of the sport.

Camp David is a country retreat where the president and his family can find peace in the midst of their busy lives. It is located about sixty miles northwest of Washington, DC, in the mountains of Maryland. There are several guest cabins, a pool, tennis courts, biking and hiking trails, and a bowling alley. There’s a helicopter pad too, so presidents and their guests often take a helicopter from the White House directly to Camp David.

Solving the Panama problem

When he became president, Jimmy had little experience dealing with other countries and world leaders. But he was a man of great energy and determination. He studied the issues, devised plans, and tackled problems that had been developing for years.

One of the first big problems facing President Carter was ownership of the Panama Canal. The ten-mile-wide Canal Zone cut Panama in half. The United States considered the Canal Zone a US territory, but the government of Panama disagreed. In 1964 a riot broke out in the Canal Zone between Panamanians and United States troops stationed there. The situation grew worse. Something had to be done.

Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Ford had begun work to return the canal to Panama. President Carter carried it through. The treaty promised that the United States would give up control of the Canal Zone, and that Panama would take over.

The Panama Canal is a man-made waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Before the Panama Canal was built, ships had to travel an extra seven thousand miles around the tip of South America to go from one ocean to the other. In 1903, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt signed a treaty with Panama that allowed the United States to build the canal through Panama. The canal is just over fifty-one miles long, and it took six years to complete. Today, over fourteen thousand ships use the canal every year.

On September 7, 1977, eighteen Latin American leaders came to Washington, DC, to watch President Carter and Panama’s leader, Omar Torrijos, sign the treaty. The treaty signaled an important change in relationships between the United States and its neighbors to the south. Jimmy had promised that he would always deal fairly with other countries. The Panama treaty was proof. The United States Senate approved the canal treaty in 1978. Twenty-two years later, at noon on December 31, 1999, Panama took control of the canal.