JC: From the time I was 5 or 6 years old, if anyone asked me
what I was going to do when I grew up, I never did say I wanted to he an
engineer or a policeman or a fireman. I always said, "I want to go to
Annapolis and be a naval officer: That was my only ambition. My mother's
youngest brother was in the Navy and he sent me souvenirs from Singapore,
Japan, China. That was my unswerving and unique ambition, and then I
finally did get to Annapolis. I served in the Navy, in all, for 11 years.
I never intended to do anything except finish 30 years in the Navy, get
to the top of my potential in rank and then retire either in Hawaii or
Annapolis. So when I decided at my father's bedside to abandon all of
that and come back to Plains, it was indeed the most important turning
point in my whole life. I didn't even discuss it with Rosalynn in
advance; I had made up my mind. She was not only distressed, but
absolutely furious. When I finally did get my resignation approved and we
drove the 650 miles or so to Plains with three little boys in the car,
she hardly spoke to me. In Plains, she felt my very strong-willed mother
and her very strong-willed mother would dominate her for the rest of her
life. It was months after that that Rosalynn began to feel reconciled
with coming home. We lived in the government housing project, and the
whole first year we were home we made less than $300 altogether. I never
had any thoughts about politics then.
RE: We all know you as a man of great moral character, and I was
struck by the fact that you were punished as a child. You
were paddled in school, and you were occasionally, as you put it,
"whipped by [your] daddy." Do you think that punishment is important in
creating moral character?
JC: Well, I treated my own boys, I have to confess, the same way.
If I told them to do something and they disobeyed my orders or told me a
lie, I punished them in a similar fashion to how my father punished me.
When they had their own children and treated them with incredible
latitude—letting them deliberately violate instructions without any
punishment—I was really distressed about the kids' future. But I have to
say that my grandchildren turned out at least as well as my own children
did. So I think there's a difference in generational attitudes, and the
modern-day way of raising children is probably superior.
RE: Another big influence in your life has been your religious
upbringing. You were raised a Baptist, and there was religious training
in your school every morning. Do you think your religious background
helped to build your moral character?
JC: Well, without necessarily agreeing with your analysis of my
character, let me say that having a deep, unswerving faith has obviously
been a very fine factor in my life. I wrote a book a few years back
called Living Faith, and in it I described how each human being actually
lives on faith. The first faith I described was the faith that the baby
has in the mother, and then later in the father, then in siblings and
playmates, and then maybe in teachers or one's nation or close friends.
And then ultimately, I would say, in God and in oneself. So I think the
shape and object of our faith, which is sometimes duplicated and
sometimes changing, is what really gives us inspiration and sustenance in
moments of stress or trial. I quote my high school principal: "We must
accommodate changing times, but cling to unchanging principles." I think
part of our unchanging principles is our basic religious heritage.
RE: I'm curious about a cousin of yours, Linton Slappey. You have suggested that he might have suffered from
bipolar disorder. What became of him?
JC: Linton was the life of Plains. He would come home from the
state mental asylum and would at first be very sedate and well-behaved.
The longer he stayed away from medical care, the more loud and abusive he became. Rosalynn was quite frightened of him; I was not. But eventually,
modern-day sedatives came along to quiet down emotionally disturbed,
hyperactive people. Linton was in a nursing home. But when we visited
then, a lot of his spirit went out of him. He was a very intelligent
person, but I think he became someone who was completely subdued and who
had lost his exciting character.
RE: So he was probably overmedicated.
JC: I think he was. And that may be the case in mental treatment
centers now. I would imagine that nurses, who are overloaded with
patients, give too much medication rather than not enough, just so the
patients will be more docile.
RE: You and Rosalynn have done
extraordinary work in the area of mental health, and I know that the
Carter Center has an excellent program. Are you optimistic about the
future of mental health under the current administration?
JC: It's hard to say yet. I don't know of any particular statements
or comments that have been addressed to the mental health issue. As you
know, Rosalynn has worked for two things for the last 30 years. One is
the elimination of the stigma attached to mental illness, and the other
is total equality in all the government and insurance programs for people
who have a mental illness. If the Bush administration has commented on
that subject, I don't know about it. But I hope that there will be some
strong move to respect patients and accept
mental illness as a legitimate and important concern.
