Ted Mondale, Son of Vice President Mondale, Tribute at President Jimmy Carter Funeral

my father wrote this in 2015 and clearly he edited it a couple times since then but here we go today we join in sadness to honor our dear friend President Carter for his extraordinary years of principled and decent leadership and his courageous commitment to civil rights and human rights I remember the emergence of Jimmy Carter on the national stage in particular his 1971 inaugural address for the first time a Georgia Governor called for a commitment to the traditions of Martin Luther King Jr and for the decency that his leadership stood for over his lifetime I was surprised when then candidate Carter asked me to join in him as his running mate in 1976 he amazed me then as he has every year since he of course was brilliant he also had a great sense of humor and while we had only four years in the white house he achieved so much in that time it stood as a marker for Americans dedicated to Justice and decency Carter was a man of his word I remember when he talked about the concept of the vice presidency I told him I'd like to do it and had only two requests I wanted to make a real contribution and I didn't want to be embarrassed as many of my predecessors have he agreed welcomed my full participation and directed his staff to treat me as they would him he was very careful to protect me from the frustration and too often humiliation that had cursed the lives of many vice presidents I want to thank the president for the good choices he made with his key personnel we don't have time to mention many of them but Stu eisenstat comes as close as possible to rivaling President Carter's forid work ethic Hamilton Jordan and Jodie Powell were blessings every day to me to the president and to the nation one of the things that dawned on me during the course of our time together is how well we worked together and how we understood each other I think one of the realities was that Carter was a devout Christian who grew up in a small town and was active in his faith for almost every moment of his life I was also a small town kid who grew up in a Methodist Church where my dad was a preacher and our faith was core to me as Carter's Faith was core to him that common commitment to our faith created a bond between us that allowed us to understand each other and find ways to work together he allowed me to take a leadership role on issues that never would have happened before for instance he directed and trusted me to take a central role in trying to bring decency to the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian boat people who were fleeing their country with President Carter's orders the boat people were picked up by our great Navy from their flimsy boats which were capsizing and taken to safety most became good American citizens working for a healthy and prosperous Nation Joan loved her time as the second Lady and we have Jimmy and rosalen to thank for helping her Champion the public arts and for just being so kind to her these were good years for Joan and I President Carter and I became very close friends we often spent hours together throughout the day we were working on real problems not wasting time the personal relationship we established while in office continued throughout our life Carter was farsighted he put aside his short-term political interests to tackle challenges that demanded sacrifice to protect our kids and grandkids from future harm very few people in the 1970s had heard the term climate change yet Carter put his presidency on the line to pass laws to cons to conserve energy deregulate new oil and gas prices and invest in clean renewable alternatives to fossil fuels it wasn't a perfect program but thanks to President Carter us energy consumption declined by 10% Between 1979 and 1983 in many ways he laid the foundation for future presidents to come to grips with climate change some thought he was crazy to fight so hard to pass these laws but he was dead right and we know that now we also know that President Carter elevated human rights to the top of his agenda sometimes sometimes we forget how seriously he pursued he pushed to advance the rights of women he proposed and signed the law extending the period for states to approve the Equal Rights Amendment he appointed women to head the Departments of Commerce education HUD and what is now HW women on his White House staff played crucial roles in developing His Highest priority energy and environmental proposals and he dramatically increased the ranks of female circuit and district court judges including Ruth Bader Bader Ginsburg in all in all he appointed five times as many women to the federal bench as all of the previous Presidents had from the beginning of our country two decades ago President Carter said he believed income inequality was the biggest Global issue more recently in a 2018 commencement address at Liberty University he said I think now the largest global issue is the discrimination against women and girls in this world he concluded that and still until stubborn attitudes that Foster discrimination against women change the world cannot advance and poverty and income equality cannot be solved towards the end of our time in the White House the president and I were talking about how we might describe what we tried to accomplish in office we came up with a sentence which remains an important summary of our work we told the truth we obeyed the law and we kept the peace that we did Mr President I will always be proud and grateful to have had the chance to work with you towards Noble ends it was then and will always be the most rewarding experience of my public career thank you