Former President Carter honoured with state ceremony in Washington

Former US President Jimmy Carter will be honoured Thursday with a funeral at Washington National Cathedral, before being buried in his state of Georgia.

President Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump, as well as former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. President Biden will give his speech in honor.

The body of former President Carter will be sent to Cathedral from Capitol, where the American public has been doing his last respects since Tuesday.

The numerous visitors, including numerous elected officials and Vice President Kamala Harris, highlighted the achievements and humanity of the former 100-year-old president, who died last month.

David Smith, professor at Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, said the former president obviously influenced his career. He told the Voice of America that he came to the Capitol to honor the man, but also to honour former President Carter's causes.

“He had such an impact on so many people”, he said. His “Pun for the support of minorities, the appointments of women in the judiciary, the protection of our environment, human rights activism all those things are very important to me”.

The former president's coffin wrapped in the flag arrived in the Capitol hall Tuesday, ahead of Thursday's state funeral.

In that magnificent space where only about 50 Americans have become this special honour since 1852, the leader of most Senate Jon Thune, at a service late Tuesday, described former President Carter as: “a Navy veteran, peanut farmer, governor of Georgia. And the president of the United States. Teacher at church school. Nobel Prize winner. Protector for peace and human rights. And first of all, a faithful servant of his maker and fellow citizens”

And Vice President Harris who the day before, in this building, certified the future president's victory.

“He was the first president of the United States to have a comprehensive energy policy, including ensuring a portion of the first federal support for clean energy”, she said on Tuesday. “It also approved over twelve major parts of legislation concerning environmental protection. And more than doubled the size of American national parks”.

Mr. Carter, who served as 39th president, died on December 29th at the age of 100 at his home in Georgia. From then on, his last trip took his coffin through the narrow streets of his humble homeland, the town of Plains; the boulevards of Atlanta, the state capital, and through the skies in Washington with snow for his state funeral. / VOA/