 Thank you very much and God bless you. And now, I have an honor that I have never had before in my life. Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. Mrs. Carter, Reverend clergy, Governor, Mayor, the distinguished guests here. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know that I often get invited to library dedications. There aren't that many people still around who knew Andrew Carnegie personally. President Carter and Mrs. Carter, it is indeed an honor for Nancy and me to be here. None of us today need feel any urge in the name of goodwill to downplay our differences. On the contrary, in a certain sense we can be proud of our differences because they arise from goodwill itself, from love of country, for concern for the challenges of our time, from respect for, and yes, even outright enjoyment, of the democratic processes of disagreement and debate. Indeed, from the time of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, frank debate has been a part of the tradition of this republic. Today are very differences, a test to the greatness of our nation, where I can think of no other country on earth where two political leaders could disagree so widely, yet come together in mutual respect. To paraphrase Mr. Jefferson, we are all democrats, we are all republicans, because we are all Americans. It occurs to me after the tour that Nancy and I just completed that in dedicating the Carter Presidential Center, we have set ourselves no easy task. To name just a few of the center's aspects, there are facilities for organizations that will address President Carter's special concerns such as human rights and some 27 million documents that scholars will be pouring over for decades to come. Of course, the Carter Presidential Center will mean something different for each of the millions who will visit and benefit from it each year, but going through the Jimmy Carter Library just now and admiring the many photographs and films, it struck me that perhaps the central gift that this center will give to the nation is a story, a story of one man's life, a story that is distinctively American. In one of its aspects, the story of President Carter is the story of the family in which he grew up. Jimmy Carter's father taught him the virtues of hard work and self-discipline. From the time he was six, he knew that when the Farm Bell rang, James Earl Sr. expected to see him out of bed and going to work with everybody else. He and his sisters and brother, Gloria, Ruth, and Billy, gave each other strength and support, Ruth especially, providing counsel through all the long years, all the joys and disappointments until her death in 1983. He misses her still as do all who knew her. And then there was Miss Lillian, exuberant Miss Lillian, Miss Lillian who went to work for the Peace Corps in India at the age of 69. Miss Lillian taught Jimmy Carter charity and justice. She taught him to care for all, regardless of race, especially those weaker and less fortunate than himself, and she taught him to laugh. Surely, Mr. President, James Earl Sr., Ruth, and your precious mother, Miss Lillian, are with us today as we dedicate this center in honor of one who loved you so much. In another of its important aspects, the story of President Carter is a story of the South. For when Jimmy Carter was born on this date in 1924, many Southerners knew only poverty and millions lived lives that were separate and unequal because of the color of their skin. There's a photograph inside the library that sets the scene. A little boy is drinking from a fountain. He is black. He's drinking from that particular fountain because on a tree next to the fountain there's a sign that reads, Colored. Well, the world has changed now. It has changed because men and women like Jimmy Carter stood up in church to protest the exclusion of black people from worship. And it has changed because Jimmy Carter spoke those words in his inauguration address as Governor of Georgia. Quote, I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over. No poor, rural, weak, or black person should ever again have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity for an education, a job, or simple justice. That old world has been replaced by a new South. A South that combines the best regional traditions of pride and hospitality with a new sense of openness and opportunity for all. For at the same time they were combating discrimination. Southerners like Jimmy Carter were hard at work applying new techniques to farming, opening new businesses, and encouraging new industry. And in so doing they were expanding economic opportunity and raising levels of education at historic rates. One need only look at Atlanta, bustling, prosperous Atlanta to see that the South has truly risen again, transformed, self-confident, moving vigorously on to still greater justice and opportunity. So in dedicating this center today, I want to express what all of us feel today in this beautiful Georgia landscape, that this celebration is in a sense a celebration of the South, the new South that Jimmy Carter helped to build. Yes, yours is a powerful story of family and region. Yet for all that, Mr. President, I cannot help thinking that in perhaps its most important regard, yours is a story of dedication to so many of the fundamental values that made our nation flourish and grow great. Certainly the value of hard work is apparent throughout your life. There were those early days of manual labor on the family farm. Then came the years in the Navy, working for a man never known for being an easy taskmaster, Captain, later Admiral, Hyman Rickover. Jimmy Carter distinguished himself under Captain Rickover for his application to duty, for using his gifts in particular his superb intelligence to the utmost. He would likewise distinguish himself when he returned to the family farm and expanded it again in his early political life as state senator and governor and perhaps most dramatically in those two grueling years during which he made political history going from Jimmy Who to use the cartoonist phrase to 39th president of the United States. Beyond hard work, there are the values of perseverance, loyalty, and family. I've already mentioned the family in which President Carter grew up, but of course I must mention the family he and Rosalind raised. And as a grandfather myself, I can't resist pointing out that the Carter's four children have been joined by four grandchildren. And then there's perhaps the most basic value of all, the value of faith. Faith that endures, faith that gives strength and consolation and joy. President Carter is above all a man of faith. Time and again throughout his life, at moments great and small, President Carter has turned to prayer. When he learned that President Kennedy had been assassinated, Jimmy Carter knelt outside the farm warehouse in prayer. When he became president himself, it was prayer that sustained him. He knew that, well, he knew what I have learned myself, that as Lincoln put it, the burdens of the highest office in the land would be intolerable without the help of the Almighty. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that when he got up this morning, President Carter said a prayer of thanks for all that would happen on this day. So it is that when we dedicate this center, Mr. President, we dedicate an institution that testifies as does your life itself to the goodness of God and to the blessings he bestows upon those who do their best to walk with him. I can think of no greater gift that you could make to our nation. Well, I must thank you once again, Mr. President, for inviting us to be here today. It's been a high honor indeed. I'm afraid we won't be able to linger after the program has concluded. Congress is still in session, and as you know, somebody has to keep an eye on them. So I wonder whether I might close now with a few personal words, words if you will, from one president to another. Mr. President, you and Rosalind know that the White House is a place that resonates with history, with memories. And as you know, Mr. President, these White House images, these memories provide hope and inspiration to anyone who lives there. They remind him that he has examples of greatness to live up to, and they let him know that whatever challenges he faces, others have faced challenges like them. And I must tell you, Mr. President, that your countrymen have vivid memories of your time in the White House still. They see you working in the Oval Office at your desk with an air of intense concentration, repairing to a quiet place to receive the latest word on the hostages you did so much to free, or studying in your hideaway office for the meeting at Camp David that would mark such a breakthrough for peace in the Middle East. Others will speak today, Mr. President, of all phases of your political career and your policies. For myself, I can pay you no higher honor than to say simply this. You gave of yourself to this country, racing the White House with your passion and intellect and commitment. And now you have become a permanent part of that grand old house so rich in tradition it belongs to us all. For that, Mr. President, I thank you, and your country thanks you. And there's only one thing left to say. In the 40th President to the 39th, happy birthday. Mr. President, Mr. President, if I could give you one word of advice, life begins at 70. Thank you all. God bless you all. Mr. President, we are deeply grateful that you and First Lady Nancy could be with us this morning. I listened to your speech with great attention. I don't think I've ever heard one that was more generous and more gracious and more thoughtful. And if you'll permit me to inject a political note into an otherwise completely bipartisan occasion, as I listened to you speak a few minutes ago, I understood more clearly than I ever have before in my life why you won in November 1980 and I lost. You've honored us by your presence, and we wish you Godspeed in the difficult but extremely crucial duties of that office in Washington, which personifies the finest aspects of our great nation. And now I have another opportunity, which I don't have very often, and it is to introduce my own boss. I've just begun my fifth year as a distinguished professor teaching on the campus at Emory University. And across the lake from where we are now, the convenient nearest downtown Atlanta to your left is a part of Emory University, just like the law school or the medical school. It's a great honor for me to present the president of Emory University, Dr. James Laney. President Ms. Reagan, President Ms. Carter. We pride and pleasure in having this Carter Presidential Center and Library in Atlanta. This handsome complex, nestled as it is so gracefully among these hills. Ladies and gentlemen, the Carter Presidential Center, which we dedicate today, is an eloquent expression of the man for whom it's named. He sparked the concept of a center that is to be both an invaluable repository of presidential papers. A little more than five years ago, we began to have dreams. Rosen and I, in a private way, led it joined by many others who contributed in their own fashion to the culmination of that dreaming period. What should we do with our lives as a former president, still having some influence and some access to leaders that might be challenging and gratifying and perhaps hopeful at the same time and maybe even helpful? And out of that came what has been presented to you today. We've enjoyed and sometimes suffered through the time of design, raising of funds and construction. But I think it's accurate to say that this is one time the dream was exceeded by the reality. It's even more beautiful and challenging than what we ever thought it might be. And I want to express my personal thanks now to all of you who have helped to make it possible. It's good to look to the past where Christopher has given us a brilliant dissertation about how former presidents have performed in the years gone by. And now I would like to take this opportunity to deliver to the archivist of the United States what we have created him, if he will, to come forward. This is Archivist Frank Burt. I would like to hand you the deed to the librarian. A gift from me and my family to the people of the United States in appreciation for the great honor that you have bestowed upon us. Now if you look across the lake you'll see what the future holds for me and Rosalind and many of you. So we appreciate the past. We are grateful for the present. We look forward to the future with great anticipation and commitment. I hope that our lives will be a disappointment to you. And now I'd like to ask a good friend, I think an international hero of human rights and civil rights to come forward and to give our benediction. Following which we'll have the playing of God Bless America and we'll stay intact as a crowd until that playing is over at which time we'll leave the stage. It's a rare thing for a president to give the highest award of our nation in his authority the Presidential Medal of Freedom. But I didn't hesitate long when I learned about the record of Archbishop Gacavos. He's a spiritual leader of believers in the Eastern Orthodox Church both in this country and throughout North and South America. Martin Luther King Jr. and a few courageous men and women like Andy Young first began their courageous march down the streets and roads of Alabama to bring about a transformation in the attitude of our people there alongside them was Archbishop Gacavos and since then his life has been an inspiration to all of us who believe in enhancing human rights around the world. So I'd like to call now my good friend and a hero of mine Archbishop Gacavos to give out benediction. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, aren't they great?