By John Nichols, The Nation | The late president celebrated the impact and influence of the song, which decries war, nationalism, and excesses of capitalism. No American president, or post-president, thought more profoundly than did Jimmy Carter about the causes of war—and about the prospects for peace. So it should not have come as a surprise that the most compelling musical performance of the 39th president’s funeral on Thursday was a quiet rendering of a radical challenge to militarism, nationalism, capitalism, and the exploitation of religious differences for political purposes.
When country stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood sang John Lennon and Yoko One’s “Imagine” to the remarkable assemblage of domestic and international leaders that came together to honor Carter inside the National Cathedral on Thursday, the recital of the lyrics touched on the hope for a world without war that energized and inspired Carter during his presidency and in the 44 years that followed it.
The funeral service’s rich tapestry of devotional and secular music and soaring rhetoric highlighted Carter’s prophetic legacy as a uniquely engaged leader who, in the moving words of former US Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young’s homily, dedicated his public service to seeking “peace on earth and goodwill towards all men and especially women and children.” It celebrated the former president’s dedication to diplomacy—from his White House work as the architect of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt to his last years as an outspoken advocate of justice for the Palestinian people—along with his faith in the possibility of a world where swords might be beaten into plowshares. Lennon shared that longing, and he expressed it in the title song of his second solo album. The former Beatle and anti-war campaigner asked that a world, then torn by conflicts that extended from Vietnam and Cambodia to India and Pakistan to southern Africa, northern Ireland, and the Middle East, might “imagine all the people, living life in peace.”
Carter spoke more than once about his enthusiasm for the song. He delighted in the fact that “Imagine” had become a truly international anthem. “[In] many countries around the world—my wife and I have visited about 125 countries—you hear John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’ used almost equally with national anthems,” the former president said in a 2006 NPR interview. “So John Lennon has had a major impact on some of the countries that are developing in the world.”
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/how-john-lennon-and-yoko-ono-s-imagine-became-the-refrain-of-jimmy-carter-s-funeral/
Photo: Jimmy Carter