The Tireless Efforts of Jimmy Carter

"I would hope that the nations of the world might say that we had built a lasting peace,    based not on weapons of war but on international policies which reflect our own most    precious values. These are not just my goals, and they will not be my accomplishments,       but the affirmation of our nation’s continuing moral strength and our belief in an     undiminished, ever-expanding American dream."

                        President Jimmy Carter, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1977 [1]

 A few years ago, I came across a YouTube video of President Jimmy Carter speaking to the American people in a televised address, in what has famously become known as the "Malaise" speech. On July 15, 1979, he made the address in order to grab people's attentions when it came to the energy crisis. President Carter said, "Too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does but by what one owns, and went on to suggest that consumerism provides people with false happiness. I hadn't been born just yet during his presidency, but from just hearing those honest and straight-forward words that President Carter had made, I wish I had been around to witness first hand his presidency and his rise that led him to receiving a Nobel Peace Prize back in 2002, all because of his tireless humanitarian efforts. Ever since coming across that speech, I've become deeply interested in not only his humanitarian efforts, but the efforts of others who try to make the world a slightly better place than how they left it.

During President Carter's only term as United States President, which was from 1977 to 1981, he used human rights and the goal of nonintervention as his platform for determining the course of U.S. foreign policy during his administration. The president said his reasoning behind wanting to choose human rights was due to the fact that, "we've been through some sordid and embarrassing years… and I felt like it was time for our country to hold a beacon light . . . that would rally our citizens to a cause," and so he sought out a path that would distinguish himself from what Nixon, Ford, and even Kissinger had done.[2]

That fortitude of human rights by helping others in positive ways helped establish peace between Israel and Egypt during the Camp David Accords in 1978. Not only were his efforts effective during his presidency, he has even made great strides following his presidency too.

When looking at what exactly took place during the Camp David Accords in 1978, which was the brokerage of a peace settlement between the conflicting countries of Egypt and Israel, President Carter was able to accomplish something no one else possibly could have. The two countries at been at conflict with each other for over 30 years, which had resulted in several wars and the deaths of countless people. The president felt that peace was achievable and possible, and was thus determined to make it happen, and devoted his time in helping negotiate an agreement of peace between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. That settlement was reached over a period of 13 days in September 1978 by President Carter working well into the night with the two leaders, being the lead negotiator and truly having a key part in the bilateral negotiations. He did not allow them to give up, despite numerous heated disagreements between the two leaders. Even though there were some other pressing matters that weren't addressed nor settled, especially in regards to the issue of the Palestinians, but simply having the agreement in place, it truly made a difference, especially for President Carter at the time.

President Carter's humanitarian efforts have taken him throughout almost all the corners of the world. Following his presidency, President Carter stuck with his deep Christian convictions of helping others and established the Carter Center, which is a non-partisan organization that seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health in areas of the world. The work that Jimmy Carter has done, especially in regards to the efforts made by his non-profit organization, is truly a Christian mission and exhibits many Christian virtues, since he has done many selfless acts in order to help others, especially his continued efforts with the poor, by finding the right paths for them to rise up out of their dilemmas.  His tireless efforts in promoting human rights, eradicating diseases, and spreading democracy has made him a very important figure in today's world.

That deep conviction would be considered "a central reason for his appeal as an international mediator is his Baptist-missionary sensibility and honest broker integrity." Another major feature that President Carter has, is the ability to disarm people with his empathy, lack of pretense, and overly bighearted grant of respect towards all people that he meets.[3] Erwin C. Hargrove, a political scientist, enlightens to the possibly that President Carter transcends his church's orthodoxy, and his faith has inspired him to get himself into the world's struggles. By doing so, President Carter molded his secular political ideology with his religious optimism, considering the firm belief that all things are possibly with God, and that He will always triumph in the end.[4] Just as a true Christian should, when President Carter deals with two opposing groups in order to reach an agreement, he looks past all the atrocities that both sides have dealt upon each other. Instead and very simply, he seeks to prevent further grief in order bring stabilization between the two fractions, as well as to the region, in order to bring healing and forgiveness.

Despite his best efforts internationally and diplomatically during his time as president, Jimmy Carter's major accomplishments came after he lost his reelection campaign in 1980 to Ronald Reagan. Greater accomplishments were made via the Carter Center, which was created just a year after President Carter left the White House. The center is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that he, along with his wife, Rosalynn, founded in 1982, and is in partnership with Emory University. The Carter Center is guided by five principles:

1. The Center emphasizes action and results. Based on careful research and analysis, it is prepared to take timely action on important and pressing issues.
2.  The Center does not duplicate the effective efforts of others.
3. The Center addresses difficult problems and recognizes the possibility of failure    as an acceptable risk.
   
4.  The Center is nonpartisan and acts as a neutral in dispute resolution activities.
5. The Center believes that people can improve their lives when provided with the     necessary skills, knowledge, and access to resources.

Under his leadership with the Carter Center, and with the help of a coalition of various federal, private and international organizations, President Carter has made an effort getting rid of many diseases that mainly strike the impoverished. The Carter Center has truly made a difference by being able to reduce and nearly eradicate Guinea worm disease by 99%, in which cases have gone from 3.5 million per year in 1986 to only 1,060 in 2011, in the very poorest regions of Africa, most notably in South Sudan.[5] These statistics mean that the disease could be only the second disease to be completely eradicated. The disease is an infection caused by a parasite, which feeds off of another in order to and is commonly spread through drinking water that contains larvae, the immature forms of Guinea worm and ends up penetrating the digestive tract and infects people, up to a year later. Generally, the majority of the worms come out of the legs and feet, and occasionally ends up leaving those infected with permanent damage to the joints infected and the joints even becoming locked.[6]
 

What former President Jimmy Carter and his organization has simply done to reduce the disease from spreading, has been distributing cloth water filters to villagers and educating them about how not to spread the infection. The Carter Center has also used the larvicide Abate in some cases, which is able to control the fleas found in the drinking water. The World Health Organization reports that there were only 521 cases of guinea worm disease as of September 2012, as compared to 1,006 cases during the previous year.  Also, it has been found in only four countries, as compared to being found in 20 countries as far back as 1990.[7]

It's interesting to note that the former president argues that when we think of human rights, it's more political and mainly geared towards peoples' civil rights. But, how we must think of it, is the human right to live and not suffer, and be free of disease that can most easily be taken care of. Not only is President Carter's non-profit organization helping eradicate guinea worm, he has also made it his mission to take on river blindness, elephantiasis, trachoma and schistosomiasis as well. This project is not the only one. President Carter has also vigorously taken part in various elections throughout the world, monitoring nearly 100 elections in 37 countries since he first started his organization. While in office, Carter was a unyielding supporter of democracy throughout the Latin American region, and was able to stand up to the various  military tyrants that populated the region. That mission continues and he has made sure that he's there to help evaluate the electoral proceedings and report any findings once the votes have been tabulated. Most importantly, President Carter has been able to successfully mediate various crises that have taken place in Haiti and North Korea, as well as throughout the Middle East region that could have turned into much bigger and deadlier conflicts. [8] Along with the Carter Center, the president has also helped pass on more effective farming techniques that have aided more than eight million farmers in 15 African nations. Those techniques has doubled or tripled the grain production there. Other various actions that the Carter Center has taken initiative in, include:

• Helping to establish a village-based health care delivery system in thousands of communities in Africa that now have trained health care personnel and volunteers to distribute drugs and provide health education.
• Strengthening international standards for human rights and the voices of individuals defending those rights in their communities worldwide.
• Pioneering new public health approaches to preventing or controlling devastating neglected diseases in Africa and Latin America.
• Advancing efforts to improve mental health care and diminish the stigma against people with mental illnesses.[9]
  
  

Looking at President Carter's Christian virtues, one cannot argue that it would be humility and the determination of helping others. Even though President Carter didn't officially promote his Christian beliefs while in the White House, his actions proved otherwise. President Carter has stated:

            "We worship the Prince of Peace, and one of the key elements of my life as President in    challenging times was to keep our country peaceful. I was able to deal with challenges           without launching a missile or dropping a bomb. My commitment to peace was an aspect         of my Christian faith. Also, basic human rights are obviously compatible with the    teachings of Jesus Christ, and I made human rights a foundation of foreign policy."[10]


Because of President Carter's strong Christian fortitude, he has tirelessly been working around the world to make it a slightly more peaceful place than how he found it, even long after serving in public office. Through his selfless actions, President Carter has made people realize that there are still injustices taking place in the poorest of regions still and doing the most simplest of things, such as placing a cloth over drinking water or setting up mosquito nets for those that need it, can treat those injustices. He has made sure that people not only deserve the freedom of living a just life, but also, a life filled with the freedom of democracy. President Jimmy Carter's actions truly deserve special credit, considering he has lived a truly moral and selfless Christian life. Most importantly, he reminds us that there are better alternatives to conflict, stating once that "we’ve fought fire with fire, never thinking that fire is better quenched with water."[11]

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* 1.) Carter, Jimmy. Inaugural Address of President Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter Library & Museum. http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/speeches/inaugadd.phtml. Jan. 20, 1977.

 

* 2.) http://www.presidentprofiles.com/Kennedy-Bush/Jimmy-Carter-Human-rights.html

* 3 & 4.)  Brinkley, Douglas. Jimmy Carter's Modest Quest for Global Peace. Foreign Affairs. Issue 6. Nov/Dec 1995.

* 5.) Nelson, Roxanne. The Last Worm. Scientific American. July 2012, Vol. 306, Issue 7.
* 6.) Center for Disease Control. Parasites - Dracunculiasis (also known as Guinea Worm Disease). http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/guineaworm/gen_info/faqs.html.

* 7.) World Health Organization. Dracunculiasis. http://www.who.int/dracunculiasis/en/. November 5, 2012

* 8 & 9.) The Carter Center. Major Accomplishments: Overview. http://www.cartercenter.org/about/accomplishments/index.html. 2012.

* 10.) Pulliam Bailey, Sarah. Q&A: Jimmy Carter on his Faith-Filled Presidency. Christianity Today. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/januaryweb-only/interview-jimmy-carter.html. January 9, 2012.


*11.) http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=727

 

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President Obama's Victory Speech (11/6/2012)

Thank you so much.

Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward.

It moves forward because of you. It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people.

Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come.

I want to thank every American who participated in this election, whether you voted for the very first time or waited in line for a very long time. By the way, we have to fix that. Whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone, whether you held an Obama sign or a Romney sign, you made your voice heard and you made a difference.

I just spoke with Gov. Romney and I congratulated him and Paul Ryan on a hard-fought campaign. We may have battled fiercely, but it's only because we love this country deeply and we care so strongly about its future. From George to Lenore to their son Mitt, the Romney family has chosen to give back to America through public service and that is the legacy that we honor and applaud tonight. In the weeks ahead, I also look forward to sitting down with Gov. Romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward.

I want to thank my friend and partner of the last four years, America's happy warrior, the best vice president anybody could ever hope for, Joe Biden.

And I wouldn't be the man I am today without the woman who agreed to marry me 20 years ago. Let me say this publicly: Michelle, I have never loved you more. I have never been prouder to watch the rest of America fall in love with you, too, as our nation's first lady. Sasha and Malia, before our very eyes you're growing up to become two strong, smart beautiful young women, just like your mom. And I'm so proud of you guys. But I will say that for now one dog's probably enough.

To the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics. The best. The best ever. Some of you were new this time around, and some of you have been at my side since the very beginning. But all of you are family. No matter what you do or where you go from here, you will carry the memory of the history we made together and you will have the lifelong appreciation of a grateful president. Thank you for believing all the way, through every hill, through every valley. You lifted me up the whole way and I will always be grateful for everything that you've done and all the incredible work that you put in.

I know that political campaigns can sometimes seem small, even silly. And that provides plenty of fodder for the cynics that tell us that politics is nothing more than a contest of egos or the domain of special interests. But if you ever get the chance to talk to folks who turned out at our rallies and crowded along a rope line in a high school gym, or saw folks working late in a campaign office in some tiny county far away from home, you'll discover something else.

You'll hear the determination in the voice of a young field organizer who's working his way through college and wants to make sure every child has that same opportunity. You'll hear the pride in the voice of a volunteer who's going door to door because her brother was finally hired when the local auto plant added another shift. You'll hear the deep patriotism in the voice of a military spouse who's working the phones late at night to make sure that no one who fights for this country ever has to fight for a job or a roof over their head when they come home.

That's why we do this. That's what politics can be. That's why elections matter. It's not small, it's big. It's important. Democracy in a nation of 300 million can be noisy and messy and complicated. We have our own opinions. Each of us has deeply held beliefs. And when we go through tough times, when we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy.

That won't change after tonight, and it shouldn't. These arguments we have are a mark of our liberty. We can never forget that as we speak people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter, the chance to cast their ballots like we did today.

But despite all our differences, most of us share certain hopes for America's future. We want our kids to grow up in a country where they have access to the best schools and the best teachers. A country that lives up to its legacy as the global leader in technology and discovery and innovation, with all the good jobs and new businesses that follow.

We want our children to live in an America that isn't burdened by debt, that isn't weakened by inequality, that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet. We want to pass on a country that's safe and respected and admired around the world, a nation that is defended by the strongest military on earth and the best troops this - this world has ever known. But also a country that moves with confidence beyond this time of war, to shape a peace that is built on the promise of freedom and dignity for every human being.

We believe in a generous America, in a compassionate America, in a tolerant America, open to the dreams of an immigrant's daughter who studies in our schools and pledges to our flag. To the young boy on the south side of Chicago who sees a life beyond the nearest street corner. To the furniture worker's child in North Carolina who wants to become a doctor or a scientist, an engineer or an entrepreneur, a diplomat or even a president - that's the future we hope for. That's the vision we share. That's where we need to go - forward. That's where we need to go.

Now, we will disagree, sometimes fiercely, about how to get there. As it has for more than two centuries, progress will come in fits and starts. It's not always a straight line. It's not always a smooth path. By itself, the recognition that we have common hopes and dreams won't end all the gridlock or solve all our problems or substitute for the painstaking work of building consensus and making the difficult compromises needed to move this country forward. But that common bond is where we must begin.

Our economy is recovering. A decade of war is ending. A long campaign is now over. And whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned from you, and you've made me a better president. And with your stories and your struggles, I return to the White House more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do and the future that lies ahead.

Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together. Reducing our deficit. Reforming our tax code. Fixing our immigration system. Freeing ourselves from foreign oil. We've got more work to do.

But that doesn't mean your work is done. The role of citizen in our democracy does not end with your vote. America's never been about what can be done for us. It's about what can be done by us together through the hard and frustrating, but necessary work of self-government. That's the principle we were founded on.

This country has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military in history, but that's not what makes us strong. Our university, our culture are all the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth. The belief that our destiny is shared; that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations. The freedom which so many Americans have fought for and died for come with responsibilities as well as rights. And among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism. That's what makes America great.

I am hopeful tonight because I've seen the spirit at work in America. I've seen it in the family business whose owners would rather cut their own pay than lay off their neighbors, and in the workers who would rather cut back their hours than see a friend lose a job. I've seen it in the soldiers who reenlist after losing a limb and in those SEALs who charged up the stairs into darkness and danger because they knew there was a buddy behind them watching their back.

I've seen it on the shores of New Jersey and New York, where leaders from every party and level of government have swept aside their differences to help a community rebuild from the wreckage of a terrible storm. And I saw just the other day, in Mentor, Ohio, where a father told the story of his 8-year-old daughter, whose long battle with leukemia nearly cost their family everything had it not been for health care reform passing just a few months before the insurance company was about to stop paying for her care.

I had an opportunity to not just talk to the father, but meet this incredible daughter of his. And when he spoke to the crowd listening to that father's story, every parent in that room had tears in their eyes, because we knew that little girl could be our own. And I know that every American wants her future to be just as bright. That's who we are. That's the country I'm so proud to lead as your president.

And tonight, despite all the hardship we've been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I've never been more hopeful about our future. I have never been more hopeful about America. And I ask you to sustain that hope. I'm not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. I'm not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight.

I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.

America, I believe we can build on the progress we've made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle class. I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you're willing to work hard, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn't matter whether you're black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you're willing to try.

I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We're not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.

And together with your help and God's grace we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on Earth.

Thank you, America. God bless you. God bless these United States.