ATLANTA –
Jimmy Carter, already the longest-serving president of the United States in history, will celebrate his 98th birthday with family and friends on Saturday in Plains, the small town in Georgia where he and his wife, Rosalynn, 95, were born over the years. between the world The First War and the Great Depression.
The 39th President’s latest milestone comes when the Carter Center, which the Carters founded together after their only term in the White House, marks 40 years of promoting democracy and conflict resolution, election monitoring and public health promotion. in developing countries.
Jason Carter, grandson of the former president now at the head of the board of directors of the Carter Center, described his grandfather, an outspoken Christian, satisfied with his life and his legacy.
“He’s looking forward to his 98th birthday with faith in God’s plan for him,” said young Carter, 47, “and that’s just a beautiful blessing for us all to know, personally, that he’s at peace and happy where he is. he has been and where he is going ”.
Carter Center leaders said the former president, who survived a cancer diagnosis in 2015 and a severe fall at home in 2019, has already enjoyed reading congratulatory messages sent by supporters around the world via social media. and the centre’s website. But Jason Carter said his grandfather is looking forward to a simple day that includes watching his favorite Major League Baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, on television.
“He’s still 100% with it, even though things in everyday life are a lot more difficult now,” said Jason Carter. “But one thing I guarantee you. He will watch all the Braves games this weekend ”.
James Earl Carter Jr. won the 1976 presidential election after starting the campaign as governor of Georgia on a little-known term. His surprise performance in the Iowa caucuses established the tiny Midwestern state as the epicenter of presidential politics. Carter went on to defeat President Gerald Ford in the general election, largely on the strength to sweep the south before his home region shifted heavily to Republicans.
A Naval Academy student, Navy officer and peanut farmer, Carter won largely thanks to his promise to never lie to an electorate tired of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency. in 1974. Four years later, unable to quell inflation and quell voters’ anger at American hostages held in Iran, Carter lost 44 states to Ronald Reagan. He returned home to Georgia in 1981 at the age of 56.
The former first couple almost immediately began planning the Carter Center. It opened in Atlanta in 1982 as a one-of-a-kind effort for a former president. The declared mission: to promote peace, human rights and the causes of public health in the world. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He traveled internationally in his 80s and 90s and did not officially retire from the board until 2020.
Since opening, the center has monitored elections in 113 countries, CEO Paige Alexander said, and Carter has also acted individually as a mediator in many countries. The Carter Center’s efforts have nearly eradicated the Guinea worm, a parasite spread through unclean drinking water and painful to humans. Rosalynn Carter has led programs designed to reduce the stigma associated with mental health conditions.
“He’s enjoying his retirement,” said Alexander, who took over his role in 2020, around the time Jason Carter took over from his grandfather. But he “spends a lot of time thinking about the projects he has started and the projects we are carrying out”.
Alexander cited the guinea worm eradication effort as a highlight. Carter set the target in 1986, when about 3.5 million cases per year occurred in 21 countries, with a concentration in sub-Saharan Africa. So far this year, Alexander said, there are six known cases in two countries.
In 2019, Carter used his latest annual message to the center to complain that his post-presidency had remained largely silent on climate change. Jason Carter said the center’s leadership is still exploring ways to combat the climate crisis. But he didn’t offer any time. “We will not duplicate other effective efforts,” Carter said, explaining that one of the center’s strategic principles is prioritizing causes and places that no other advocacy organization has involved.
On elections and democracy, perhaps the most unpredictable turn is that Jimmy Carter survived to see the center-right turn its efforts to the home front. The center now has programs to combat distrust of the democratic process in the United States. Carter Center staff monitored Georgia’s recount of U.S. presidential ballots in the state in 2020 after then-President Donald Trump said the result was rigged. Numerous reports in Georgia and other states have affirmed the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory.
“Of course, we never thought we’d end up going home to do democracy and conflict resolution around our elections,” said Jason Carter. “(But) we couldn’t be this incredible organization for democracy and human rights abroad without making sure we add our voice and experience … in the United States”
Ahead of the mid-term elections in the United States, the center has asked candidates, regardless of party, to sign a set of fair electoral principles, including a commitment to the peaceful transfer of power. Among those who signed pledges: Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Republican, and his Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams.
Carter himself has mostly withdrawn from politics. For years after his defeat in 1980, the Democrats stayed away from him. It has enjoyed a resurgence in recent election cycles, attracting visits from several Democratic presidential aspirants in 2020 and, in 2021, by President Joe Biden, who in 1976 was the first U.S. Senator to back Carter’s presidential bid. With inflation now at its highest levels since the late 1970s and early 1980s, some Republicans are again raising Carter as a line of attack on Biden and the Democrats.
Jason Carter said the former president reads and watches the news every day and sometimes accepts calls or visits from political figures. But, he added, the former president is not expected to appear publicly to support any candidates before November.
“His people that he feels the closest bond with now are the people in Plains, his church and other places,” said Jason Carter. “But, you know, his partner No. 1, 2 and 3 is my grandmother, right? He has outlived friends and so many of his advisers and the people he has achieved so much with in the past, but they have never been alone because they always have. “
Source : www.ctvnews.ca
