Under the baobab: Former President Jimmy Carter remembered as ‘one of the best’

In these troubled times we witness transitions from moment to moment, era to era. An icon of the past has passed on. Jimmy Carter has joined the ancestors. He was 100 years old.

He was one of my favorite and most passionately active ex-presidents. He was a Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work in the public sector after his time in the White House. He was a well-known volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, which is responsible for providing housing for thousands of working and poor families around the world. He brokered the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, the only lasting peace treaty in the Middle East. He founded The Carter Center, which has successfully supervised dozens of peaceful elections around the world. The Center Center is primarily responsible for the eradication of guinea worm, which infected nearly 4 million people in Africa and Asia in 1986. Today less than a dozen cases exist worldwide.

I first met President Carter in 1970 when he was running for Governor of Georgia. I was a volunteer for the Southwest Georgia farm collective in Albany, GA, close to Plains. Carter was walking a thin line, trying to balance support of civil rights activists and Gov. Maddox style racists. In his inauguration address he declared “the time for racial discrimination is over.” He remained committed to that principle for the rest of his life.

Ten years later in 1980, we met with him again. He had become president and was running for reelection. As a candidate for the New York State Senate, I was asked along with Reps. Charles Rangel and Shirley Chisholm and State Senator Vander Beatty to welcome Carter to New York during the campaign.

The last time I talked to him was after the election. We had both been clobbered. I retired to lick my wounds. Carter continued his commitment to a life of public service. He and his wife, Rosalynn, were building homes on the Lower East Side of New York City. He was accessible and available. He remembered meeting me from before. We were able to talk for quite a while, as long as we kept hauling bricks.

We visited Plains several times in subsequent years but we never got a chance to talk with the Carters, or visit his Sunday School class. Once we stayed in “the Carter Suite” at the one hotel in town.

Many people erroneously believe that his presidency was tainted by the Iranian hostage crisis and failed rescue attempt. They forget that Carter arranged the hostage release and safe homecoming, even though it happened after he left office. A colleague in the Carter administration told me that the president was against the disastrous rescue attempt but ultimately gave into the military hawks.

After his official state funeral in Washington, he will be laid to rest at the side of his wife of 77 years. RIP President Carter. You were one of the best.

Our family is also saying goodbye to Sally O’Brien, a dear friend of over 50 years and reporter for United Nations Radio and WBAI Radio. We remember her for her commitment to human rights. Her interview with MP Bernadette Devlin is most memorable.

And congratulations to Penn State football coach James Franklin and Zakee Wheatley and Tyler Warren, the defensive and offensive players of the game. It was wonderful (and warm) watching the Nittany Lions beat Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix to win the CFP quarterfinals. The next step is an Orange Bowl matchup with Notre Dame in the semifinals on Thursday. Either Coach Franklin or Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman will become the first ever African American to be a head coach in a national championship final. We have come a long ways since Wally Triplett. We are ...