Remembering President Jimmy Carter

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The Honorable James Earl Carter, the 39th President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was called from labor to rest yesterday afternoon after spending well over a year in Hospice Care in Georgia.

President Carter was 100 years old…

Since hearing the news, each time I’ve read a professional or personal perspective about his life, I’ve been reminded that my very own love for news and politics started during his single term in office from January 1977-1981; I turned five years old in May of ‘77 and with my family living in Oxon Hill, Maryland at the time, hardly a day went by when the local and national news didn't chronicle some event that focused on Carter, his family, or his administration.

President Carter's official White House photo

Whether it was the Camp David Accords that focused on improving relations between Israel and Egypt or the Energy Crisis that found Americans waiting in LONG lines for gas on “odd” and “even” days; the meltdown at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant or the crisis involving the Shah of Iran and the subsequent capture of America's hostages by Ayatollah Khomeini’s goons, my acute awareness of the world around me—and the power of the American government—emerged during the Carterian Age!

President Jimmy Carter with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin during the Camp David Accords circa 1978

While many of the major media retrospectives about Carter's life are focusing on the vicissitudes of his presidency, there is almost unanimous consensus among former presidents, politicos, world leaders, and ordinary citizens that Carter was arguably the greatest human being to ever inhabit the Oval Office. My Frat Brother and fellow pundit Tom Cunningham may have said it best this morning on Facebook, averring: “Jimmy Carter is the best HUMAN BEING to have occupied the White House in my lifetime. An actual Christian who lived his faith DAILY, his presidential legacy is less than stellar. He only earned one term in office. However, he is respected by all his presidential peers, and indeed, Democracies across the globe for what he accomplished as a former President.”

Indeed! From teaching Sunday School at his home church to building homes for Habitat for Humanity, President Carter displayed a humility and decency in thought, talk, and action that is sorely missing in our current political era—and his fire will never be forgotten by me or the Hobbservation Point blog!

Requiescat in Pace, Mr. President!