Our nation's 39th President, Jimmy Carter, celebrated his 99th birthday on both Saturday and Sunday. The big bash at the Carter Center was moved up to Saturday because of the fear of a government shutdown. His actual birthday was on Sunday. 10 years ago, when Jimmy Carter was 90 years old, he said that the two things left on his bucket list before he would die were: 1.) to do things to aid the furtherance of peace in the Middle East. I will remind that the Begin-Sadat peace treaty that Carter personally brokered is the only peace treaty in existence between Israel and a country that actually went to war with it. And it is the longest holding peace treaty of any kind in that region. Yes, Trump pushed through the Abraham Accords and I lauded it as good, but those "treaties" were all with nations that had never fought Israel on the battlefield. 2.) to completely eradicate the Guinea-Worm disease. When he started his crusade to completely eradicate this disease, 6.5 million people across the world were dying from it. I have seen videos of what these parasites can do to the human body, it is gut-wrenching to watch. As of today, there are just 6 such cases left in the world. We are on the thresh-hold of achieving this goal. Jimmy Carter's post-presidency (and his presidency, to note) has/have been marked by true Christian kindness, consideration, caring, giving, all the things that make humans humane. I have never heard Jimmy Carter speak even one ill-word about anyone and I have never once heard a person report that Jimmy Carter did so. That is a reputation that only the very few achieve in our world these days. It ends up that Jimmy Carter's push for solar energy, which was laughed at by many at the time, was the right thing to do. His warnings about future energy crises ended up being right. It ends up that his insistence for a COG (Continuance of Government) Plan in the case of a horrifying catastrophe, a plan conceived during his administration, was a good idea. The Carter foundation made it possible for people to send in their best wishes for Jimmy's birthday and the Center was overwhelmed by kind wishes from people of all stripes. A large number of people who are absolutely on the other side of the political spectrum took time to write true, heart-felt wishes for this man and his wife of 77 years, who is suffering from dementia. I started this thread just to remind that even in turbulent times, good things can happen, that there ARE good people out there. When Jimmy Carter dies, he will be sorely missed, not for his politics, but for his humanity. G-d bless Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter. -Stat Feel free to write kind and humane thoughts here.
The example of selflessness and compassion he has set for all of us paying attention is one we should all strive to follow. I credit him for my own involvement with Habitat for Humanity. One of the more rewarding experiences of my life.
