Over the last weeks, we have seen an outpouring of accolades and encomiums for President Jimmy Carter and his lifetime of service. The reviews of his presidency will continue, but I want to herald a unique dimension of his extraordinary post-presidential career -- his simultaneous deeply rooted presence in his hometown and state and his unprecedented global reach and how they fit seamlessly together.
Jimmy Carter is a uniquely global citizen and yet, for those of us lucky enough to share residency with him in Georgia, he is truly a neighbor as well. One of so many things that has made President Carter singular has been his deep rootedness in his home state of Georgia, from which he continued to extend his reach to the world. No president has or will likely match his post-presidential global travel and impact. But no president either was so profoundly a part of the life of his home state.
Security and busy lives at high altitudes mean that most presidents live far removed from regular folks, but President Carter has remained accessible to us, his neighbors. You could find him in Plains, where he invited the world to join him at his Sunday School class, get your photograph taken with him and, maybe, say hello to him at a local restaurant for lunch. In Atlanta, you could find him at the stadium cheering on the Falcons and Braves alongside hometown fans. And, if you flew much on Delta, you were likely to have shaken his hand as he walked up and down the aisle on every flight he took to greet each passenger personally.
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
President Carter broke the mold when it came to his Presidential Library, creating a Center that was both a traditional registry of his time as president and an action tank fighting global poverty, disease and war around the world. His orientation has always been future forward and he brought hundreds of global leaders and change agents to Atlanta and then, in turn, traveled millions of miles to negotiate complicated conflicts, defend human rights and eradicate neglected diseases. But he always returned to Georgia, where he invited his neighbors to be a part of the change-making too. He made it a point to base his Center out of Emory University, building Georgia institutions and inviting students to participate in the heroic work.
Perhaps, his most well-known gift as a neighbor was in taking up the hammer for our Georgia-born international nonprofit Habitat for Humanity. President Carter became the world’s most famous carpenter as he lifted the profile of Habitat and helped build thousands of homes directly and millions indirectly. He extended that support and lifted up so many other organizations with countless appearances and gifts of time. He helped put Atlanta at the center of global public health efforts, by standing with organizations like CARE, the CDC Foundation and The Task Force for Global Health.
As a Georgian, I have grown up with President Carter as a constant example of servant leadership. When I helped start Hands On Atlanta in my 20′s, President Carter joined us for one of our first Hands On Atlanta Days and he answered the call again when a group of us in Leadership Georgia asked him to speak. I brought my family to his Sunday School in Plains and several times have seen him walk the aisles of my flights.
In short, like so many others in our state, I have grown up with an historic president and Nobel Peace Prize winner as a presence and inspiration who was extraordinarily close at hand.
In an increasingly interdependent world, President Carter has been a leader of every major global challenge the world has faced for decades. He did this while he remained a fully planted and deeply rooted Georgian. At a time in which some argue that local and international interests are at odds, President Carter has shown us just how compatible being a global citizen and good neighbor can be.
Michelle Nunn is president and CEO of CARE USA, a humanitarian organization that fights global poverty and empowers women and girls.
About the Author
