Local opinion: A President who believed in peace, human rights and fairness

The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

I first met President Jimmy Carter on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Washington, D.C., on March 6, 1977. It was at the dedication of the new Children’s Hospital National Medical Center ceremony. He was there to memorialize the facility’s opening, replacing the antiquated 126-year-old hospital for children in the nation’s capital.

(Watch the Children’s Medical Center dedication ceremony on a video from the Carter Presidential Library by pasting this link in your browser:) https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/7JdBC9rAkQfMmYWGXtof2IqRQy5?domain=youtube.com

I was a volunteer docent, helping with the transfer from the old hospital to the new property. As a Shriner now for over 50 years, working with children and their serious health and medical needs is second nature.

David Smoak, a Special Assistant to the President, invited me backstage to meet Carter before his remarks at the new hospital. Smoak was the chair of the White House Conference on Small Business. I worked with him, organizing small business conferences in cities nationwide. At the time, I served as Chief Lobbyist for the International Franchise Association in D.C. Franchising represents approximately 43% of the nation’s total retail sales and services. Millions of franchisees are small business owners.

Smoak told Carter I was assisting with the White House Conference program, that I was a Shriner, a hospital volunteer, and a Navy man. The President took my hand, looked at me squarely, held the grip securely, and thanked me for my service. It was a personal, profoundly sincere, and genuinely compassionate experience. As I write this column, I still feel my hand in his, a private transfer of human care and kindness from President Carter. The moment is indelibly in my memory.

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Nothing about Carter did not make one feel welcomed and comfortable. In my book, he is the most unusual person to win the presidency in modern times. The man was modest, soft-spoken, and intelligent. He was also politically tone-deaf, believing good would triumph over evil. He was often moralistic, rigid, pragmatic and humorless. Yet his silent strength was his humility, gentleness and love of God and country. He was a Christian with honesty as his benchmark. Carter knew how to rise to the occasion because he knew how to do what was right even when the political cost to him was huge.

Today, we positively perceive Carter because of his extensive post-presidency philanthropy and charity work. His global work for peace, personally building houses, expanding healthcare, and bringing hope to neighborhoods filled with fear and deprivation, all while adding his faith journey of trusting in God, made his leadership more spiritual than political. He was a genuine moral leader, something sadly lacking today in politicos, promisers that break their promises, and billionaires hacking government.

Jimmy Carter was a farmer, small businessperson, former naval officer, Georgia state senator, and governor. When elected president in 1976, the memory of Watergate was distinctly in the public’s mind. Carter appealed to voters, calling for honesty, integrity in government and fundamental values to guide the country on a positive course.

President Carter believed foremost in peace, preventing war, human rights and fairness. These values were the lodestars that guided his conduct as America’s commander-in-chief. They were his durable values and genuine expressions of faith and moral duty. He was Christian before being Christian was cool. It is his dignity in service that we remember him today. In my judgment, Jimmy Carter was too good of a person to be president.

James Earl Carter Jr. was the 39th president of the United States and the oldest living President. He was 100 years old upon his passing.