What Jimmy Carter Wants to be Remembered For

Jimmy Carter probably represents the very best that the United States has to offer, on so many levels. Here is a man who was very successful on a personal level, continually achieving the wildest ambitions that anyone could have, and taking that all the way up to the White House, and even beyond it. Having created the Carter Center and using his reputation and expertise in life to help the Carter Center take a very active role in making this a force for good in the world, eradicating diseases, going to troubled areas of the world and negotiating for peace, and ensuring fair elections, among other things, Carter was justly awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He also helps people even when on vacation, helping Habitat for Humanity in building homes for economically disadvantaged people, and writing dozens of books that explored thoughtful solutions to problems the world over.

To that end, Carter has been credited with having the most successful post-presidency in history, and that is likely highly justified, when you look at his resume since leaving Washington in 1981.

Of course, Carter is not getting any younger, and increasingly, he is being asked what he would like to be remembered for.

You might think that he would want to be remembered most for his accomplishments as president, when he successfully mediated negotiations for the first major breakthrough for peace in the Middle East. Or, perhaps, for the Panama Canal treaty. Even, perhaps, for accurately forecasting the energy crisis, and having the guts to trust the American people to understand the dilemma, and to do the right thing (where his only fault is his misplaced faith that the electorate was bright enough, honest enough, and possessed of the proper amount of integrity to make the right decision).

Or, you might think that, following his 1980 election defeat and departing Washington under unfavorable terms, where a huge percentage of Americans unfairly blamed him for much of the country's ills at the time, that his strong and largely successful efforts to repair his image would be a source of major redemption for him. Particularly, his winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Perhaps the entire package of having been president of the biggest superpower in the world, having become a well-respected ambassador of good will and being a positive face for the United States at a time when the nation's reputation has taken many hits, and having received numerous other prestigious distinctions spanning a lengthy career, would be enough to secure his legacy.

Maybe, you might even think that he feels most satisfied for his more quiet achievements as a family man, having brought many kids into this world who themselves have become highly successful, as well as providing Jimmy and Rosalyn with grandchildren and great grandchildren.

But Carter wants to be remembered for something more: specifically, for being a tireless advocate for the advancement of the rights of women around the world. His most recent book, A Call to Action, focuses on women's rights in particular, and he has become a tireless advocate for women's rights around the world, trying to inform the public of the prejudice and unfairness that women are faced with in literally every single country in the world.

The book itself came out roughly a year ago, but Carter has focused on promoting this book in particular, and using it to advance women's rights in general, even since. Now, when asked what he wants his legacy to be, he does not hesitate to mention that women's rights is the thing that he wants to be remembered most for. He sees a world where women face a similar kind and level of discrimination to what people of color faced in the Old South that he grew up in, when state sanctioned racism was the law in the Jim Crow South. That went away legally in the sixties, and as governor, Carter tried to help bring the remaining vestiges of racism to an end in the seventies. He no longer holds public office, but he is still trying to utilize the influence of his former office to promote a greater measure of equality and fairness in the world today.

Here are links to a couple of articles that elaborate on this topic:




Here’s What Former President Jimmy Carter Wants to Be Remembered For Jan 16, 2015, 8:34 AM ET By VERONICA STRACQUALURSI via GOOD MORNING AMERICA

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/heres-president-jimmy-carter-remembered/story?id=28255327





Jimmy Carter: Women's rights the fight of my life By Greg Botelho, CNN Updated 10:58 AM ET, Sat February 14, 2015

www.cnn.com/2015/02/13/world/carter-women-rights/index.html