Jimmy Carter At the Finish Line.
One in a series of Essays to Celebrate the 100th Birthday of American’s greatest living modern President!
Jimmy Carter is not a failed president! Let’s just get that out of the way right now. But, he is also the most accomplished former President in American History. It's also worth noting that at 100 years old, the former President is actually going to leave this earth a marginal failure.
Now before everyone leaves please understand me, I adore this man; he is my personal and political hero. I have worshipped at the altar of Carter Democratic politics for the entirety of my adult life, and yet after all his efforts, setbacks, and successes; he will end his American journey without achieving his last great task.
He will not outlive the last guinea worm. What the hell is a guinea worm? Why was that the last and possibly most important personal goal of Carter's professional career?
Dracunculiasis, also called Guinea-worm disease, is a parasitic infection by the Guinea worm. You get it by drinking infected water. There is currently no medication to treat or prevent dracunculiasis. Exports claim that it has plagued humanity since biblical times and it is particularly ravenous on the poorest and most vulnerable communities of the third world. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, dracunculiasis was widespread across much of Africa and South Asia, affecting as many as 48 million people per year.
That's pretty much where it stood, it was just an inevitable fact of life for millions of people. Then came Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center. The eradication of Guinea worm and the elimination of River blindness has been the principal goal of the Carter Center since the 1980s. In virtually every interview the former president has given since the 1990s whenever he is asked "What is there left to accomplish?" he has always answered that he wanted to outlast the guinea worm.
Due to the efforts of the Carter Center global cases of this disease have dropped from 3.5 million in 1986 to 12 last year. 14 nations that were previously impacted by the disease have now successfully eradicated it.
This is an unprecedented success story and it is a public health miracle.
So what?! Why is he a marginal failure? I don't think he is. I will never think he is.
But I promise you he will go to his well deserved reunion with Rosalynn thinking that he was a marginal failure because he didn’t outlast the life span of that final freaking worm.
President Carter is all about self improvement, his whole life has been a detailed demonstration of how people can grow, evolve, and improve over time. He has also pushed himself beyond the reasonable limits of human endurance at every stage of his life. It is not remotely unusual for this man to have been in his 90s and still hunger for one last triumphant. To fight against daily physical limitations and cognitive decline; just to finish a 40 year journey to heal one of the poorest portions of the globe.
His last final personal perceived failure towers over other men’s successes. Here we are in 2024, and at 100 we are still learning from this man.
When he was a boy he mastered all the information he needed to be an indispensable worker on the family farm for his father. When he became obsessed with the idea of going to the naval academy, he threw himself into that in much the same way. Over and Over again; Jimmy Carter has thrown himself into every one of his life’s unique marathons.
Snap election in 1962 for the state senate, wins it. Local party bosses try to steal it, he takes them to court, gathers evidence and statements from voters; out runs the stealers!
An unsuccessful run in 1966 for the Governorship of Georgia saw him make a 4 year run in 1970. Campaigning nearly daily in every part of state for several years, giving hundreds of speeches. The same thing took place in 1976, Carter literally created the modern format for winning a Democratic primary for President.
He becomes a one timer and reenergizes the very concept of the former presidency. Even his recent revelation nearly two years ago that he was going into hospice care was another example of Carter changing a long defined narrative.
So many people enter hospice too late, it is commonly believed that it is a process reserved for the last days of a person’s life. My own mother entered hospice the very day before her death. Too few people use it improperly. So here is Carter showing us all the most effective and peaceful way to drift off.
But, sadly that damn worm is going to win this one. That's okay President Carter. Don’t be too disappointed, don’t be hard on yourself for a second; and don’t feel that you have to hang on to finish this last task.
You have earned your place in history and the love of countless generations of Americans.
It’s okay, we’ll do our best to take it from here...
