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William Lambers is an author who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) on the book Ending World Hunger.
I first learned of Jimmy Carter as a kid when visiting my grandmother in Hyattsville, Maryland. She encouraged me to finish breakfast because that is what President Carter at the nearby White House would do. I would later learn that Jimmy Carter had a sincere desire for peace, to go the extra mile to end wars or prevent them from happening.
As we remember Jimmy Carter upon his passing at age 100, think of how he relentlessly pursued peace. For Carter, his experience as a submarine officer in the Navy and being president both led him to understand the horror of war and motivated his longing for peace.
He was a historian, which leaders and peace activists need to be. When Carter was president he said that ”as we look back on the causes of so many wars, we can see times when a more watchful course, even a small careful shift, might have guided nations that much better, that much further in the ways of peace.”
In 1978 Carter took President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel to the Civil War site of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during peace talks. Carter said, “I wanted to show these two men that we Americans know something about war, and we know about neighbors fighting against neighbors. The three of us walked through the valleys and hills where more than 40,000 young Americans fell in battle — Cemetery Hill, Seminary Ridge, Little Round Top, Devil’s Den.”
Following that visit to Gettysburg a peace agreement, the Camp David Accords, was reached between Israel and Egypt. Carter later won the Nobel Peace Prize for his years of peacemaking efforts.
“We Americans work for peace not just to do a favor to others but because we want our own children and our own grandchildren to live in peace,” Carter said in 1980. “That’s why we must keep America strong, and that’s why we must work for arms control, to stop and prevent a nuclear war that might mean the end of ourselves and all we love.”
The threat of nuclear weapons was the Cold War reality, and Carter encouraged diplomacy and dialogue with the Soviet Union. Diplomacy is critical for us today to deal with the threat of nukes. We need to jumpstart nuclear arms control to lead to disarmament.
Carter has shown you can take action for peace not only as president but as a citizen. He continued working for peace long after he left the White House. The Carter Center was created to further the cause of peace, education and the fight against hunger and poverty.
Working to end homelessness was one of Carter’s passions, including pairing with Habitat for Humanity. Jimmy Carter rightly believed that housing is a basic human right for all peoples.
Part of the Carter Center’s work has focused on helping poorer nations in Africa improve their agriculture, including building storage facilities to prevent food from spoiling. Carter once partnered with the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Norman Borlaug to help small farmers in Africa.
Carter believed the key to preventing famine is getting people and organizations united in the fight against hunger.
“We need to help the world food supply reach all of the world’s people,” Carter wrote in his book “Talking Peace” which encourages younger people to get involved. The key is to become educated about the issues and then take action like hosting food drives or writing letters to elected officials.
Jimmy Carter’s legacy encourages us all to work for peace to save the world. The best way to honor President Carter is to join the noble mission for world peace.
