Jimmy On My Mind, A Reflection on the 39th President

OPINION

President Jimmy Carter’s 99th birthday on October 1 is special for many reasons, but especially to remind us to reflect on the qualities of compassion and empathy his legacy represents. He inspires us to do more for others around us in need.  

When I interned in the Conflict Resolution program at the Carter Presidential Center in the fall of 1990 during my senior year at Emory University, I was inexperienced in matters of international relations and politics and was assigned to assist with the Center’s portfolio on the civil conflict in the horn of Africa, specifically Somalia.

Jimmy Carter was just a decade into his post-presidency humanitarian work then. He had a bold vision – unprecedented for a former U.S. President – to dedicate the rest of his life to eradicating disease, housing & feeding the poor, promoting democracy & voting rights/election monitoring, and pursuing peace in civil wars around the world. On that latter effort, he observed that the United Nations could not involve itself in a civil conflict between a member state and a non-member faction. President Carter seized on that in the Center’s Conflict Resolution Program, and brought the majesty of his former office with him around the world to negotiate conflicts & save hundreds of thousands of lives.

What an honor to be selected to join in that mission.

I spent three months researching, reading declassified regional FBIS / CIA journals, poring over Somali country reports, analyzing the movements and warfare between the five clans and the Somali president, Mohammed Siad Barre, and preparing my report. At the conclusion of my internship at the Carter Center, I was granted the privilege to sit down with President Carter one-on-one to brief him on my research and recommendations. I summarized my findings and concluded my presentation, a report infused with details of atrocities, moral judgment, and condemnation of the barbarism of that civil war.

President Carter paused, first offering congratulations and obligatory praise before telling me how he had been writing letters back-and-forth (a pen pal!) with the President Barre, whom he considered a friend. He explained that the goal of his work is achieving peace, and that if you walk into a room without honoring and pursuing that goal, it is a set up for failure. He cautioned that asserting moral judgment and condemnation as part of the conflict resolution process, even subtly, would defeat the effort before it even got started. It was a lesson in effective strategy and “getting to yes” that I will never forget. 

At some point during my internship, I had asked the President to autograph a copy of his 1988 memoir, “An Outdoor Journal,” for my mom, a voracious reader. It was a gift for her birthday, and I did not know how impactful that gift would be on her – and me. A few years later, in mid-1994, I was making plans to leave for a two-year stint as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer to teach sanitation and health in villages in the eastern hills of the Kingdom of Nepal. Nepal is a landlocked, impoverished nation sandwiched between the behemoth powers India and China, and my mother let me know how worried she was about my health and safety. However, what set her at ease (somewhat) was her reading the “A Visit to Nepal” chapter in the memoir I gave her, including the description of the scenery and President and Mrs. Carter’s red carpet treatment by the Nepalese people when they visited there in 1985. Suddenly all was well, and she knew I would be okay. 

A few months after my internship ended, I traveled down to Plains, Georgia, with my parents and visited President and Mrs. Carter where we took this picture together. My mother still gets a kick out of the lady who ran the bed & breakfast we stayed in remarking that President Carter “was conceived” in the very bedroom where they were sleeping during the visit, adding, “Jeeemmy told me it was okay for me to tell people that.” I am so grateful to have crossed paths with this wonderful human & distinguished leader. 

As I reflect on my interactions with President Carter and my time at the Carter Presidential Center, I am filled with inspiration. I now have the honor of chairing New Jersey’s Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), a role that aligns with the principles of democratic ideals and free and fair elections that the Center tirelessly promotes. It is a poignant full-circle moment, to be sure. 

Jimmy Carter’s birthday is a moment to celebrate for so many reasons, but most especially because of his respect for the dignity of all and his contributions to the betterment of humankind. 

Thomas H. Prol is a former New Jersey State Bar Association president, a member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates, a founding executive committee member of Garden State Equality, and Chair of ELEC. These opinions are his own and do not reflect official statements of policy of any of those entities.