Atlanta is a beautiful city. I was reminded of this on my recent trip there for business. While there I took and extra day to visit the Carter Presidential Center.
June was the perfect time to visit these grounds. It is in a part of the city that is residential with the lush greens and boulevards lined with bright orange colored blossoms. The center has a groomed landscape that frames the building highlighting features of the area.
The Carter Center is my first visit to a Presidential Museum of a living President but not the first to one that served in office during my life.
A moment in time that I have always found amazingly interesting (and I think would make for a great play) includes Carter. Following the assassination of Anwar Sadat, third President of Egypt, Air Force One carried US diplomates to the funeral. As I recall, current President Reagan, Vice President Bush and Former Presidents Carter, Ford and Nixon all flew together. Ford and Carter, who had become friends once out of office, discussed building Presidential Centers. Mostly the conversation was about strategies to raise money and use them for causes.
Here I was. Visiting the results of that conversation.
Jimmy Cater was born to a family of peanut farmers. Point of interest - the first President to be born in a hospital. I had always heard his story portrayed as one of rising from the poverty of the Great Depression. However I do not believe that to be accurate. He was born during that time period, and I have no doubt things were tight, but his father owned the farm and a store along with a few other businesses. During that time to operate and own a business put you well above large segments of the population.
Later Carter went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. He married Roslyn. He serviced on a diesel hunter killer submarine. There are some nice pictures of him in Hawaii at the center along with the uniform he wore.
After the navy he returned to Georgia to run the family business. He ran for small local governing positions over municipal bodies. This lead to a run in the State Senate where he served from 1961 to 1966.He ran for governor in 1966 and lost. He went back to the agricultural business he been growing from the simple family farm and store. In 1970 he ran for governor again and won.
In 1976 he entered the Democratic National Party primary with a 2% name recognition. Over that year he built a base and won the important Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
The race between Carter and Ford that year showed that Carter was considerably ahead early on. But the race tightened dramatically putting the two in a tight election. Something not mentioned at the Carter Center was an interview with Playboy magazine where Carter admitted to “lust in his heart.” He also suggested questionable measures if put into office. The press also circulated that he had registered a UFO sighting a few years earlier.
In the first presidential debate since 1960 Carter did not do well. In the second debate, focused on international affairs, President Ford claimed that there was no Soviet dominance in eastern Europe. This one slip by Ford spoiled the debate for Ford and set his campaign into recovery mode. The Carter Center will tell you that Jimmy won the close election - nearly everyone else will tell you that Ford lost that election.
The main area of the Carter Center focuses on three things. The first is “a day in the life of the President.” This is a really interesting multimedia presentation on multiple screens that show one busy day and all the players involved. The second is the Camp David Accord where Carter used “Cabin Diplomacy” between the cottages at Camp David to bring together Egypt and Israel. This event is covered in great detail. Finally there is the Iranian Hostage negotiations. A phrase that remains with me about this section “There were two White Houses, one focused on the hostages and the other running daily affairs.”
Something I recall very well - the solar cells put on top of the White House.
There is considerable attention at the Carter Center placed on post presidential activities. All of the work and time spent on fair elections in third world countries and Habitat for Humanity.
I was surprised on how empty the Carter Canter was. How chatty the staff was with one another having open conversations speaking loudly across the floor.
Nothing was more surprising to me about my visit than the asian family who walked through the center with me. One of the members of the family was a woman in her late teens early 20’s who had a cough that sounded like tuberculosis. As I watched a video about the debates and commercials I kept an eye on her watching another video 10 feet away.
When she coughed there was not polite hand cover or the more PC cough into the bend of your arm. It was free and open carpet bombing coughing that covered everything in her way.
At one point during the video her cough resulted in her gum shooting out of her mouth, bouncing off the flat screen monitor and hitting the carpeted floor at her feet. After a good minuted passed before she stooped down, picked up the gum, and put it back in her mouth for continued chewing.
That was the highlight. That is what I remember most. Like the Carter Administration it was short, some things happened, and those things that stood out were kind of sad.
