It was 15 years ago when historian Arthur Milnes, my great friend, called me with an intriguing offer.
“How would you like to come to Plains, Georgia, and have dinner with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter?”
I think I paused for about a tenth of a second before responding, “Absolutely!”
Arthur was in a position to proffer such an invitation because he knew the Carters probably better than did any other Canadian. As a high-school student, Arthur had written a letter to Carter in which he told him he was his favorite president. Surprisingly, Carter replied with a hand-written letter, beginning a friendship between the two men that lasts to this day.
Arthur has visited the Carters in Georgia probably more than 25 times. He not only convinced Queen’s University in Kingston (where Arthur lives) to grant honorary degrees to the former president and first lady, but also convinced the Carters to stay at his home in Kingston. Yes, the Secret Service was there, too, and caused quite the scene in the neighbourhood.
When our small group arrived at the Plains Historic Inn for dinner, the Carters sat at the heads of a rectangular table. And you won’t be surprised to hear I made sure I sat right beside the 39th president. I’d never met an American president before, and the opportunity to be that close and ask all the questions on my mind was too much to pass up.
Jimmy Carter on the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library
Before the meal began, President Carter said, “We’ll say grace.” We all dutifully bowed our heads. Then he added, “We’ll all hold hands as well.” So there I was: holding hands with a man who had at one time been the most powerful man in the world. (By the time his prayer got to “through Jesus Christ our Lord,” I was so overwhelmed by the moment, I almost converted to evangelical Christianity on the spot.)
The evening was everything we could have hoped for — and more. The Carters were generous hosts. No subject was off-limits. The president answered all my questions openly. He and Rosalynn even had a little spat in front of us.
“I’m sorry to correct you in front of all these people,” Carter said to his wife, flashing his patented toothy smile.
“It’s okay,” the former First Lady responded. “I don’t feel corrected, because I’m not wrong.”
We all burst out laughing, including Carter himself.
Jimmy Carter on former senator Ted Kennedy
That would be the first of a few visits I enjoyed with the Carters in Georgia. Another year, we went for dinner at a restaurant in Plains called Mom’s Kitchen. The president walked in wearing a plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking like everyone else in town. No one came to our table to disturb him. Why would they? The Carters were very public people and regularly seen in Plains. In fact, they were no doubt one of the very few first couples who went back to their small-town life after the presidency instead of moving to a big city.
Given that I knew the Carters a little better now, I made an outrageous request. Would the president mind if I took out my video recorder and did an impromptu interview with him over dinner?
The author with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter (left); Arthur Milnes, the author, Andrew Lockhart, David Lockhart, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, and Thomas Harrison. (Courtesy of Steve Paikin)
To my delight and astonishment, he had no problem with that at all. And, so, in the days before iPhones, I sat there opposite him, eating with my left hand while rolling videotape on my camcorder with my right. Again, Carter was open and happy to discuss anything, including his unhappiness that Senator Edward Kennedy had torpedoed his health-reform plan in the Senate; Kennedy had known he’d be challenging Carter for the Democratic presidential nomination later that year and hadn’t wanted the president to have a legislative victory on one of Kennedy’s signature issues.
Jimmy Carter on Cuba
Having lived through Carter’s presidency, I well remember the conventional wisdom in 1980, when Carter lost to Ronald Reagan after just one term. His was considered a “failed” presidency — the unfair moniker given to all one-term presidents. The assumption has always been, if you aren’t re-elected, your term must have been a failure.
It's just not true.
While Carter certainly had enormous difficulties in the White House (captured in his “malaise speech,” in which he actually never uttered that word), I also remember a presidency that put energy conservation on the map for the first time, that tried to export a respect for human rights into American foreign policy, and that achieved what to date is still the greatest diplomatic triumph in Middle Eastern history: the Camp David Accords.
Former Queen’s University archivist Arthur Milnes shows Jimmy Carter a bust of the former president that he wanted autographed
It's worth remembering during these tragic times in that part of the world that thousands of people were not killed in needless wars over the past four and a half decades, because President Carter managed to bring together two implacable foes — Israel and Egypt — in a peace agreement that has stood the test of time.
Jimmy Carter still lives in hospice care in his native Georgia. He is the oldest president ever. His Carter Centre in Atlanta has been employed by several presidents to provide diplomatic assistance around the world. Carter’s own unstinting efforts have resulted in an end to gruesome diseases in Africa. Unlike every other ex-president, he has not cashed in on the lecture circuit. And through his leadership at Habitat for Humanity, he has built houses for others and demonstrated a kind of modest way of living that can be an inspiration to us all.
Jimmy Carter on former president George H.W. Bush and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher
Carter was president for only four years. But during his ex-presidency, which has lasted for 43 years, he has simply kept contributing and contributing and contributing.
Happy birthday, Mr. President.
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