WEEK SEVEN: Meeting President Carter in Plains

The local saying in the small town of Plains, Georgia, is simple: “We have peanuts and Jimmy Carter.” As it turns out, that is 100% true.

This past weekend, 40 interns travelled three hours outside of Atlanta to visit Plains, the hometown of President Jimmy Carter. The population of Plains is 637 (no, I am not missing any zeros). However, if one of those 637 people is the 39th President of the United States, you really don’t need anything else.

Our trip included a tour of “the” street, a non-ballet lunch of fried chicken and boiled peanuts, and a walk-through the schoolhouse. However, the highlight for me was a one hour conversation with the President at his boyhood farm.

Sitting on wooden benches and swatting flies, all of the interns shuffled our feet and watched the horses graze as we anticipated the arrival of President Carter. Then, all of a sudden, we hear “hey all” and the President wanders out of seemingly nowhere, waving his hand, and sit down right in front of me (yes, of course I sat in front). In less than 10 seconds, he had launched into a detailed account of his recent trip to Spain where he was awarded the Catalonia International Prize and celebrated his 64th anniversary with Mrs. Carter. As his sparkly blue eyes captured our attention (and hearts), the President shared with us some of his most impressionable memories of growing up on that particular farm in the 1920s.

Instead of re-telling his stories, to which I could never do justice, I will instead encourage each of you to buy one of President Carter’s 26 books. What I will share, however, is how this most impressive orator responded to two of the questions posed to him from our group.

I asked him if there was any emphasis on foreign languages when he was growing up.

“No” was the short answer.

“But…” One of the most influential figures in his life was Miss Julia Coleman, his school teacher. Miss Julia would encourage her students to learn about everything. She would play records to test students’ knowledge of classical musical compositions and composers. She would create a list of 100 books and challenge the students to read each and every one by the end of the school year. (Carter was the only student to ever succeed in doing so.) She would have the students create one-act plays to compete in the local and district drama festivals. Through these methods, the President explained, he learned to appreciate the breadth of knowledge that one acquires through hard work. And he swears to this day that he cannot allow himself to end a sentence with a preposition because Miss Julia would have a fit.

Another intern asked the President to recall his most powerful childhood memory.

“The time I shared with my Daddy” was the short answer.

He then proceeded to tell us how it meant the world to him when his “rather aloof” father would allow him to join in his activities, such as hunting trips and fishing holidays. To be considered a “semi equal to him” on those rare occasions were his “fondest memories” as a child.

I couldn’t help but think about this ever pervasive issue of “equality” as Carter reflected on the relationship with his father. Here is a former President of the United States, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the individual soon-to-be responsible for eradicating guinea worm – the second disease ever to be eradicated on the planet. What was important to him? The respect of his father.

But it’s more than just “respect.” It’s a feeling of equality. This theme runs through all of the President’s life, particularly in his pioneering work to bring equality to African-Americans and women in the United States. Through the Carter Center, programs around the world aim to bring equality to citizens of newly forming democracies by enabling national elections that are free and fair. In Liberia, the Carter Center’s work is trying to strengthen a justice system so each and every citizen knows his or her rights. In the Middle East, the Center is working to stimulate dialogue so that different nationalities can co-exist in peace.

What is the most striking to me is how President Carter exemplifies the idea of equality in absolutely every way. In a sense, his humility in sharing with us his most impressive accomplishments brings equality to this moment: interns sitting on benches before a President sitting on the wood table, while everybody is eating peanuts. Nevermind the secret service agents bordering the parameters, or the tourists madly snapping away with their cameras. Right now, we are all just thinking together about how we can collectively make the world a better – and equal – place.