President Carter Was A Farmer and Businessman
Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.), thirty-ninth president of the United States, was born Oct. 1, 1924, in the small farming town of Plains, Ga., and grew up in the nearby community of Archery.His father, James Earl Carter, Sr., was a farmer and businessman; his mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, a registered nurse. On Dec.12, 1974, he announced his candidacy for president of the United States. He won his party's nomination on the first ballot at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, and was elected president on Nov. 2, 1976.
Jimmy Carter served as president from Jan. 20, 1977 to Jan. 20, 1981. Significant foreign policy accomplishments of his administration included the Panama Canal treaties, the Camp David Accords, the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel, the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union, and the establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.
He championed human rights throughout the world. On the domestic side, the administration's achievements included a comprehensive energy program conducted by a new Department of Energy; deregulation in energy, transportation, communications, and finance; major educational programs under a new Department of Education; and major environmental protection legislation, including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
In a new op-ed published in The New York Times to coincide with Friday's 40th anniversary of President Nixon declaring "War On Drugs," former President Jimmy Carter supports recent recommendations for countries around the world to try "models of legal regulation of drugs ... that are designed to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their citizens."
In the New York Times op-ed, President Carter called the recommendations of the Global Commission on Drug Policy "courageous and profoundly important."
"In a message to Congress in 1977, I said the country should decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, with a full program of treatment for addicts," Carter wrote. "I also cautioned against filling our prisons with young people who were no threat to society, and summarized by saying: 'Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.' "
"Those ideas were widely accepted at the time," Carter wrote. "But in the 1980s President Ronald Reagan and Congress began to shift from balanced drug policies, including the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts, toward futile efforts to control drug imports from foreign countries."
Books & Accomplishments
Mr. Carter is the author of 25 books, many of which are now in revised editions: "Why Not the Best?" 1975, 1996; "A Government as Good as Its People," 1977, 1996; "Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President," 1982, 1995; "Negotiation: The Alternative to Hostility," 1984, 2003; "The Blood of Abraham: Insights into the Middle East," 1985, 1993, 2007; "Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life," written with Rosalynn Carter, 1987, 1995; "An Outdoor Journal: Adventures
He is now a professor at Emory University. In 1982, he founded the Carter Center, in collaboration with the university. In his spare time, Carter teaches Sunday school and served on the board at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. Former U.S. number one does not seem to suffer from post-power syndrome that sometimes makes the former ruler as helpless again and sluggish body and soul.
