“I’m ready for anything and looking forward to a new adventure,”
former President Jimmy Carter said Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015, while discussing his cancer diagnosis.
Carter ‘at ease,’ ready for cancer radiation treatment | Miami Herald: ATLANTA - With a broad smile and an upbeat attitude, former President Jimmy Carter told the world Thursday that he has cancer in his brain, and feels “perfectly at ease with whatever comes.”
Carter’s team of doctors at Emory Health Care includes Dr. Walter Curran Jr., who runs Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute. Treatments for melanoma have improved tremendously recently, and Carter’s prospects are good even at the age of 90, Curran said. But he cautioned against the idea that Carter can be “cured.”
“We’re not looking for a cure in patients who have a disease like melanoma that has spread,” Curran said. “The goal is control and to have a good quality of life.”
The former president didn’t discuss his long-term prognosis, but said he will cut back dramatically on his humanitarian work while following the orders of a team that includes the world’s best “cancer-treaters.”
“This is not a eulogy in any way,” said grandson Jason Carter, who is taking over as chairman of the board of trustees at the Carter Center, which promotes peace, democracy and health care improvements around the world.
“I’ve had a wonderful life,” Carter said. “I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence. So I was surprisingly at ease, much more so than my wife was.” Carter described a more limited routine. He plans to host his extended family at Rosalynn’s 88th birthday celebration in their hometown of Plains on Saturday, and will keep teaching Sunday School at their small church. He said he looks forward to his 91th birthday on Oct. 1 and, as much as he’s able, will continue lecturing at Emory, raising money for his center’s $600 million foundation, and meeting with experts on Guinea worm and other diseases the center is working to eradicate.
Carter, the nation’s 39th president, served in submarines in the Navy and spent years as a peanut farmer before running for office, becoming a state senator and Georgia governor. His “plainspoken” nature helped Democrats retake the White House in 1976 in the wake of President Richard Nixon’s impeachment.
On Thursday, he said he remains proud of what he accomplished as president, but is more gratified by his humanitarian work since then, which earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Carter opened by thanking his wife of 69 years, who quietly in the front row, never reaching for the tissues placed near her chair.
Marrying her was the best thing he’s done in his life, Carter said, and his eyes often returned to her during the 45-minute press conference.
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Carter has been highly active since leaving the White House. Although his presidency has drawn medium-low responses from historians, many consider him to have accomplished more with his post-presidency work. He set up the Carter Center in 1982 as his base for advancing human rights. He has also traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, observe elections, and advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations. Additionally, Carter is a key figure in the Habitat for Humanity project. Regarding current political views, he is highly critical of Israel's approach to defense against Palestinian insurgency in their decades-old conflict with the self-declared State of Palestine. He has vigorously opposed the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC to strike down McCain-Feingold limits on campaign spending by corporations and unions, saying that America is "no longer a functioning democracy" and now has a system of "unlimited political bribery." He is a supporter of President Obama but has been critical of aspects of his foreign policy, particularly with regard to the use of drones and Obama's decision not to close Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Carter has been involved in a variety of national and international public policy, conflict resolution, human rights and charitable causes. In 1982, he established The Carter Center in Atlanta to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering. The non-profit, nongovernmental Center promotes democracy, mediates and prevents conflicts, and monitors the electoral process in support of free and fair elections. It also works to improve global health through the control and eradication of diseases such as Guinea worm disease, river blindness, malaria, trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis. It also works to diminish the stigma of mental illnesses and improve nutrition through increased crop production in Africa.
A major accomplishment of The Carter Center has been the elimination of more than 99 percent of cases of Guinea worm disease, from an estimated 3.5 million cases in 1986 to 148 reported cases in 2013.[70] The Carter Center has monitored 96 elections in 38 countries since 1989.[71] It has worked to resolve conflicts in Haiti, Bosnia, Ethiopia, North Korea, Sudan and other countries. Carter and the Center support human rights defenders around the world and have intervened with heads of state on their behalf.
On June 16, 2011, the 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon's official declaration of America's War on Drugs, Carter wrote an op-ed in The New York Times urging the United States and the rest of the world to "Call Off the Global War on Drugs", explicitly endorsing the initiative released by the Global Commission on Drug Policy earlier that month and quoting a message he gave to Congress in 1977 saying that "[p]enalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself."
He declares that Israel's current policies in the Palestinian territories constitute "a system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land, but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights."[131] In an Op-Ed titled "Speaking Frankly about Israel and Palestine," published in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, Carter states:
The ultimate purpose of my book is to present facts about the Middle East that are largely unknown in America, to precipitate discussion and to help restart peace talks (now absent for six years) that can lead to permanent peace for Israel and its neighbors. Another hope is that Jews and other Americans who share this same goal might be motivated to express their views, even publicly, and perhaps in concert. I would be glad to help with that effort.
From a young age, Carter showed a deep commitment to Christianity. He teaches Sunday school and is a deacon at the Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains.[171][172][172] As president, Carter prayed several times a day, and professed that Jesus Christ was the driving force in his life. Carter had been greatly influenced by a sermon he had heard as a young man. It asked, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"[173] The New York Times noted that Carter had been instrumental in moving evangelical Christianity closer to the American mainstream during and after his presidency.[174]
In 2000, Carter severed his membership with the Southern Baptist Convention, saying the group's doctrines did not align with his Christian beliefs. In April 2006, Carter, former President Bill Clinton, and Mercer University President Bill Underwood initiated the New Baptist Covenant. The broadly inclusive movement seeks to unite Baptists of all races, cultures and convention affiliations. Eighteen Baptist leaders representing more than 20 million Baptists across North America backed the group as an alternative to the Southern Baptist Convention. The group held its first meeting in Atlanta, January 30 through February 1, 2008.[175]
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I would love the opportunity asking and hearing from Jimmy Carter, in person, his answer to these two questions:
What's the difference between someone a good Christian,
someone a bad Christian,
and someone not a Christian?
How are we going about determining what the acceptable evidences are proving someone to be a Christian?
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