Presidents’ Day 2024
In 2017, I was in Atlanta and one of the touristy things I did was visit the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. I’ve been to three presidential libraries now. The others were for two much high-profile presidents—Kennedy and Nixon.
Carter isn’t an easy man to summarize. His presidency was marred by the Iran Hostage crisis, “stagflation” and other issues. His 1980 re-election bid ended in a landslide loss to Ronald Reagan.
But Carter was far ahead of his time in terms of energy conservation and he actually accomplished a lot internationally. But his most enduring legacy is what he achieved after he left office. His humanitarian work, his diplomacy, his efforts to support election integrity internationally and negotiate major conflicts won him a Nobel prize in 2002.
He may not have been our best president, but he was definitely our best ex-president—and probably our kindest.
If you’re interested in touring Carter’s presidential library and aren’t going to Atlanta soon, you can take a virtual tour of the exhibits and building. Plus, there are my photos below.
The museum includes a life-sized reproduction of the Carter Oval Office. Photo by me. Click image to enlarge.
Of the three presidential libraries I’ve visited, Carter’s is the only one with Marvel Comics art! The art (signed by Stan Lee) is by John Tartaglione who drew many of the romance comics panels I’ve used in Last Kiss!
The guy in the goony hat—but great T-shirt!—is me on the serene, wooded grounds that are the exterior part of the Carter library. (Photo by my sister Lisa Lustig Hernandez.)
CAPTION: “I have one life and one chance to make it count
for something...
"My faith demands that I do whatever I can,
wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long
as I can with whatever I have to try to make
a difference.”
--Jimmy Carter, now 99 and
in hospice for one year as of yesterday.
