today i read a very interesting interview with jimmy carter. i don't know much about him or his term, other than i think america thought he was weak. he was president when i was a baby through to shortly after my brother was born. i didn't pay attention to politics then(!) and i never studied political history. what i learned about carter is that he's been very active since being president in helping those in need in poorer nations. plus he has a long history in trying to help with the israel/palestine issue. what his organization does is try to do is monitor elections when people ask them to help out, fragile democracies just starting out, etc. and they also help poor/sick countries. they teach them to farm better, for more abundant food crops, and to eradicate diseases that shouldn't be so overwhelming. the organization helps to fill the void. whatever sicknesses no one else is tackling, they help. basically, he goes to africa a lot!

what he's doing is i think the duty of every retired politican, to continue service on a volunteer basis, especially someone as high up as president. those people need to become unofficial ambassadors of the causes they are passionate about. or else, why did they become politicians in the first place? was it not to help people? carter is definitely doing something about the problems he's passionate about. so if he was seen as a weak president, perhaps he can at least die a noble man. please read the interview and judge for yourself. then think about what you can do to help those in your community. i don't expect everyone to have resources to spare or to be able to extend a hand globlally but perhaps there is something one can do that never came to mind before.