Former president Carter echoes Obama's call to service
Jimmy Carter is a former president and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, but ask him and he'll tell you the best way to change the world is to start in your own neighborhood.
That's why he supports President Obama's inauguration call for Americans to devote more time and effort to community service.
Carter visited Lions Clubs International headquarters in Oak Brook Tuesday to dedicate a sculpture donated to the group by his humanitarian foundation, The Carter Center. The statue is a thank-you to the Lions for their latest donation of more $203 million for international sight programs and research.
As a Lion for more than 55 years, Carter credits the organization with sparking his own political and humanitarian ambitions - and says volunteerism could do the same in some form for all Americans.
"Lions changed my life," he said. "I would never have been ambitious enough to run for governor of Georgia. I would never have dreamed of being president of the United States if it were not for the Lions."
Following speeches by Albert Brandel, president of Lions Clubs International, and Dr. Vlad Hogenhuis, senior vice president of the pharmaceutical company Merck, Carter shared stories about his volunteer work with a crowd of more than 100 representatives from Lions and nonprofit groups.
He described visits to South America, where he and other volunteers distributed medication that helps combat river blindness, which is caused by infection, and shared stories about building latrines in Ethiopia to stop the spread of disease.
Carter said such works not only help individuals, but build goodwill toward our country.
"This gives people confidence in foreigners," he said. "In many of these places this is probably the first time they've had somebody come from the outside and tell them something and it was the truth."
Carter said Obama's push for volunteerism needs to be met by not only citizens and their grass-roots efforts, but by national leaders like the president himself.
"If we have leaders who will inspire people to service, as I believe we do now, people will learn the values of service," he said.
He said Obama is making good on his word in a broader way by already making efforts toward easing the crisis in the Middle East and naming former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell as envoy to the region. The violence in the Middle East is a major concern for the former president, who last week released his book, "We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land."
Carter said former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton did not focus on brokering peace in the region until their last years in office.
Ultimately, though, everyone must make an effort to make the world a better place, Carter said. Residents need to join local organizations like the Lions; those not-for-profit groups must prove they are doing good work and putting donations to good use; and then their leaders must grab the ears of politicians, the former president said.
"I would like to make sure Obama meets with (local leaders) to understand the minutiae of problems within a country that he wouldn't learn from the Secretary of State," he said.