Good Thursday evening. This is Daniel Allott with The Hill's Top Opinions.
At 98 years old, Jimmy Carter has entered hospice care and will spend his final days at home with his family. "Carter's choice of hospice care – like so much of his post-presidential life – sets an example … toward what Carter considered a better way of living," writes Cornell University professor GLENN C. ALTSCHULER.
Altschuler reviews Carters varied career — as a peanut farmer, nuclear engineer, governor, humanitarian and of course as president, where Carter was ahead of his time in prioritizing environmental protection and human rights across the globe. "Implying that doing what's right is also in the national interest," Altschuler writes, "[Carter] maintained that human rights must be a core principle of American foreign policy."
After leaving office, Carter refused to "capitalize on being in the White House by joining corporate boards or charging huge fees for speeches"; he usually flew commercial. And since its founding in 1982, the Carter Center has made protecting and promoting human rights one of its highest priorities.
Carter's "morality, empathy, and prescience should constitute a substantial part of his legacy," Altschuler concludes, "as an above-average president, the nation's best former president and an exemplary human being."
Read Altschuler's piece here.
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