by Holly Mullen
The Salt Lake Tribune
It might be enough for Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter that through their leadership, Guinea worm, a devastating disease once prevalent throughout Africa and in some Asian countries, is 99 percent eradicated. Just 18 years ago, there were 3.5 million people afflicted with the water-borne parasite, which in turn crippled agricultural production and drastically reduced school attendance.
No, it is not enough. There are four other tropical diseases the former first couple hope to conquer with the aid of the Carter Center - the not-for-profit organization they opened at Atlanta's Emory University in 1982. The maladies proliferate in countries with dreadful personal hygiene and environmental conditions.
Yet when they describe the work - their near obsession to help bring peace and health to the world - Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter are bathed in light. The room goes still. At a small dinner party in the Sundance Tree Room last Friday, Rosalyn smiled and in her buttery Georgia drawl told the guest beside her of one small tribute the country of Mali has paid them: "Many, many children named after Jimmy."
Susan Spaeth, Sundance Photographer
To which the 39th president of the United States, sitting at the far end of the rectangular table chuckled and echoed: "It is really funny. Hundreds of African children named Jimmy Carter."
What better way to say thanks? Along with two-thirds of Africa, the Carter Center has brought disease treatments to Mali, a West African country where 10 million of its 11 million people live on less than $2 a day. Election reforms have also been a top priority.
The Carters visited Robert Redford's Provo Canyon resort last weekend in conjunction with Jimmy's part in the Tree Room Lecture Series. They move through a room quietly, unobtrusively (with four Secret Service agents maintaining a decent distance). They radiate greatness in the way that people do when they no longer need to impress.
He turns 80 on Oct. 1; she is 77. They are agile and trim, though the president was limping slightly after stepping into a 3-foot-deep hole during a short hike and fly-fishing session on the Provo River.
Rosalyn moved freely from discussing how she has forged lasting friendships with strange political bedfellows (Fidel Castro, for instance, who leads a highly educated and literate nation but continues to abuse human rights) to how she loves cooking at home.
Hard to fathom, considering their dizzying work schedules now, that 24 years ago the Carters were just an unceremonious statistic: Unemployed. Jimmy had lost the election to Ronald Reagan. They headed home to Plains, Ga., where he started writing books. Feverishly.
To date, there are 18 books. Rosalyn let her heart go in the direction she always knew it would: to erasing the stigma of mental illness. She has worked so hard for so long, it seems to surprise her that researchers are now adding a new word to the mental health lexicon: prevention. "I am hearing that word more and more. Not just treatment, but prevention."
There is one big world and only moments, really, to leave an imprint. Observe them, even briefly, and you just know: The Carters hold tightly in their hands what brief time they have left. They have no patience for wasting it.
© Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune.