“We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes – and we must.” No president valued equality, human rights, and the alleviation of human suffering as much as Jimmy Carter. He was the greatest social activist who ever served as president of the United States. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay James Earl Carter Jr, more commonly known as Jimmy, was born in Plains, Georgia on October 1, 1924. His parents, James Sr and Bessie Lillian Gordy, were peanut farmers and devout members of the Baptist Church. Jimmy began working on the family farm and shop at the age of ten. In 1941, Jimmy graduated from high school, the first on his father's side of the family to do so. Carter's modest Plains upbringing contributed to his attainment of the presidency. After high school, Jimmy joined the Naval ROTC program to study engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 1943, Carter was accepted into the highly competitive Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he completed his studies. Jimmy was smaller than most of the men at the Academy, but he excelled in academics. Shortly after graduating from college in 1946, Carter married a girl he had known since childhood, Rosalynn Smith. The couple had four children, John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff), and Amy Lynn. Jimmy served for seven years as a naval officer where he worked primarily on submarines. During these years, like most military families, the Carters moved frequently. In the summer of 1953, Jimmy's father died of pancreatic cancer. Jimmy moved his family to Plains, Georgia to pursue the family peanut farming business and to watch over his widowed mother. Once settled in Georgia, Jimmy entered state politics. Desegregation had just begun to gain momentum in the American South during the 1950s. The anti-civil rights movement derailed Carter's first liberal campaign for governor of Georgia in 1966. Despite white backlash, Jimmy staunchly opposed segregation. In 1970, Carter ran for governor again, this time focusing on white, rural voters who had rejected his liberal ways the first time around. Carter's second attempt was victorious and he was elected governor of Georgia. As governor, Jimmy focused primarily on equality, ecology, efficiency in government, and the elimination of racial barriers. Later, as president of the United States, Carter would impose these values ​​on a national scale. In December 1974, Jimmy Carter announced his candidacy for president and began a two-year campaign representing the Democratic Party. Carter chose Senator Walter F. Mondale of Minnesota as his running mate. Jimmy saw Republican Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal as a perfect opportunity to restore the American people's faith in politics. Carter emphasized integrity. His famous statement was: "I will never tell a lie." Other Carter campaign slogans included "A leader, for a change" and "I will never shy away from a controversial issue." Slogans like these were well received by the American people, who had recently lost faith in the government. Republican Gerald Ford, who became president after Nixon's impeachment, was Jimmy's opponent in the 1976 election. In his 1976 presidential campaign, Jimmy Carter repeatedly called fordiverse audience, the theme of "competence and compassion". Carter entered the race with a double-digit lead over Ford. However, Carter made various mistakes that contributed to a much closer election than initially expected. The most significant of these errors was in an interview with Playboy; Carter admitted to committing adultery “in his heart” and made several other comments regarding sex and infidelity. However, Carter won with 297 electoral votes to 241 for Ford, making him the thirty-ninth president of the United States of America. When Jimmy took office, there were several domestic problems facing America, including the ongoing economic issues of inflation and unemployment. During his administration, Carter increased the workforce by nearly eight million jobs and reduced the budget deficit, measured as a percentage of gross national product. Unfortunately, inflation and interest rates were at record levels by the end of his administration, and efforts to minimize them created a brief recession. The main domestic priority during the Carter administration was energy policy and America's unhealthy dependence on foreign fuel. Carter addressed energy shortages by establishing a national energy policy, developing huge emergency oil reserves, and decontrolling domestic oil prices to stimulate production. These triumphs, unfortunately, were overshadowed when the Iranian revolution of 1979 again increased gas prices and led to long lines at gas stations. Carter achieved several achievements in domestic affairs that did not go unnoticed, such as his attempts to solve economic and energy problems. I had. Carter strongly pursued environmental conservation; He expanded the national park system that included widespread protection across 103 million acres of Alaskan lands. Increasing human and social services was another of Carter's domestic goals. Jimmy created the Department of Education, strengthened the Social Security system, and hired record numbers of women, blacks, and Hispanics to government jobs. Carter sought government efficiency through civil service reform and through deregulation of the transportation and airline industries. Carter's attitude toward foreign affairs was unparalleled before him. The centerpiece of Carter's foreign policy was the promise to make human rights a central concern in United States relations with other countries. This mindset led to a number of victories, including the establishment of full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, the ratification of the Panama Canal treaties, and the completion of negotiations of the SALT II nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union . Economic and military aid to Chile, El Salvador and Nicaragua was also suspended in protest at their abuse of human rights. Carter's most notable foreign policy achievements occurred in the Middle East with the Camp David Accords. In 1978, Carter brokered the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. With this treaty, Israel withdrew from Sinai and the two sides officially recognized each other's governments. The Iranian hostage crisis of November 1979 was detrimental to Carter's political career. Radical Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran, taking 66 Americans hostage. Carter failed to negotiate the release of the hostages and failed in his attempted rescue mission. The hostages were held for 444 days before finally being released on the day Carter left office. After this crisis, many Americans felt that Carter was an unsuitable, outsmarted leader.