Michael Thomas Leibrandt: The Day that Jimmy Carter Built Houses in Philly
Not every US ex-President would volunteer to build houses in North Philadelphia. Then again, Jimmy Carter wasn’t just any ex-President.
Even in 1988 , the neighborhood around Wilt Street in Philadelphia was a dangerous place. Jimmy Carter didn’t care. He would reside in the Temple University Dorms for three days during the Habit for Humanity Project in conjunction with the Carter Work Project to build houses; a charity that both he and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter not only felt passionately about but also inspired by. Last month, America lost the 39th President of the United States while in hospice care.
On Thursday , in the city where Carter built those houses , Philadelphia’s federal government offices were closed in observance of former president’s funeral. Jimmy Carter wasn’t from Philadelphia. His roots didn’t go back to the Delaware Valley. But he also didn’t need to hammer nails into woodwork in North Philadelphia in order to prove that he was one of us. Growing up from modest beginnings in Georgia, Jimmy Carter wasn’t just one of our authentic presidents. He was also one of our finest ex-presidents.
After leaving the White House in 1980, Carter helped to negotiate a peace accord with North Korean Leader Kim Il Sung under President Clinton. He proposed a plan to hold Venezuelan elections in 2003, in 2010 he helped to negotiate the release of hostage Aijalon Gomes. He even joined Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in July of 2007 to announce his joining The Elders who advanced peace and human rights globally. He wold win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
As President, Jimmy Carter’s legacy will forever be that his unyielding principle worked to his detriment. He told us the truth when it was unpopular politically in an America divided by politics. He told us the truth when we didn’t want to hear it. Even when it cost him politically — ultimately losing the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan — his message to the American people was that of reality.
In the middle of the 1979 Oil Crisis , he told the American people exactly what they needed to do in their daily lives for conservation. He told us about the dangers of a reliance on foreign oil. And he highlighted that an insatiable need for material goods cannot lead to happiness and meaning.
He told us about the threat to the Middle East when on Christmas Eve of 1979, when 30,000 Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan and President Hafizullah Amin was killed, and Carter responded by withdrawing the SALT II Treaty from Senate consideration, recalled the American ambassador from Moscow, and stopped high-technology exports to the Soviet Union.
When fifty-two Americans were held hostage in Iran in 1980, Carter worked on getting them back right up to the inauguration of Ronald Reagan. Before that, he told the American people the truth when a rescue operation had to be cancelled due to equipment failure and a helicopter crash during a refueling attempt killed eight American serviceman.
The five houses that Jimmy Carter worked on off of North 19th Street and Wilt Street in North Philadelphia are still standing today. They were the first Habitat for Humanity Houses constructed in Philadelphia. It was a contribution from the ex-president who conducted himself without the grandeur. It was a contribution over 72 hours in North Philadelphia from Jimmy Carter. That was who he was.
Michael Thomas Leibrandt lives and works in Abington Township, Pennsylvania
How do you feel about writing for a website that is devoted to Trump? A man who would never spend three months living in a college dorm and engaging in manual labor to build homes for those who can not afford them.