Jimmy Carter's greatest achievement never mentioned anywhere I've seen.

In the 10s of thousands of words I've read or seen so far in any media honoring (or criticizing) this late great man’s role as perhaps our nation's most principled US President behind Lincoln, there was NO mentioned of his profound world hunger commission that he requested and was completed. 

In 1980 Jimmy Carter’s bipartisan Presidential Commission on World Hunger concluded with specific warning if humanity failed to end the worst aspects of widespread hunger and poverty by the year 2000.  The commission concluded that “The most potentially explosive force in the world today is the frustrated desire of poor people to attain a decent standard of living. The anger, despair, and often hatred that result represent real and persistent threats to international order… Neither the cost to national security of allowing malnutrition to spread nor the gain to be derived by a genuine effort to resolve the problem can be predicted or measured in any precise, mathematical way. Nor can monetary value be placed on avoiding the chaos that will ensue unless the United States and the rest of the world begin to develop a common institutional framework for meeting such other critical global threats... Calculable or not, however, this combination of problems now threatens the national security of all countries just as surely as advancing armies or nuclear arsenals.”

They also stated “that promoting economic development in general, and overcoming hunger in particular, are tasks far more critical to the U.S. national security than most policymakers acknowledge or even believe. Since the advent of nuclear weapons, most Americans have been conditioned to equate national security with the strength of strategic military forces. The Commission considers this prevailing belief to be a simplistic illusion. Armed might represents merely the physical aspect of national security. Military force is ultimately useless in the absence of the global security that only coordinated international progress toward social justice can bring.”

In the last two decades humanity has been experiencing the consequences of ignoring this warning with increases in “diseases”, “international terrorism”, “war”, “environmental problems” and “other human rights problems” (refugees, genocide, human trafficking…).  Combined, these global pressures have fueled the anti-democratic populist movements that continue to thrive in our increasingly political polarized populations, religions, nations, and East vs West strategic blocks.  In the first days of 2025 nine more nations joined the BRICS axis which President elect Trump is threatening with even more sanctions. 

Over the past 40 years dozens of other prestigious, bipartisan studies and academic reports have followed Carter’s 1980 commission report. Each clearly documents the direct and indirect links between world hunger, human rights violations, global instability, violent extremism, displaced refugees, and the growing array of other threats to our freedoms, health, economy, national security, and global political and environmental stability.  The costly consequences of failed states cannot be stopped with walls, sanctions, or more military power.

Fortunately, an affordable and achievable plan exists. Globally approved in 2015 the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals are a comprehensive approach essential to addressing the root causes of most of the preventable tragic and bankrupting problems governments are dealing with now.   Yet no organization or institution has yet taken a leadership role in building the ‘Movement of Movements’ needed to bring the tens of thousands of human rights, peace and environmental organizations together into a single global movement.   Time is not on our side. The evolution of pathogens, weapons, war, corruption, environmental distresses, political polarization, government debt, and growing economic disparities are outpacing humanities will to voluntarily change our governing systems. This is literally and globally unsustainable.  Leadership is urgently needed for some organization to take the lead.

On July 4^th, 2026 the Declaration of Independence that President Carter said created the idea of America, will celebrate its 250^th anniversary of “Truths to be Self-evident” that Abraham Lincoln said was ‘for all people, everywhere, for all time”.  This coming 4^th of July many US based organizations have already started organizing for the 250 anniversary with 250 And Beyond  www.250andbeyond.com symposium planning committee: AARP Foundation, American Association for State and Local History, American Institute of Graphic Arts, America's Service Commissions, California Volunteers, Campus Compact, Interfaith America, Karsh Institute of Democracy, Made By Us, National Council for Social Studies, National Youth Leadership Council, Partnership for Public Service, PBS Books, Peace Corps Foundation, Serve Colorado, The Volcker Alliance, Urban Libraries Council, Washington State Historical Society, WETA. 

This unique anniversary needs to be celebrated by local communities globally to bring community members together with the paid staff organizations working in their local community to learn the priorities of that community, and then work together in a comprehensive approach to make measurable progress on each of the 168 specific measurable and achievable goals within the 17 SDGs.  Progress on these goals have been insufficient to meet the 2030 deadline.  Every minute, hour and day between now and July 4^th 2026 is an opportunity to inspire a global movement to bring sanity to humanity.

For more information on how you or your organization/institution can participate please contact 250project@earthlink.net.    

Chuck Woolery, Former Chair
United Nations Association, Council of Organizations
315 Dean Dr., Rockville, MD 20851
Cell:240-997-2209   chuck@igc.org

 

Blogs:  435 Campaign:  www.435globaljustice.blogspot.com  (May 2017  through today)

Dothefreakinmath http://dothefreakinmath.blogspot.com  (June 2006 to Nov 2016)

The Trilemma  http://trilemma.blogspot.com/  (Oct 2011 to Nov 2013)

 

“Today the most important thing, in my view, is to study the reasons why humankind does nothing to avert the threats about which it knows so much, and why it allows itself to be carried onward by some kind of perpetual motion.  It cannot suffice to invent new machines, new regulations, new institutions.  It is necessary to change and improve our understanding of the true purpose of what we are and what we do in the world.  Only such an understanding will allow us to develop new models of behavior, new scales of values and goals, and thereby invest the global regulations, treaties, and institutions with a new spirit and meaning.”  President Vaclav Havel, Czech Republic.