View From a Prairie Home

by Hege Hernfindahl, Columnist

I was going to write a column about what I wish for the New Year. More time with my family. Taking one day at a time and not worry about tomorrow. Be kinder. More forgiving. Be better at mingling with people. And working for world peace. But how would a person work for world peace. An individual. One person against the world?

Grant and I always pray the prayer of St. Francis before we eat breakfast. “Lord, make us instrument of your peace.” I am sure you know the prayer about how to be selfless and kind. How to not take offense when someone talks out of turn. How to concentrate about loving others rather than focusing about being loved. How to encourage the downtrodden. But as I pray this I always think and lament about the wars going on right now and how hard it is to see videos and pictures of Israel destroying the last working hospital in Gaza. The neighborhoods there totally devastated. The people crying in pain from the loss of their babies, their parents and their homes. And I wonder what I could possibly do to help.

But then I think of President Carter who just died and I am sad for the loss of a man who spent his life living up to the words of Saint Francis. He was gentle. He didn’t want to be a president that catered to the rich and powerful. He wanted to be the president of the common man and woman. He wanted to be kind and compassionate. He wanted to give hope to the hopeless. Words of comfort to the desperate. He, like Roosevelt, had his fireside chats. Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer from Georgia.

I remember vividly how we, two young people from the middle of nowhere were invited to his inauguration. Our friends were too. All the people who had been delegates to the Minnesota DFL State Convention in ‘76 were invited. Minnesota senator Walter Mondale was now to be vice-president. I don’t know if all people in the USA who had been delegates to their state conventions had been invited. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they had. The ordinary people. The people who had, together, given him the nomination to run as the Democratic Party’s candidate for president.

We couldn’t go. We didn’t have the money and also, we had a tiny newborn baby, our little precious Ingvild. But our friends went. They rented a van and found hotel rooms and were so honored and thrilled to have been invited. They had a wonderful time. So in a way, through them, we were there too.

Jimmy Carter, who showed the world what it meant to be a Christian. He taught Sunday school even as a president. He created the Department of Energy to address energy shortage, promote energy conservation and advance research into renewable energy. He also created a cabinet-level Department of Education to focus on improving the quality of education. He expanded the National Parks; improved relations with Latin America and China. He brokered a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. This is seen as one of the most significant diplomatic achievements of the 20th century.   

But Carter is most famous for what he did after he left office when he founded the Carter Center, an organization dedicated to human rights and democracy, conflict resolution and disease eradication. It is for this work that Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

I am not anything like this giant of a man. Most people couldn’t live up to what he did for peace. To raise up the downtrodden. To help the homeless and feed the multitudes. But we could try to live up to the prayer of St. Francis. And if we fail in our effort today, there is always a tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.