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Jimmy Carter: An American Hero
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The term American has been around in widespread use ever since the revolutionary war and the great nation known as America was formed in 1776. But have you ever stopped to think about what it really means to be an American? Who would you choose as a good role model or example of an American? To me an American is someone who embodies the love of freedom and the willingness to defend that freedom. It is a person who believes in equality for all races and who works to ensure those rights. An American is one who reaches out to those who are less fortunate and does what he/she can to improve the standard of living for all people. If I were to choose someone who I thought was a real American, it would have to the thirty-ninth president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. I admire him not only for the many great foreign policies and treaties that he arranged during his tenure as president, but for the enormous strides he has made for the equality of blacks, and the great things he has done for charity and for America in general since his time in office has ended. President Jimmy Carter was born James Earl Carter Jr. in Plains, Georgia, on October 1, 1924. The eldest of four children, he grew up near Plains, where his father farmed and operated a small country store. Carter attended school in Plains and was raised in a conservative and evangelical Baptist church, which had a strong influence on his life. Even so, he did not embrace the conservative political philosophy of his church. His father, a traditional Southerner, would not allow any black to enter his home. Despite that fact, Carter never took on his father’s racist point of view. Jimmy Carter went on to serve his country in the United States Naval Academy and was stationed in Annapolis. In 1946, Carter graduated the Naval Academy 59th in a class of 820. In July of that year he married Rosalynn Smith. Carter’s naval career began with service on battleships, but after two years he was accepted to submarine duty. After serving on the USS Pomfret in the Pacific, he was selected as one of a group of officers to work under Admiral Hyman Rickover on the nuclear submarine program. Rickover had a profound effect on Carter, who after studying nuclear physics at Union College in Schenectady, New York, served on the crew of the nuclear submarine Sea Wolf. In 1953, following the death of his father, Carter resigned from the Navy and returned home to Plains to take over the family farm business.
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