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News Specialist Jed Boal reporting Former President Jimmy Carter follows a tireless schedule that takes him around the globe. For two decades, the peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, has quietly waged peace and become a significant voice on the world stage.
This weekend, Mr. Carter is hosting a fund-raiser at Snowbird to gain support for his initiatives.
Carter jokes that he was involuntarily retired from the White House in 1981. But he and his wife Roslynn surely have not left the world's stage.
In December, the 78-year-old was given the Nobel Peace Prize for his years of work through the Carter Center to bring peace and better health to the world.
Mr. Carter spoke to the center's major donors at Snowbird.
"The rest of the world should be able to look at America and say, 'there is a repository of peace,'" he says.
The center, as the former president calls it, is waging peace in nearly 70 countries -- monitoring elections, mediating political divides and fighting disease.
Mr. Carter has been critical of any plans for a preemptive military strike in Iraq, but does not directly criticize the Bush administration.
"Peace should be the preeminent concern of our nation, so that everyone on earth can think of our nation as a champion of peace," Carter says.
The Carter Center is involved in North Korea, Venezuela, Bolivia, the Mideast.
In May, Mr. Carter visited Cuba and met with Cuban President Fidel Castro, making him the first seated or former U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1928.
But the Carter Center steers clear of politics.
"It's good for the whole world, and I think people see that, and we really don't get involved in anything that is partisan," says event coordinator Jay Beck.
Instead, the center tries to strengthen human rights and economic development in emerging democracies. It works to eliminate disease and foster improved agricultural practices.
Carter points out that America is the only superpower today, and calls our country's influence greater than that of the Roman Empire.
"So we have an opportunity at this time I think in America to personify as a nation the finest aspects of life," he says.
The Carter Center is closing in on the completion of a $150 million fund-raising drive.
The former president has said the center will be his greatest legacy, but he credits the center for all of his accolades.
