January 1, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt set a world record for a head of state. At an official New Year’s Day, White House function, Roosevelt shook hands with 8,513 people. Completing his political duty, biographer Edmund Morris, wrote that President Roosevelt, “went upstairs, and privately, disgustedly scrubbed himself clean.”
Incoming president Trump has a less than positive view of shaking hands. "I think the
handshake is barbaric... Shaking hands, you catch the flu, you catch this, you catch all sorts of things." As the pandemic has taught us to bump fists, many of us would agree with Mr. Trump.
I have shaken hands with one US president, Jimmy Carter. But I shook hands with Carter twice. The first was while I was a student at Samford University in Birmingham AL.
As president, Carter was nothing like the marathon handshaker Roosevelt or the hesitant handshaker Trump. However, Carter’s uniqueness went far beyond a handshake.
“Carter appointed more women, Black Americans, and Jewish Americans to official positions and judgeships 'than all 38 of his predecessors combined.’” He established the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. As well as brokering the Camp David Peace Accord.
The second time I shook hands with Jimmy Carter he was no longer president but was still serving and working. Following his presidency, Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize and helped build enough Habitat for Humanity homes that people thought he was Habitat’s founder.
This week I saw a cartoon of Jimmy Carter walking into heaven wearing his iconic tool belt. He is arm and arm with who appears to be Jesus. “Welcome home, from one carpenter to another.”
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Mark Ross
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