President Jimmy Carter & His Farewell Address
As the founder of the Jimmy Carter Jamboree, a grassroots initiative here in California to celebrate Carter, recognizing his approaches for peace, diplomacy, housing, health and much more, I want to shine a light on his farewell address when he stated that he was now entering one of the greatest roles in America, more powerful than the president himself, and this is as a private citizen.
During this time of utter conflict, protests, strikes, anger, arrests and more, I have a perspective to share as the daughter of the 1981 National Union Strike, one who experienced what it’s like to have the US Government arrest members and feel the consequences of being sabotaged by the US Government. There is another way to make your voice heard without putting yourself at risk. And it’s far more effective.
We are so divided in this country, which is not necessarily by accident. It’s by design. We need to unify. While Trump has used anger and hate to bring people together, there is another way to do the job. . . and that is by celebrating US President Jimmy Carter, bringing attention to the kind of leadership we respect, one who carries empathy, wisdom and peace.
When I talk to people I’m astounded by the hypocrisy. They say how ineffective Carter was, yet he wasn’t. He pushed major policies related to education, energy as well as expanding many of our national parks. He stood up to OPEC and sought peace without using missiles and war to solve problems. He is respected around the world, but for some strange reason not year, though the reasoning it’s so strange.
Despite the fact Carter bridged peace between Israel and Egypt, he also stood up for the Palestinian people, even going to Gaza to meet the leaders and monitor elections. He wrote a book Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid. And then during his book tour faced extraordinary opposition by AIPAC and other Jewish organizations.
The Carter Center doesn’t talk about Carter’s stand for Palestine or even his words in 2009, “Israel treats the Palestinians like animals.”
It’s time, as a nation we begin to come clean with truths and recognize since the Reagan Administration, we’ve had 40 years of trickle down economics, knock down of labor, rise of the elites and oligarchies, out of control wars and yet we raise Reagan statues and don’t hold him accountable for the disaster his policies have brought to us. It’s time to flip the table and come clean. The Reagan Era has been a disaster. ..The “Hero” of the Republican Party, Ronald Reagan and his policies and those who have been heralding him need to be called out.
And it’s high time as a nation we reflect on The Carter Administration, recognizing a generation chose not to support him, yet Carter continued to do the work despite criticism, leaving us today with a narrative of one of our greatest leaders to celebrate.
Raise a salute to Carter. .. it’s the greatest form of resistance and protest you could ever muster.