Jimmy Carter never fails to amaze me. Nixon reinvented his image after Watergate. Carter reinvented what can be expected of a former President. From election reform and peacemaking around the world to a champion of civil and human rights, Carter has been a tireless fighter for justice.
This week he fought a different kind of fight. He fought for reality. While President Bush states the United States does not participate in torture Carter strongly disputed this claim.
Carter stated, “But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don’t violate them, and you can make your own definition of torture and say we don’t violate them,” Carter said. “Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights,” Carter told CNN. “We’ve said that the Geneva conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we’ve said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime.”
Carter did not shy away from the hard questions nor was he partisan. He described Vice President Cheney as “as disaster” and he attacked Senators Clinton and Obama for refusing to advocate for a speedy withdrawal of U.S. forces for Iraq.
It is no wonder why this man won the Noble Peace prize in 1992. It is no wonder why he infuriates so many Americans. And it is no wonder why I admire him so much. He cannot be described as “speaking truth to power” since he was once “the power”. Never the less, he does have the persona of a prophet crying in the wilderness.
Keep up the good work Jimmy!
1 comment:
I agree with you about Carter. People do not like him because he says what he thinks. He tells the rights from the wrongs. Glad to hear someone else appreciates his opinion. I always have liked him. He has done more good as an ex president than as president. His international work is fantastic. He was always weak on the home front, because of game players and scoundrels.
Kyle
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