HIP HIP...HURRAH...FOR PRESIDENT CARTER
Working late last Thursday night with my radio tuned to BBC shortwave - my standard bill of radio fare after midnight - the news came on. President Carter had won the Nobel
Peace Prize. I jumped up with delight, and glanced at the calendar. No, it wasn't September, 1979, when three men named Sadat, Begin, and Carter sat down at
Camp David to ink what would be a lasting peace accord between Egypt and Israel. No. It was October, 2002. I smiled, big time!
Heck, I didn't even vote for President Carter when he beat President Ford in '76. But I sure did four years later - four years of almost unbelievable "highs" and
"lows". The Hostage situation, alone, was horrible, and the economy was in the tank. But hey, the man got us the environmental superfund, created the Departments of Energy and
Education, reformed trucking, airlines, and deregulated banking for my conservative friends. He signed SALT II with Russia, and sat down with those two other guys, who by the way,
won the Nobel Prize one month after they left Camp David, while Jimmy was left inspecting Three Mile Island and authorizing the Susan B. Anthony dollar.
I chuckle when I think about President Carter. It's a good chuckle. One of fondness. One of admiration.
Sure, we remember him swashing around Three Mile Island in his "booties", and his "lust in my heart" moments, and his brother's Billy Beer, and the peanut farmer
jokes. But here was a guy like the rest of us, who really did his best, I think, under some of the most grueling of circumstances. And, whether we believed in his policies or not,
we felt for him, because HE was US. He was one of us without ever having to openly prove it. It just took us a while to get it. And the neat thing is... he still is one of
us, and thank you, Nobel Committee, for seeing his human rights accomplishments in HIS lifetime.
NOW JIMMY, ABOUT THIS 'INDEPENDENT COUNCIL' THING...
A footnote: In my quick 'refresher' course on the Carter presidency, I happened upon these known, but sometimes forgotten facts, which are interesting in retrospect.
President Carter lost his bid for reelection to the Presidency the same year Bill Clinton lost his reelection bid as Governor of Arkansas. And, ironically, it was President Carter
who signed what was then called, "The Ethics in Government Act", which provided for appointment of the now infamous "Independent Counsel". Well, we all have our bad days, eh?
JAMES EARL CARTER, JUNIOR, 39th President of the United States, and all-around compassionate good guy, from Plains, Georgia. Winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize for Peace. Well deserved. Hip Hip to 'ya, Jimmy. Well deserved, indeed.
HAVE A GOOD WEEK, EVERYONE...
O'C
