BEATITUDES – THE PEACEMAKERS
Jimmy Carter was not a president of the first rank, but he managed by dint of unceasing effort to become an iconic world leader, with an inspiring, if often contentious, legacy as a dogged peacemaker and a decent and ethical problem-solver. His presidency—beset by a horrible economy, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the seizure of American hostages in Iran—was a stunning political failure but a greater substantive success than was recognized when he was crushed for reelection by Ronald Reagan in 1980.
In today’s world of perpetual military intervention, it’s striking that not a single bomb was dropped or shot fired in combat by American forces on Carter’s watch, and his leadership helped prevent at least five wars—in Panama, Israel, and Iran when he was president, and in Haiti and North Korea after he left office. The Camp David Accords he engineered proved to be the most successful treaty since the end of World War II. Long before he died Sunday, Dec. 29, at 100, his epic journey from barefoot Georgia farm boy to Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian had become a classic American story.
https://time.com/5579674/jimmy-carter-dies/
—Jonathan Alter, “Jimmy Carter Was More Successful Than He Got Credit For,” Time.com, December 29, 2024
Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. president known as a champion of international human rights both during and after his White House tenure and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his lifetime of dedication to that cause, has died at 100, ABC News has learned.
…Among his administration's most notable achievements were the Camp David Accords, which Carter brokered between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978, and that led to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty the following year.
…Though political pundits of the era predicted he would be remembered as an average, one-term president, it's often been observed that Carter’s reputation became more distinguished after he left the White House. He continued to champion international human rights and peace efforts, prompting Time magazine to declare in 1989, just eight years after the end of his presidency, that Carter “may be the best former president America has ever had.”
…Carter was the third U.S. president, following Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which he received in 2002 after creating the Carter Center. Barack Obama became the fourth, in 2009. In selecting Carter for the honor, the Nobel Committee cited “his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
—Justin Doom and Steve Osunsami, “Former President Jimmy Carter, celebrated champion of human rights, dies at 100,” ABC 7 Eyewitness News, December 30, 2024
“We mourn the passing of President Jimmy Carter, whose presidential commission recommended establishing our Museum.”—US Holocaust Museum
“My hero Jimmy Carter was a peacemaker, a public servant, a man of faith, a devoted partner to Rosalynn—and a Guinea worm’s worst nightmare. I knew him best as a global health advocate and deeply admired his dedication to taking on diseases that impact the world’s poorest people, like Guinea worm disease.”—Melinda French Gates
https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/jimmy-carter-death-news-12-29-24/index.html
—Maureen Chowdhury, Jack Forrest, Michelle Shen and Ashley R. Williams, “Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president, dies at age 100,” CNN.com, December 29, 2024
“James Earl Carter, Jr., was a man of deeply held convictions. He was loyal to his family, his community, and his country. President Carter dignified the office. And his efforts to leave behind a better world didn’t end with the presidency. His work with Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center set an example of service that will inspire Americans for generations.”— George W. Bush and Laura Bush
—“Statement by President George W. Bush on President James Earl Carter, Jr.,” George W. Bush Presidential Center, December 29, 2024
Jimmy Carter demonstrates the point that politics is ethical. He stood on ethical foundations about which many would no doubt coincide. Despite differences he strove to implement his ethics in his politics, and he significantly succeeded.
“Political ethics (sometimes called political morality or public ethics) is the practice of making moral judgments about political action, and the study of that practice. As a field of study, it is divided into two branches, each with distinctive problems and with different though overlapping literatures. One branch, the ethics of process (or the ethics of office), focuses on public officials and the methods they use. The other branch, the ethics of policy (or ethics and public policy) concentrates on judgments about policies and laws.”
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/dft/files/political_ethics-revised_10-11.pdf
—“Political Ethics,” International Encyclopedia of Ethics
“If peace and love are not allowed to take their rightful place at the table of negotiation, then hatred and anger will produce a conflict that will continue for many years to come. It will solve nothing and thousands of innocent lives will be lost. I ask you all to pray for peace which is such an urgent priority.”
ReplyDeleteIn Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living, compiled by Jaya Chalika and Edward Le Joly (New York: Penguin Compass, 2000), 255
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Sometimes, we have little or no direct influence, and the best we can do is pray.
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