Jimmy Carter Wows the Brits with Speech- "10 minutes to change the world"

[Ichingcarpenter]

Carter: 10 minutes to change the world

Hay festival 2008: An inspiring address from a former US president left the audience wondering - can we have him back?


Tonight Hay offered a new collective prayer: if only we could have a man like Jimmy Carter back in the Oval Office. Now 83 years old, the former president - so often mocked by his countrymen and a victim of what he called an "involuntary retirement" when he was booted out in 1980 - held his audience spellbound as he set out a radically alternative vision of America's place in the world.

The emotional high point came when Carter seemed to be playing the fantasy game himself, offering the opening words of the speech the next president should deliver when he or she is inaugurated next January.

"When I'm the president of the United States," he intoned, the voice still strong,

"My country will never again torture a prisoner.

When I'm the president of the United States, we will never again attack another country unless our security is directly threatened.

When I'm the president of the United States, human rights will be the foundation of our foreign policy."

He went on in that vein, with ringing declarations on global warming, a promise to honour international agreements and to bring "security and peace to Israel and all its neighbours and treat them all on an equal basis."

The audience thundered its applause, signalling that this was the American speech they yearned to hear. Carter insisted that a new president would not need a hundred days to change America's image in the world,

just the "ten minutes" required to say those words.

>>>>>snip




http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_freedland/2008/05/carter_10_minutes_to_change_th.html

[silverweb]

1. Wow... I'd love to see that.

I wonder if the full text and video will be available?

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. I would too... I'm willing to bet there is one

which will show up soon.

President Carter a man of moral integrity still fighting for justice
equality and sanity on an insane planet.

[silverweb]

8. Looks like it will be available...

...for a price. There's a full audio, video, and print _archive_ available for a fee.

Maybe we'll get lucky and parts will end up someplace free... like on YouTube. :D

[Canuckistanian]

3. Draft Carter!

Why not?

Mugabe is a leader at age 84 and shows no signs of slowing down.... unfortunately.

[mdmc]

4. He is my all time favorite president

Hotshot, not mugabe

[zeemike]

5. What a brilliant man he is n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. He was sly if you read what he said about Bush's War Crimes

He was (asking) implying the World to put him through the International Courts.

[madokie]

22. Thats what I got out of it too

as soon as he was elected the criminal crew went after him tooth and nail like they did the other democrat we've had since nixon. Yes the same band of traitors who should have faced the courts on many charges but were give pardons by poppy. We have to stop them now or we've lost our democracy.


Add: I think we'll be hearing a lot about this speech if not in our press at least in the bloggs. Thats where the real news is reported now anyway.

Rec

[drmeow]

7. I always felt like Carter

unfairly got the shaft ... and I do believe that the release of the hostages was deliberately delayed to make sure he was voted out of office. While not perfect, at least he had/has integrity unlike 95% of national politicians.

[hootinholler]

9. It's documented that poppy * negotiated them being held. n/t

[drmeow]

14. I was pretty sure of that but didn't want to

state it unequivocally in case I was wrong. Thanks for confirming.

[roguevalley]

10. now there is a "god" of peace, if you know what I mean.

[hootinholler]

11. I so wish that Obama will have many long heart to heart talks with this man.

He would be my first choice for Secretary of State, if he would accept the post, and I was elected.

-Hoot

[dgauss]

12. The great irony is that he is an exemplary Christian

in principle and action, and yet ridiculed and even reviled by so many other Christians.

That seems to happen a lot.

[Horse with no Name]

13. This has been addressed (many of THOSE "christians" aren't familiar with it)

Luke 6:37-38, 41-42
“Stop judging, so that you won't be judged, 2because the way that you judge others will be the way that you will be judged, and you will be evaluated by the standard with which you evaluate others.
3“Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when the beam is in your own eye? 5You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”

Luke 6:43-44
15“Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are savage wolves. 16You will know them by their fruit. Grapes aren't gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles, are they? 17In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a rotten tree produces bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a rotten tree cannot produce good fruit. 19Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into a fire. 20So by their fruit you will know them.”

[Divine Discontent]

17. succinctly powerful

"The great irony is that he is an exemplary Christian in principle and action, and yet ridiculed and even reviled by so many other Christians. That seems to happen a lot."



Exactly.

[InkAddict]

18. Must have been because he made that "lust in the heart" comment:

those other X-tians get their lustiness right out in the open, in your face, in the airport, in the back rooms of the WH, in the children's bedrooms, and even in the cathedrals. They are, therefore, unlawful yet forgiven PERFECT CREATURES that can get away with anything in this WORLD WITHOUT END, AMEN. :sarcasm:

[Joe Chi Minh]

32. Do you really think they are Christians - keeping themselves uncontaminated by the World?

Hunter S Thompson was absolutely knocked for six by a speech that the now President Jimmy Carter made, as the guest speaker at some kind of state, judicial convention.

He was kind of half-listening for a while, then gradually he found he could hardly believe his ears, as President Carter launched into an ever-more vitriolic diatribe against his audience; his most striking condemnation being that they had failed to give redress to a poor African American woman who was plainly cheated out of her property.

Imo, there is no-one to touch Hunter S Thompson for excoriating invective (outside of the Gospels...), so it tells you something that he was awestruck by President Carter's speech. I believe he tried to obtain a copy of it, but it was extempore.

[pansypoo53219]

15. volker pretty much

ended his chance. and the gnew probably didn't help. i was too young to judge. tho i know they did their best to take out dukakis. but he was lame. you'd think we'd learn.

[magellan]

16. I wonder how this would go over in America

It says much good of the Brits that this was the American speech they yearned to hear; but is it the American speech Americans yearn to hear?

It would get a standing ovation from me....

[Beregond2]

19. What always amazes me about him

is, his mind is, if anything, sharper than ever. When you see him on TV, when he is asked a question, he has the answer out almost before the question is finished. He has the facts at his fingertips, and a well-reasoned opinion on everything.

[maui9002]

28. I agree with your post

but wonder how much of that sentiment is based on the complete inability of the current occupant of the White House to say anything articulate. When I hear Carter, Bill Clinton, and Obama speak, I marvel at how these men can articulate a complex answer to a difficult question and all Bush can do is respond with a nonsensical rote reply--"Freedom is on the march; We're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them over here; they hate us because they hate freedom; if we raise taxes, it will hurt the economy; blah, blah, blah". I've listened to a few Bush speeches and not once have I been impressed with what he said or how he said it.

[RNdaSilva]

20. Jimmy Carter said...

superdelegates will PROMPT Hillary Clinton to quit shortly after June 3rd.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL2562414520080525

The sooner the better. But, I'm betting that the pleasingly plump lady will be singing for Barack Obama early June 4th.

[dysfunctional press]

21. the next president should begin his inaugural address with an apology to the world...

for the belligerent attitude & conduct of the u.s. over the past 8 years.

[ccharles000]

23. He is great.

[timtom]

24. If only one of the candidates could have said the same thing.

Oh, wait. One did.

DK
MG
RP

[Forkboy]

25. He said this on Charlie Rose a few weeks ago.

Had me cheering right here at home. :)

[janet118]

26. If we had listened to Jimmy Carter . . .

. . . we would be much less dependent on foreign oil;

. . . we would have led the world in the development and implementation of alternative energy sources;

. . . we would have taken the early warnings about global warming seriously and slowed its effects;

. . . we would be less hated in the Middle East;

. . . we would not have to listen to all this "Reagan Revolution" crap;

. . . the mentally ill would not have been thrown out on the streets to fend for themselves;

. . . eliminating the causes and results of poverty would have been a priority;



and much much more.

Jimmy Carter was/is a good man who was unfairly and viciously attacked by the mainstream media and Washington insiders of both parties. It says a lot about America that we let it happen. We are not who we say we are. We don't really elect good people who care about the long term. We want "electable" people who promise short term goodies. Grow up, America.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

27. Corporations rule America and elect their choices. We, as citizens,

do not get to elect those that would best serve our interests. This nation has been hijacked.

[Raster]

33. The Carter Presidency was a turning point for the United States.

The perils of over-reliance on foreign oil were recognized. The fragility of the Earth's ecosystem, especially the Earth's climate was revealed. The need for sustainable and renewable energy resources was most apparent in the Carter years. The Texas Petroleum Cartel and their accomplices, the Saudi royal family, saw Carter and his good stewardship of the Earth policies for what they were: bad for the oil business. OPEC, which at that time WAS a Saudi lapdog, flexed its petrol muscles and created the oil shortage, which reverberated throughout the country, in a calculated and successful attempt to thwart the Carter policies. The so-called gasoline shortage was a man-made event and part of the "perfect political storm" of events designed to weaken the Carter reelection bid and strengthen that of his rival, Ronnie "mourning in America" Raygun. As I should have said, the Carter Presidency should have been a turning point for our country, instead we were tricked into voodoo economics and the beginning of the end of adequate corporate oversight.

[glitch]

29. I burst into tears over this. Thank you for posting, especially on Memorial Day. K & R nt

[Disturbed]

31. Pres. Obama should ask Jimmy Carter to become Sec. of State.

Even though the request would be turned down it should offered.

[spanone]

30. we should bestow our highest national honors on this great citizen. thank you president carter

[dinalight]

34. KUBARK was still the CIA manual on rendition during Carter's administration

and rightfully so. Why should he disavow it now?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KUBARK#CIA_manuals