This existentialist in a New American Dark Age recalls a time when America was weary of war, of aggression, of global cold wars and other paranoias, and longed for peace–a peaceful planet, a clean planet–and we had an American president that was leading us down the path toward these ends, Jimmy Carter. He was then, and is now, a man of deep spiritual and humanitarian convictions, and he was radically changing American policies toward peace and cleaning up the environment. He provided incentives for developing solar and other renewable forms of power, and was pressuring the automobile industry to develop and manufacture more fuel-efficient cars. He worked toward a lasting peace among nations in the Middle East. As a former president, his services as diplomat and statesman have been elicited by successive presidents, and governments of other nations, as well. His ongoing Habitat for Humanity projects have provided low-cost housing for many, many poor families.
His presidency occured just after the fall of Richard M. Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal. It was a time when confidence in government and authority figures was shattered, and he developed a national reparte with Americans that was unpretentious and informal. He tried to melt away the authoritarian facades of presidential power and truly sought to provide what was best for Americans. One of my favorite presidential speeches was made by Mr. Carter after he fired most of his cabinet, secluded himself at Camp David and called in the social leaders–teachers, professors, priests and ministers, civil rights figures, and economic leaders, to determine a new direction for America. The speech was entitled, “A Crisis of Confidence” and for the first time in my memory, a president stood and spoke not to spew hollow and empty promises, but to invite the people of our American democracy to take responsibility themselves to restore confidence in government by actively being involved in the democratic processes, and to truly be a government of the people, by the people and for the people. You can hear the speech online at AMERICAN RHETORIC:TOP 100 SPEECHES at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jimmycartercrisisofconfidence.htm
Alas, many Americans want a demi-god, someone to lead them by the hand, rather than a true statesman and a dedicated administrator of the will of the people. People didn’t want to exercise their will. They didn’t want to take responsibility for the rising inflation, the rising cost of oil, and to do for themselves. So, the American people didn’t elect Jimmy Carter to a second term for his forthrightness and honesty. Instead, they elected a not-so-successful grade B movie actor named Ronald Reagan, who had charm, a great smile, and promised tax breaks and wealth trickling down to everyone, even the poorest among us,, like magic. Reagan’s empty presidential promises were just that, and he took the federal budget surplus under Carter and left the Americans with the deepest federal budget deficit in U.S. history, along with a much larger pool of impovershed people. However, illusions of wealth, provided by an explosion in the credit card and loan industries, convinced people who were deep in credit debt, that life was better, because they were consuming so much more…albeit on borrowed money. Such is the short-sidedness of American thinking, and why the long-range intelligence and planning of a Jimmy Carter could be so easily foresaken for the immediate “feel-good” (translation: short term enjoyment for long-term payments) economics of a Ronald Reagan.
Jimmy Carter has been much more successful in meeting his personal humanitarian goals as an ex-president, without being amid the forest of political trappings and influences. Mr. Carter’s statemanship, his dedication to peace and to true democratic participation of all people in the quest for happiness and realizing one’s dreams has kept him and his wife, Rosalyn, busy into his mid-eighties. His participation in international diplomacy earned him a Nobel Peace prize, and he continues to work dilligently to help the poor and oppressed in the world.
Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman conducted an in-depth personal interview with President Jimmy Carter last Monday. Here is a link to a conversation with my favorite of modern American presidents:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/10/1518224
Listen, Learn, Enjoy
Amen
Reason, Compassion, Peace
MH
