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Send Good Thoughts to Jimmy Carter

Former President Jimmy Carter, 90, announced today that he has cancer. It was discovered after surgery for a mass on his liver. It has spread to other parts of his body.

He will be getting treatment at Emory Health Care in Atlanta. I'm sending good thoughts his way, and hope you do too.

A memorable Jimmy Carter quote: [More...]

“Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce [28g] of marijuana.”

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    His foreign policy (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by MKS on Wed Aug 12, 2015 at 11:39:31 PM EST
    with its emphasis on human rights was very good.....much better than what followed.

    America's Greatest Living Statesman... (5.00 / 2) (#5)
    by kdog on Thu Aug 13, 2015 at 08:41:08 AM EST
    We never had to worry about Jimmy speaking on behalf of our country and embarrassing us, I can't say that about many leaders.

    May he know peace and comfort from now till death.

    It has been my privilege (5.00 / 5) (#8)
    by KeysDan on Thu Aug 13, 2015 at 10:21:51 AM EST
    to serve on the Carter Center Executive Council.   The Carter Center is a non-governmentlal, non-profit established in 1982 by President and Mrs. Carter in partnership with Emory University.

    The Center is located in Atlanta contiguous with the Carter Presidential Library and Museum. The Carter Center, with volunteers, students and some paid staff,  accomplished great things around the world through its peace and health programs.

    It  provides teaching and learning opportunities with the goal of improving life for people around the world. .  Its health programs have been particularly successful using health education, public health  measures and simple treatments to attack several preventable diseases. The organizing approach is at the grass roots level.

     Its work to eliminate river blindness and guinea worm are  truly amazing.   President and Mrs. Carter attend  Council meetings whenever their schedules permit.  President Carter, at 90, and Mrs. Carter, a few years younger, have been in robust health.   I wish the best for Mr. Carter and am grateful for the legacy he presents through the Carter Center.

    Not since Eleanor Roosevelt ... (5.00 / 1) (#16)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Fri Aug 14, 2015 at 04:48:11 PM EST
    ... and Harry Truman, has anyone other than Jimmy Carter come close to embodying the term "elder statesman" in this country. And like Mrs. Roosevelt was during her own post-White House years, President Carter has effectively become our country's moral touchstone.

    The sorriest vote of my entire life, and one which I will regret and lament until my last breath, was the presidential ballot I cast in 1980 for Ronald Reagan. I was only 19 at the time, so I can chalk that one up to youthful ignorance.

    But as the years have passed, my respect and admiration for President Carter has only grown, while my initial exuberance for President Reagan eventually -- and likely, inevitably -- gave way to disgust and dismay.

    And thank you, Dan, for your own service as a member of the Carter Center Executive Council. Regardless of whatever the man's near-term fate may be due to his illness, the Carter Center and its work on behalf of peace and humanity will serve as one of the truly great living legacies of any American political figure, in this or any other lifetime.

    Some people look back at the election of 35 years ago, and lament what might have been. I look to the Carter Center, and see what we can still be. We've been blessed by Jimmy Carter's continued presence on the world stage, and we can continue to honor his life's work through our own support of the Carter Center.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    Get well, President Carter (5.00 / 1) (#12)
    by RCBadger on Thu Aug 13, 2015 at 05:54:49 PM EST
    He was my very first presidential vote both in the primaries and the general election.  I remember I was living away from home at college and my dad actually came to pick me up so I could vote in the presidential election.  

    A truly honorable gentleman (5.00 / 1) (#13)
    by Politalkix on Thu Aug 13, 2015 at 05:56:25 PM EST
    and a President that was much ahead of his times! Good thoughts and wishes for his recovery!

    We don't deserve (5.00 / 5) (#14)
    by NYShooter on Thu Aug 13, 2015 at 07:19:42 PM EST
    the country our Founding Fathers envisioned for us some two centuries ago.

    President Carter, a scientist and visionary leader, had solar panels installed on the White House roof in 1979 to generate electricity that would power its water heaters. Upon its dedication, he stated:

    "In the year 2000 this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy.... A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people."

    Ronald Reagan, after having defeated Carter in his re-election attempt, considered the solar powered equipment "a joke," and had it removed. During the campaign, this actor, and cigarette pitch man, displayed his ignorance, and short-sightedness, stating, "The Department of Energy has a multibillion-dollar budget, yet, it hasn't produced a quart of oil or a lump of coal or anything else in the line of energy."

    But, history moves on, and, as Carter predicted, parts of the White House system are now on display at the Solar Science and Technology Museum in Dezhou, China. Reflecting China's respect for President Carter, and his vision of a world moving away from its dependency on carbon-based energy, Huang Ming, chairman of Himin Solar Energy Group Co., the largest manufacturer of such solar hot water heaters in the world, accepted the donation for permanent display there on August 5. After all, companies like his in China now produce some 80 percent of the solar water heaters used in the world today.

    We not only threw out an intelligent, forward looking, peace loving, President. We replaced him with a man who was the exact, evil, opposite of everything that was good about Mr. Carter. And, just about everything one can point to in describing the horrible transformation that has recast America into the tragic mutation it has become today can be traced back to that fateful election of 1980 when America truly, "lost its mind."


    Just wanted to quietly digest this (5.00 / 2) (#15)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Aug 14, 2015 at 01:02:26 PM EST
    But today wondering how something like cancer opens the door for people to discuss how much they think a particular action of an individual many years ago sucks?

    When I think about Jimmy Carter, I think about Habitat for Humanity. And the three Royal Empress trees planted in my yard that my husband will harvest for wood working because Jimmy Carter expounded on the virtues of the wood.

    Good thoughts and hopes officially sent (none / 0) (#1)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 12, 2015 at 08:08:14 PM EST
    there is something very profound about that quote and the thinking behind it.

    He has lived (none / 0) (#2)
    by Ga6thDem on Wed Aug 12, 2015 at 08:41:02 PM EST
    a long and adventurous life and I'm sorry to hear about the liver cancer. I understand it is a horrible thing.

    A good and honorable man. (none / 0) (#3)
    by desertswine on Wed Aug 12, 2015 at 09:15:02 PM EST
    Good thoughts to him.

    I voted for Carter (none / 0) (#6)
    by jimakaPPJ on Thu Aug 13, 2015 at 09:55:29 AM EST
    but he made me regret it.

    But I never questioned his intentions or that he was an honorable man.

    May he overcome.

    Ha (5.00 / 6) (#7)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Aug 13, 2015 at 10:04:40 AM EST
    i knew you would not be able to resist a dig.  Congratulations on your vacuous consistency.

    Parent
    Whether or not I cast my first vote (none / 0) (#9)
    by Mordiggian 88 on Thu Aug 13, 2015 at 11:16:45 AM EST
    for him, I wish him well

    Parent
    When Carter ran.. (5.00 / 1) (#10)
    by jondee on Thu Aug 13, 2015 at 11:55:45 AM EST
    some people's irrational "the South shall rise again" instincts temporarily overroad their irrational anti-liberal Democrat instincts enough to vote for him..

     

    Parent

    That was the promise (none / 0) (#11)
    by Mordiggian 88 on Thu Aug 13, 2015 at 01:06:27 PM EST
    wasn't it?

    Jimmy Carter: Some of our cabinet members are really gonna flip.

    Ralph Nader: And how 'bout a Whistleblowers Act to protect people like Ernie Fitzgerald who blew the whistle on Pentagon waste?

    Jimmy Carter: Okay. You got it. Definitely. [more notes] You've been doin' some good talkin'. Everything you mention is positive, dynamic legislation. I'll give you my word I'll do everything in my scope of influence to make sure that it's enacted. [shakes Nader's hand]

    Ralph Nader: That's wonderful, Jimmy. It's about time this country had somebody with your courage in the Oval Office.

    Jimmy Carter: You can count on it, Ralph. Say, uh, just so long as you're here, um, uh, why don't you, uh, take a look at some of my plans for my inauguration? [rises, walks out of view]

    Ralph Nader: Terrific. Since I'm not invited, I'd love to see what kind of inauguration you're gonna have.

    Jimmy Carter: [from off screen] I'm gonna tell ya, Ralph, this is gonna be the greatest party this union has ever seen. [clears throat, returns in gray Confederate army uniform, whips out sword, "Dixie" plays in background] My people have been waiting a hundred and ten years ... [Nader is stunned] ... for this triumphal march of the Confederacy to Washington. Finally, the flagrant rape of the Confederacy by the Yankee war dogs is gonna be avenged. ...

    [moves aside a red drape on the wall behind him to reveal a map of the U.S. dotted with symbols of planes, tanks, etc.] On Wednesday night, the Fifth Division of the Georgia National Guard ... - that is, the Lillian Carter wing - in tanks and armored personnel carriers, rolls north through the Carolinas. It splits here at Raleigh into a pincer-claw, to be complemented by the George Wallace Tactical Air Wing of the Confederate Air Force. ... The 20th Armored Group, led by five-time NASCAR winner Cale Yarborough ... will roll through Kentucky and West Virginia on to battle emplacements here on the Shenandoah River.

    Ralph, they whipped us bad at Raleigh -- and at Vicksburg and Memphis and Shiloh and Appomattox. Do you know that Sherman ran a swath through Georgia fifty miles wide? Fifty miles of the choicest, most beautiful peanut country in the Confederacy. ... On the night of the 20th, the Tactical Assault Brigade of the Greg Allman Land-Sea Brigade will seize and burn Washington. The zero-based budgeting I have proposed will help me revalidate Confederate currency. [lets out with a rebel yell] YAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH YAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

    And you, Ralph Nader, the best consumer advocate in the world -- I want you workin' with me. I have an office set up in Plains for ya. My men'll take you over there now. It's time for you to go, Ralph. Time for you to go. Time for you to go. Time--



    Parent
    Carter's Legacy: The Camp David Accords. (none / 0) (#17)
    by Mr Natural on Fri Aug 14, 2015 at 08:34:59 PM EST
    Begin's signature.  Sadat's signature.  


    And, just think..... (none / 0) (#18)
    by NYShooter on Fri Aug 14, 2015 at 10:05:54 PM EST
    Sadat "invited himself" to visit Israel, and address their Parliament, The Knesset. Such a bold, and, brave move by Sadat left Israeli Leaders speechless, but, to their great credit, they seized the opportunity, and (retroactively) formally invited Sadat through the proper, official channels. Talk about playing 11th. Dimensional Chess!

    I may be mistaken, but, wouldn't a movie about all the clandestine, and, intriguing moves on everyone's part be fascinating? I mean, who could have conceived of leaving The Palestinians out of the peace talks.... regarding Peace with the Palestinians! LOL.  Giants were at work. Each step along the way, at just the most perplexing, yet opportune, moment, a new, different, hero stepped up and saved the day.

    It wasn't quite the same as the Cuban Missile Crisis, but, it had the same kind of feel. maybe the people who did "Argo" could produce this Camp David Thriller?

    Sigh.... what might have been.

    Parent