To read about F's and my London trip, start here and click "newer post" to continue the story.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Here is a creepy article about former Pres. Carter: Jimmy Carter has some advice on morality and values. (via www.opinionjournal.com)

"I was teaching a Sunday school class two weeks ago," he recalls. "A girl, she was about 16 years old from Panama City [Fla.], asked me about the differences between Democrats and Republicans.

"I asked her, 'Are you for peace, or do you want more war?' Then I asked her, 'Do you favor government helping the rich, or should it seek to help the poorest members of society? Do you want to preserve the environment, or do you want to destroy it? Do you believe this nation should engage in torture, or should we condemn it? Do you think each child today should start life responsible for $28,000 in [federal government] debt, or do you think we should be fiscally responsible?'

"I told her that if she answered all of those questions, that she believed in peace, aiding the poor and weak, saving the environment, opposing torture ... then I told her, 'You should be a Democrat.'"



Interesting opinion Mr. Carter has of half of his fellow Americans. We want to destroy the environment, we support torture, etc. And what a profound depth of thought he wanted to encourage in that 16-year-old, not to mention respect for her fellow Americans and a willingness to engage in discussion, understand their views, and possibly modify her own, as I and all independent thinkers sometimes do.

I remember that when F was 7 years old, during the elections in 1994 that saw the upheaval of the Democrat-controlled houses of Congress, she asked me what made a person a Democrat or a Republican. I told her that everyone wants what's best for the country, we just have different ideas about what that is and how to go about getting there. Right after that Harold Ford Sr., who had kept his seat but lost the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, went on TV complaining about the "East Memphis devils" who voted Republican and said that his people were writing down the addresses of people who had yard signs promoting his opponent. (The newspaper reported that people whose yard signs had been picked up phoned the Republican headquarters and asked for them to be put back. Even some people who hadn't HAD those yard signs asked for them. Some wrote in letters to the editor in which they spelled out their addresses and asked that special note be made of them.) It's not a Democrat thing to hate and despise half the population of the U.S., is it?

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