We went to the Georgia State University commencement exercises today, as our family member was graduating (congratulations family member!)
Jimmy Carter gave the commencement speech,
and he was awesome. No surprise, but still very cool to be there & hear / see him speak in real time. Suffice it to say Jimmy Carter is for real and while I don't endorse hero worship, it's hard not to admire what he has done and he often speaks the truth way more accurately than alot of other public figures.
So far this article in the Macon Telegraph is the only one I could find.
"Our government should be known as opposed to war, championing peace, dedicated to the resolution of disputes by peaceful means," he said. "At this time, many see us as the most war-like of nations."
The U.S. has too often "been in bed with dictators" for political and economic reasons - previously in Latin American and more recently in the Middle East - he said. Instead, the country's leadership should focus on climate change and offering more humane assistance to those in need, he said. Citing his own recent trips to Cuba and North Korea, he said the U.S. should be more willing to talk to those with different viewpoints.
On domestic issues, Carter noted that there has been a continuing expansion of U.S. military spending to the point that the Pentagon budget far exceeds that of other nations.
He said the "arms race is one we are having with ourselves."
Hopefully a youtube will surface somewhere as the speech was awesome.
He even pointed out that in the USA a citizen is more likely to be incarcerated than any other country in the world, indicating that obviously this is a problem.
We need more Americans to heed the wisdom of Jimmy Carter. Hopefully his encouragement and words to the graduates today will help move it a little bit more in that direction.