Former President Carter says Americans generally oblivious to suffering elsewhere in the world

The Minneapolis "Red" Star Tribune ^ | 2/22/04 | David Peterson

[gore_sux]

NORTHFIELD, MINN. -- Former President Jimmy Carter delivered a Saturday sermon to a standing-room-only crowd at St. Olaf College, condemning the American people as much as their leaders for what he called their indifference to the disease and despair that prevail in much of the developing world.

"It's a different world from ours," he said. "And we don't really care what happens to them."

The winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize was in Minnesota as the centerpiece of the two-day 16th annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum.

He was greeted with foot-stomping rapture, applauded not only in the college's Skoglund Center gymnasium but again in the lobby by audience members who disobeyed a request and sneaked outside to watch him be escorted to his car.

Carter, who was just back from Africa, joked that Minnesota is similar to Oslo, Norway, in that even the gospel choirs seem to be mostly white. He answered a question about how to deal with the polarization of American politics by playfully asking the college president for permission to be "biased," then saying, "Vote Democratic!" -- an exhortation that drew an enthusiastic response.

What made his talk more sermonlike than political, however, was his depiction of Americans, who he said are as responsible as their government for continuing problems around the world.

He said that "despite glorious speeches in Washington" pledging assistance for AIDS in Africa, the nation of Ghana is actually getting a sixth of what it used to get from this country, and that the United States is giving one-seventeenth as much aid to others in proportion to income as Norway does.

The problem lies among the people of the U.S.," he said...

[gore_sux]

God help us, not another comparison to Norway. I am so sick of this mantra and I am so sick of this loser Jimmy Carter HEY JIMMY, GET A CLUE, WE FIRED YOU AND REJECTED YOUR "BEND OVER" POLICIES IN LANDSLIDE FASHION 25 YEARS AGO! - HASN'T IT SUNK IN YET? - AAAARGHHH

These people won't stop until we're working our keysters off and coming home to our dung fires and grass huts like the rest of the world so that our hard earned money goes to people who love to drag our bodies through the streets.

[raloxk]

"Former President Carter says Americans generally oblivious to suffering elsewhere in the world"

Much of it created by President Carter's horrible policies.

[cynicom]

Put that peanut shucker in an old fools home, have done with him. He has always been a loser.

[yooper]

Consider the source; the second biggest presidential failure in the history of the United States.

[cajungirl]

This country is the most generous country in the world. Now Jimmah, why is it that when GWB liberated the Iraqis from a tyrant, you had nothing good to say? could it be that you are talking about yourself when you say "we" are indifferent to others. This man is dangerous in my opinion.

[Paleo Conservative]

"Former President Carter says Americans generally oblivious to suffering elsewhere in the world"

Much of it created by President Carter's horrible policies.

I think he's generally oblivious to that fact.

[AfghanIraqVeteran]

Dims think Americans are oblivious about everything. Sometimes the fact that any dims are in office makes me wonder...

[Unam Sanctam]

Carter's right -- I know a lot of anti-war Americans who couldn't give a damn whether Saddam Hussein is a mass murderer of his own people and one of the world's egregious violators of human rights. According to such people, the Iraq war was supposedly "unethical" and "immoral", and who gives a shit what the Iraqi people actually think.

[Billthedrill]

Well, Jimmuh, we just gave 25 million people their country back from a fellow who liked to run them through shredders. You counting the numbers on that one, Peanut Boy?

[yooper]

He got beat up by a rabbit. For younger Freepers present, I'm not kidding. The man really got beat up by a rabbit, and the rabbit was swimming in a pond. I swear.

[scarface367]

Jimmah's fairly oblivious to reality in general

[Revolting cat!]

Shuddup and sing, Jimmuh!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

We're not oblivious. We just don't give a fat rat's ass.

[Revolting cat!]

He's so over he oughta consider joining the Dixie Chicks!

[big bad easter bunny]

I will have to say the sheeple don't know squat! Go and ask a stranger what happened in Rwanda? 95% of the time you won't get a correct answer.

[Servant of the 9]

Jimmy Carter

It's good to remember ol' Jimmy while we have John Edwards in the Bull Pen. He combines all the worst of Carter and Clinton and takes it to the plaintiff's lawyer extreme.

So9

[Torie]

Carter is so morally superior to mere mortals. I suspect he might be divine.

[lady lawyer]

I wonder if he is counting what Americans do through private means, or only comparing government assistance.

[reluctantwarrior]

How do the US citizens make africans poor? Do we steal their money? Do we steal their jobs? Do we enslave them? No, No, No. We send aid and food and other stuff for 50 years. When do the people really causing the problem, Mugabe(Zimbabwe), Charles Taylor(Liberia, until the US kicked him out), De Santos(Angola), Gaddafi(Libya), Kabila(Democratic Republic of Congo), etc....The Islamic Sudanese enslave thousands of christian sudanese and Jimmy hasn't said sh!t.

[Senormechanico]

This piece of excrement also was the one who GAVE AWAY the Panama Canal. You ought to see how that's turning out.
Don't get me started.

SM