Carter’s humanity and Trump’s vulgarity
As the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump formally began Wednesday, former President Jimmy Carter was recovering in an Atlanta hospital after surgery to remove pressure on his brain.
It was the latest in a series of health scares for Carter, a man who has steadily grown in stature since he left the White House after one rocky term from 1977 to 1981.
At age 95, Carter is the oldest living president in American history and continues to live a full, vibrant life.
He’s an avid walker who still goes turkey hunting. He still lives in the modest ranch house that he lived in before he entered politics. And he still teaches a Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, the small Georgia town made famous by this obscure peanut farmer with the toothy grin and syrupy Southern drawl.
This isn’t so much about Carter the president as it is about Carter the human being. We are lucky to still have him with us. He deserves our prayers and good wishes.
Jimmy Carter embodies the American values of compassion, humanity and faith in his fellow man.
How great it would be to have a president who personifies those qualities again, instead of someone who has done so much to degrade the nation’s highest office and diminish his country in the eyes of the world.
Day after day, Trump undermines faith in government institutions, attacks the free press, and cozies up to dictators, while dissing our allies.
We have endured Trump’s crude, divisive and intolerant behavior so long that some of us may have forgotten what a president of the United States is supposed to act like.
Jimmy Carter reminds us of what we once were, and what we could be again.
In the nearly four decades since he left the White House, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning 39th president has continued to work diligently for world peace and to help those less fortunate.
Carter has written 33 books. Trump, it’s been reported, doesn’t like to read briefing papers.
Carter has worked all over the U.S. — and in more than a dozen countries — devoting his energy to fighting poverty and improving living conditions. He’s built homes through the Habitat for Humanity program. He’s made a special point of helping people in deeply impoverished Haiti, a country devastated by an earthquake a decade ago.
Trump, meanwhile, demonizes immigrants from “sh - - - - - -” countries.
While Carter once talked about having lust in his heart, we never had to black out his language because it was too vulgar to print in a family newspaper.
To the three Democratic presidential candidates who have visited his church in Plains, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Carter urged them to concentrate on peace, human rights, the environment and equality.
We could use a lot more of Jimmy Carter’s humanity and a lot less of Donald Trump’s vulgarity.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Sergio Bustos, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.