Former President Jimmy Carter, arguably the world's best-known peace negotiator, has agreed to try to help Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue soothe racial tension over a proposed referendum on the state flag. Posted on 03/01/2003 1:39:32 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Former President Jimmy Carter, arguably the world's best-known peace negotiator, has agreed to try to help Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue soothe racial tension over a proposed referendum on the state flag.
Details have not been worked out, but one possibility is a summit of community leaders and citizens at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Perdue said during a news conference Friday.
"It could begin this conversation that I think we need to have to come together to heal," the governor said.
Deanna Congileo, director of public information at the Carter Center, confirmed Friday afternoon that Carter, winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, will participate in the flag debate.
"President Carter met with Governor Perdue to discuss a variety of issues last week," Congileo said. "When they met, Governor Perdue asked President Carter if he would be willing to help. President Carter said he would.
Carter, a Democrat, was Georgia governor from 1971 to 1975 and U.S. president from 1977 to 1981.
Two years ago, the Georgia General Assembly voted to replace the state flag that had been adopted in 1956 and was dominated by the Confederate battle emblem.
Perdue has introduced legislation calling for a nonbinding referendum on the state flag in conjunction with the presidential primary scheduled for March 2, 2004.
The two-question ballot first would ask voters whether they want to keep the current blue flag, which includes smaller versions of the state's past flags. The second question asks them to choose between the 1956 flag and its immediate predecessor. Voters would be able to skip either question.
The 2001 flag change, pushed by Gov. Roy Barnes, became an issue in last year's gubernatorial election. Perdue, a Republican, promised a referendum on the flag, and many people think it was a major factor in his upset of Barnes, a Democrat.
State Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta) said Friday he hoped Carter "would urge the governor to withdraw his divisive referendum." Brooks is president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials and a longtime critic of the 1956 flag.
Brooks said that Perdue, by seeking to involve Carter, was "beginning to understand that what he's done is not helpful at all and is really a setback for Georgia."
Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December for "decades of untiring effort" to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts and advance democracy and human rights. The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited Carter's "vital contribution" to the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, as well as his efforts to resolve conflict on several continents and promote human rights after his term as president.
Asked Friday whether he and Carter had discussed their personal views on the flag, Perdue said: "We didn't talk about that. We talked about the process of how we heal Georgia."
Oh yeah, he can fix anything.
LMRO, my guess is that by the time Carter is trough, Georgia will no longer be a US state and the radical race baiters will have "the bomb". Then Jimmy will be given a nobel and the Republican President of the time will have to go to war to take the bomb away from the race baiters, while Jimmy reminds us how he already fixed things and there is never an excuse to go to war.
Carter is the gift that just keeps on giving. He's the Barnie Fife President. Someone gave him one bullet to put in his gun and he dropped it blowing up Iranian, and North Korean chances for successful relations with the world community. Good heavens, if given half a chance I'll bet he could lose us the Panama canal. Oh, he already did? At least it didn't go to someone like China. HE DID WHAT???
Heh heh heh, couldn't help myself...
A flag built by committee.
Involving Carter does several things:
1. It makes Perdue look like he is being respectful of the other side.
2. It will showcase to the entire nation what an idiot Carter is, because you KNOW he can't go for more than 20 minutes without appearing to be a sanctimonious know-it-all.
3. It keeps him busy and off the anti-war circuit at a necessary time. Perdue is probably doing this as a favor to Bush.
I predict Carter will alienate both sides, who will come together in outrage that this guy was ever governor, let alone president. LOL!
Hello, Miss Marple... you know, that's a rather pointed observation- you may be right!
( ...and I swear I only hit "post" once...)
Indeed, he is malignant, IMO.
One of the "legacies" he left my state was uniting previously scattered and impotent bureaucracies into "one size fits all" behemoths centered in Atlanta.
We are only now seeing the fruit of this labor bear a bitter harvest as various "protection agencies" pull families apart, usually with little chance of recourse.
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