Introducing many very unique way for the first time ever. I would like to introduce you to jonathans greatgrandfather. That is the easiest applause line of the whole day. And in all seriousness, we are all thrilled that you are here and we are excited that you have devoted your life to human rights and all of us as we discussed yesterday are doing our very best to ensure that that incredible, incredible legacy on this particular issue is preserved forever. Thank you very much and welcome to president carter. Jonathans greatgrandfather. Another person who needs no introduction is fritz mondale, he was the 42nd Vice President of the United States and served with my favorite president of all time and, i think, you can see this morning at breakfast that the relationship that these two great leaders have is one that is perhaps unique in history. They are great friends and have an enormous amount of respect for each other and the way that they are getting to hang out today is a treat for both of them. Thank you very much for that. Karen ryan is the Senior Advisor for human rights on women and girls at the Carter Center and has been there in various aspects since 1988 assisting on human rights issues as i said human rights is the heart and soul of the Carter Center in all of this first asked and karen has been the heart and soul of that throughout this time. It is a giant treat to have karen here and i know youve heard from her before. We also are blessed to john meacham here is a Pulitzer Prize biographer and contributor to time and new york time review. Those are print periodicals. He is professor of university and he is from chattanooga and there is a significant border dispute between georgia and tennessee. He is from north georgia which is nice. You are obviously not running this year. Im not running into the sea. He has embarked on a project in addition to the numerous books that he has written and have been bestsellers and is last year published a book called the soul of america the bowels for better angels and that project, i think it belongs well in this group and might be better to introducing them to you i will introduce them to you which is to say this is a group of people who share your desire to find out what it is and to remember what it is that our country is based on and we believe the Carter Center has a special place there, my grandparents have been a part of that into the heart and soul of this country and human rights forever. What we will do as we get ready, he is ready for the spotlight again. We are going to have a Panel Discussion and there is a video we will show very briefly that highlights the work that the Carter Center supports. As i said yesterday the Carter Center has done its very best to focus not on ideals only, but ideals as put into practice and support people on the ground every day are fighting the battle for human rights in their own community and these examples are remarkable. You will hear more about them. I will show the video briefly and john will direct the rest of the panel. Once we get here we will let them go for while and we will cut it off after we have had too many questions. First the video. Thank you for coping here. [ music ] [ music ] [ music ] [ music ] [ music ] [ music ] [ music ] [ music ] [ music ] [ music ] [ music ] [ music ] thank you all and i am the diversity as the tennessean here and i appreciate it very much so the only reason we are here is because of mrs. Carter. Thank you. I know thats the reason you got this far. I want to start with a little bit of what is happening right now and interested, mister president , in your views what is happening at the border with the family situation and what you think ordinary americans can do about it. Every day we send this great signal around the world that this is what the United States stands for is torture and kidnapping of children andthousands of unknown children that are still incarcerated. I think what they are doing under the direct orders of the president is a disgrace to the United States and maybe not until 2020 election. Im not sure. Either then or before that. Would be just a basic political activism you would advised people who are worried about it . Get in and try to change the president . If everyone in the United States would take the same position that the Carter Center does and promote human rights for the number one basic measurement of how governments are performing that would be the best thing to do. What we do is apply human rights in the most precise way we can and as fulfilling as we can for the universal declaration as is humanly possible and basic human rights standards and actual diplomacy and in everyday life. I hope all of americans will take this on. Bucket what would a Carter Mondale administration, how would the administration have reacted to the murder by saudi arabia of the journalists . I hope and i believe we would have demanded a complete accounting of how high up the order came from. As you know they sent about 15 people to the embassy where he was destined to be and scheduled to be and they killed him, cut him up in pieces and buried him in an unknown place and that could only have been done under orders from some of the highest people in the government. I would demand an accounting for that. We always tried, when i was president , to put human rights as a measuring stick. We didnt always succeed. One more and we will dive in. Russia has been proven or by our Intelligence Community to have interfered with one of our human rights which is the right of free and fair elections. How should we deal with russia clicks bucket the president should condemn it and admit it happened which 16 intelligence agencies have agreed and there is no doubt that they interfered in the election and i think the enter parents although not yet defied fully invested would show he didnt actually went so the election and he was put into office because of russian interference. Do you believe he is an illegitimate president . Based on what i just said which i cant retract. Lets talk about Eleanor Roosevelt. That to me is news. Talk about your interest in human rights. Given both your background in the segregated south and your International Experience in the navy and it into your public career. I grew up in a Little Village which had about 50 families, farm families. My family was the only one that was white, all the rest were africanamerican and i grew up completely immersed in an africanamerican culture and i can see as a little child that there is a great distinction between white and black. My mother was a registered nurse and she never paid any attention to racial distinctions. She treated everyone was the same. She was part of the medical establishment. I grew up in that environment and later became chairman of the board of education and i demanded that the other Board Members go with me to visit the schools and to see what was going on there. We found that the black kids were going to school as close to where they lived because they didnt have school buses. White kids have school buses and black kids diff didnt and the africanamerican kids got and down textbooks and later, on our own board of education insisted africanamericans get school buses so when they finally got school buses everybody that saw the school bus with no it was being done in a segregated way. That is how i grew up in a culture that was completely segregated. I went into the navy when i was 18 i went to georgia tech into the Naval Academy and i was in the submarine force in 1948 and harry truman and whom i still think is the best president in my lifetime. He ordained that racial segregation be abolished and it went into effect because he commanded it and because of that i thought an easy transition in my submarine and the other ships around me and how much benefit it brought to everybody and fellow citizens and officers and being treated equally. That was a very good seven or eight years before Martin Luther king became famous or before rosa parks and seven or eight years earlier harry truman started the desegregation of america. Stuck in your religious upbringing mustve been essential. To my father was a sunday School Teacher and the sermon on the mounthe spells out the essence of what is known as universal human rights. The proper relationship between powerful and the weak and and gentiles between men and women and everyone should be treated equally and that was the foundation of what Eleanor Roosevelt did andwhen the United States has gone through the religions and the essence of what the primary ethical is andthat has never happened before or since and im afraid that they are being basically abandoned in many ways from around the world. The Carter Center is fighting against that abandonment. When you are running for president , did you know that the human rights agenda would be as central if you got there . There is a general sigh of relief in america than that finally we have resolved the race issue. We had gotten over years of slavery and 100 years of official discrimination and we breathed a sigh of relief that lately developing in the white house and other places has become a very burning issue again and a great deal of discrimination and racial animosity that has evolved again and come to the forefront. One of the demonstrations of that is not only be quite africanamericans and white peoplealso at the border the way you assume someone is trying to come in like my grandparents did many years ago. That discrimination against newcomers and relieved from persecution is an indication of a serious human rights mistake in our country that is being propagated worldwide and every country on earth. We are opposed to some basic human rights and without being embarrassed about it. One of the things you hear and i disagree with this is when people say about the current moment, this is not who we are. It kind of is. It is. We are southerners, faulkner was right the past is never dead is not even past and isnt it really and when i look at your work i think about europe and an army on the right side of this in this perennial struggle between our better angels and our worst instincts and it is never on this side of paradise going to be resolved so is it fair to think, is there a benefit to the country to our being more honest about our worst instincts . It is parts of the american character and our struggle is to make them add to the flow . That is part of our political situation and the fact is in the past overcoming slavery and Racial Discrimination and it was officially abolished and it is a way for the United States to correct this longstanding mistake. Sometimes it is not easy for us to do and it takes a lot of altercation. We are having a war of political factions and i would say that in general the Democratic Party is now standing on the side of presenting the finest aspect of america concerning civil rights to the world and i hope it will continue to show everybody in the United States and around the world is equal to everybody else not only as human beings but also in the eyes of god. Mister Vice President , we talked about 1948 which is a huge Inflection Point in the formation of the human rights question, you have the declaration and you have the breakup of the Democratic Party after your fellow minnesotans of the party had to walk out of the shadows and into the sunlight which sent Strom Thurmond back to the south pretty fast. Can you talk about your upbringing in minnesota and how you were shaped in these questions and when you signed on with president carter, did you know this was a lifetime gig . I do now. While our upbringings were different, a lot of similarities. My dad was a farmer and then administer. He was a devout methodist, he would give three sermons every sunday morning. And i would go to sunday School Wednesday night prayer and i would sweep and cleanup the church. That was my religious leadership. Stuck wasnt bad preparation for the Vice President. [ laughter ] you are not being helpful. Sorry. I will be quiet now. Stuck one of the things i found about our years together is how much the background moves us to Work Together even without anyone briefing. I think even though his background in the south was different in fundamental ways was very similar. We had more than 100 years without a southern president until jimmy carter and the idea was that he stood for civil rights and one of the great contributions in our country and in the world was his personal courage and that small town in southern georgia standing up for civil rights when it was not the thing to do and then going into the white house and speaking out for human rights and filling in the blanks of what america should do as the leader in the world in human rights. It was my privilege over those four years to try to work with the president as he led us in this remarkable direction which set a precedent which is not perfectly complied with say, but it made a difference which still has a big effect in the world. When you think back is there something you would point back to as a case study . I thought the boat people issue was a good example of human rights leadership. The Chinese Government decided to push their citizens of chinese, ethnic origin out to see and many of them lost their life as a result and president carter tried to intervene in a positive way to provide an alternative for the people to live a decent life. There were 12,000 a month of refugees you might say from there. A lot of them were drowning at sea and we got the navy to pick these people up. It wasnt a very popular thing at the time. I think it proved to be a great step forward because the first thing these poor people in the boats saw was the American Navy trying to help them and set them on a new way. That was his leadership. When you went up to the hill to talk to your former colleague about these kinds of issues, did they get it . Some of them dead and some of them still havent gotten it. We had pretty good support on the hill. In both parties. As one of the positive memories i have of that time, we spent a lot of timethe main thing is people are afraid of it and they say, you are right, i know you are right, but i have to get elected and this is not going to be very popular and i remember we got some of them were a couple of them i will vote for you, but i will lose the election and i want president carter to put me on the federal bench afterwards. The jobs broker. And a lot of them ran and lost. I can think of five of them who lost their seats. What about latin america and south america . I think this is where it began with the panama canal. You say what does that have to do with human rights . That was a symbol of colonial rule with the hundred years or more and we would employee the locals and they had no role in policy or the leadership of the program or management of the program. The president went out and said let the people of panama run this program. We will help them. They have the right to come back in if the security is in peril and you know that work very well. It is working well now. And it wasnt going to work. I remember the general in charge of our troop down there said there is no point in trying to stay out here with military force because there is so much anger about us and that has worked and been very successful. We had to go up in the hill and lobby a lot and push a lot and we got it done. Those are beneficial changes in latin america. When we got in office i would say that at least two thirds of those in south america were military dictatorships and the previous president s had been in bed with military dictators because they have a benefit and the general in charge and i took the other way around and implementing human rights and within six or eight years every country in south america was a democracy. That was a profound and very rapid change from one development to another. [ applause ] we are watching around the world and withgiven those threats, those challenges, what effect does that have on human rights agenda and what do you wish ordinary people can do . What can they do to participate in trying to push back against that . The Carter Center under his direction has made a very thorough analysis of what has happened to the human rights on a global basis and as a result of 9 11. The unprovoked attack on the United States and as a result of 9 11 and some of thiswe have been in a work for no more than 15 years in afghanistan. We have also greatly restricted the prophecy of the average american citizen. We have offended some of the principles of human rights geneva convention. So in those ways they would be violators and to be restrained and they have have that lifted and they have become abusers more than they would have because the United States is no longer an example of a champion of human rights. I also they see in the president a cheerleader in this rifling currently in the world. Rhetoric and harshness, all of this is a hateful thrust and we are going to the right as a result. I have never seen a republican president elected doing anything like that. Is not about party politics. He has something deep and him that is detestable. [ applause ] is he a symptom or a cause . I think he is both. He isweve never had a guy, a person like that around even near the white house. Doctors tell me that they think they recognize symptoms of psychological problems you can almost predict now what is going to do. It will be about him and he will celebrate him and he will be right and we will be wrong. No matter what is going on that is what he does. [ laughter ] let me put it this way jody would be having a of an afternoon. Let me thank you for the phd. That is the quickest and easiest ever in history. Just to go back to their remarks about the genesis, president carter, one of the things he did in his time when he decided to make human rights the centerpiece was to sign the United Nations human rights treaty and before this time there is a doctrine that said the u. S. Should never submit its sovereignty or subjective sovereignty to the un and by signing those treaties he said we, the United States, will go on equal basis with other nations. This was a significant shift and his office invested in the un became the high commission. This was an investment in the Global Development of human rights they both committed to and acted on. And what was happening at the same time was a Human Rights Movement and international was given the nobel prize in 1977. It was really an upsurge of the Human Rights Movement. President carter and his administration injected that with energy, moral support, morale, and he did, when heyou mentioned latin america, this was our hemisphere yet he sent the assistant secretary for human rights who was an amazing champion for human rights and i see some colleagues and others that are here with us today who brought that message to the dictatorships in latin america and pat threatened military support for the disappeared people and they reappeared alive because of the threat of withholding military support. There is a professor in georgia who is alive who said he was one of those that would have been dead if pat had gone down and said we want to see these people alive. By not just rhetoric, real action the Carter Administration made such an important difference in latin america. You have to understand, this is during the cold war. You wrote a handwritten letter and that was the soviet president in a country that was an adversary he held allies to the same standards at least in our fear he was able to hold the allies to that same standard in our country so what that did was that created an enormous framework that was based on legitimacy and credibility so that human rights activist around the world could say human rights is a universal cause. We are part of a global movement. That continued until 9 11 when that trajectory shifted. This is what we are dealing with now is relieving the fabric of human rights throughout the world. I remember if i can bring up one issue, we were having trouble in south africa. The apartheid allwhite antiblack government were not going to let black africans be a part of the public process and the president sent me to geneva that was a terrible assignment, by the way and i spent three days debating with him about why his government should open up and get rid of discrimination and he was a really bad actor. That is another story. He had once praised adolf hitler. It was not good material and we didnt get it done, but if we started something in africa that did make a difference they heard us. That encourage citizens throughout africa to believe they had a right to participate in the public life of their country who , one other aspect of human rights that hasnt been mentioned is the right of people to live in peace. Unfortunately for long timei had this in my sunday School Lesson a few sundays ago and i looked it up on google, the United States has been a country for about 242 years. We have been completely at peace 16 years. We have been at war with somebody 242 years. Is another thing you asked about the American People didnt feel that it was okay to go to war in order to expand our influence and we wouldnt do that because most of iti think it is by those figures that i just gave you. 16 years out of 242 there was a time when we saw peaceful answers. Do you believe its been 40 years or so, one of the factors that is clearly shaping governance and the lives of the governed is both the digital and the packaging of news as entertainment and some of this goes back, nightline begins during the hostage situation. You acknowledge, what you make of the point that we almost spend too much time engaged in ongoing partisan strife and not enough time thinking about the underlying questions . Bucket the gerrymandering and infusion of money because of that stupid ruling the Supreme Court made two very serious mistakes. This has caused our country to change from a democracy to a bureaucracy. And i would say the money in the gerrymandering of districts has meant the person running for office they have to see how much money and when they get in office whether they are democrat or republican they want to show some favoritism to the peopleit is for the rich and the most powerful. The Supreme Court yesterday ruled local governance could redesign their districts without appeal . That i understand that . That will open up more and more of these manipulation of districts and frustration. And that will be real trouble. I remember covering georgia redistricting and they had these big pieces of paper and now you can go in and pick out one house and there is no incentive for compromised. Let me ask you a couple questions from the audience this is from ross cooper to president carter, what steps should a new president take immediately to restore the moral authority of the United States on human rights . This president or . Any president. Recent participants have said most all of them saythe orders that the president has issued at the borderalso the paris re preventing global warming. Also, going to participate with other countries. I was in those would be the first things. You do the executive order. Was very proud. That is the signature. I am just going to stick with. I dont know why youre upset. What do you consider the most significant human rights achievement in the past 30 years. This is alisa smith. Do you want to amend your question . Globally, the u. S. Was assisting human rights champions all of the world. In ways you may not know about. That continues despite the difficulties. A few days ago there was a election in istanbul. Everyone party lost the second round. I think this is an indication that the Human Rights Movement are still there. Theyre not going to be deterred. They are going to win this overtime. The issue we have to ask ourselves. What can we do now. I will look to the next administration. To find human rights activist directly. Find democratic movements. There out there trying to make peace in the trenches. This is a philosophy of the Carter Center. We believe people can solve their own problems if we go into partnership with them. We recognize it is there society. We have to do our part. We have to stop waging war. We have to stop abusing the power that we have. We have immense power. We have to use it correctly. If we do, we will make a huge difference. If a young center came to you and said, what is the most important piece of advice you can give me. What would you say. Provide leadership for the unconventional government. Lets be hard on human rights. Must be heard on justice. Lets be heard on those issues that can disappear. A single sensor that gets involved and work on issues to make a big difference. There very few offices where that can be said. The numbers are so many. In the senate, senator can make a big difference. I had another one in mind. Use a biblical analogy. It has been 40 years. You have a song for us . What is the kind of benediction. For what the country with the world. Should be doing. I would say follow the principles of the declaration of human rights. They have the moral standards. Basic principles of the university. One of the things that i have always admired. The epigraph to one of the best. Can you quote it . The sad duty. In a sinful world. There few americans have done as much to fulfill that duty. Thank you sir. If you dont mind, we would like to ask you to just a in your seats for just a minute so we can we would like to ask you to stay in your seats so we can get the special guest out. After that, we would like to see you in the golf clubhouse for lunch. If you will give us a second then head to the golf course. That is a pretty easy set of instructions to follow. Thank you all very much. Everyone did a fantastic panel. Thank you
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.