Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Jimmy Carter

Tuesday night was pretty cool because I got to meet my first ex-President ... Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter. That is if you use a very loose interpretation of the word "meet". By "meet", I, of course, mean hanging outside for an hour with 1600 of your closest friends and then getting quickly shuffled through an assembly line that runs you past a table where he signs your book at record speed. He signs pretty damn fast for a 82-year-old man! At that age, he's writing books, touring the country, and apparently angering some Jews. At that age, I'll probably be drooling on myself and angering my relatives.



After signing the book, he did look up and gave a peaceful smile and I thanked him. The wait outside before the signing was actually quite fun as most of those in the line, as one would expect, are like-minded Dems. I had some very nice conversations with a 60-year-old union organizer and a nice mother with her teenage son. Overall, a nice night.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

There will always be people on the extreme sides of the "Palestinian question" who will not see the value of compromise. Thankfully, they are slowly becoming the minority in the world I think. Most people, on either side, simply want to find a solution for peace.

I think those protesters should be more concerned with the Iranian conference than Jimmy Carter's book.

dbackdad said...

It was pretty weird that there were Orthodox Jews at that conference. I don't think those Jews were so much denying the Holocaust but rather they think the Israeli state works against the Jews and world peace.

Shawn said...

Wow...awesome. I met Carter in the same way last year. Just me and a thousand of my closests friends who stood in line for a signing. You're right about how amazingly quick he is at signing.

The best part was seeing that many liberals in a very Republican town here in Wisconsin. And, as an added bonus, the book is very good and is a quick read.

dbackdad said...

Cool. I hadn't had the chance to read it yet. Just bought it last week.

Handsome B. Wonderful said...

How cool. I would love to to meet Carter or at least have him sign a book. I want to read his new one. I so agree with his balance idea for the Israeli-Palestinian issue.