Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991 TAG: 9103140415
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Actually, he deserved to win as president. Carter kept Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin talking at Camp David for 13 very tough days until a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel was hammered out.
It was an amazing feat of personal diplomacy, essentially taking away the war option from Israel's opponents. It was also the highlight of Carter's troubled tenure in office.
Yet it isn't for his presidential accomplishments that he has been nominated for a Nobel. It's for his career as former president.
Carter deserves the prize for that, too. After leaving office amid political ridicule a decade ago, he has not busied himself trying to clean his tarnished image a la Richard Nixon. He has not sought millions on corporate boards or the lecture circuit, a la Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
Carter has devoted himself to public service. He has worked for Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit group of citizens who build homes for the homeless. He has served as a human-rights troubleshooter in Latin America - monitoring elections in Nicaragua and Panama, for example.
He has used his stature as an ex-president to promote food-production and disease-control efforts in Africa. He has hosted discussions by world leaders on peaceful ways to resolve conflicts.
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded well to Mikhail Gorbachev last year, after he released Eastern Europe from communism and undertook liberalization at home. Now he is maligned as a Stalinist. Carter, who was maligned as president, could as a private citizen help restore some luster to the prize.
by CNB