Carter’s Message: Never Give Up : Ex-President offers L.A. leadership by example
The role of an ex-President in the United States is ill-defined; unlike in other nations, there is no parliamentary or party job for a chief executive to return to once he, or she, leaves office. Surely few former presidents have given as much stature to that position as Jimmy Carter. In his unofficial but highly visible position, he has put a spotlight on civil wars and crises around the world; now he has turned his attention to crises closer to home.
Carter was in Los Angeles this week, and his thoughts about the challenges that face us here were embraced by many Angelenos hungry to hear his clearheaded message of hope.
Carter, in a two-day visit that included stops at a Watts public school, meetings with corporate leaders and chats with Hollywood celebrities, railed against the “two Americas” that he sees estranged from each other in the nation’s urban centers. The rich, he said, can be loosely defined not necessarily as wealthy but as people who have homes, jobs, education, “people who believe the police are on their side”; the poor are those without means or education or hope to improve their lives.
That disparity helped fuel a horrific explosion here last April; in Carter’s Atlanta the disparity is no less real, but the Georgia city has the advantage of not having to address its problems while struggling to recover from riots.
Carter, with the support of major corporations and community leaders, has begun the Atlanta Project, aimed at addressing, at the community level, the social and economic problems of that city’s most depressed neighborhoods. The project has more than a few things in common with Rebuild L.A.
Like RLA, the Atlanta Project has been criticized as moving too slowly. But both projects are in for the long haul, Carter said, noting that the conditions that lead to the poverty, illness and despair of many communities will not respond to quick-fix solutions.
The key, he said, is community involvement: People who live in a community ought to run it “instead of having a bunch of rich white folks and black folks going down there and saying, ‘We know what you need. . . . ‘ “
That is not to negate the crucial role of outside volunteers--those human resources that RLA must find a way to use better. As was evidenced by the enthusiastic response to Carter’s visit, a lot of Angelenos want to help and want to be part of the solution.
In what we hope will be a dynamic new partnership, Carter and Rebuild L.A. Co-Chairman Peter V. Ueberroth will meet with President-elect Bill Clinton and Cabinet members to suggest new approaches to urban problems. The answers won’t come quickly or easily. But the willingness to face up to reality nurtures hope.