Jimmy Carter to make rare address to British House of Lords

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

LONDON (AP) — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will make a rare address to Britain's House of Lords on Wednesday to discuss his work to eradicate Guinea worm disease.

The 91-year-old ex-president has helped lead the successful campaign against the disease since 1986.

His office says the eradication of the painful disease spread by contaminated water is now within reach, with just 22 cases reported last year. There were an estimated 3.5 million cases each year when the Carter Center started its work to curtail the disease.

The former president's office said Saturday he will take questions after the talk and encouraged people to submit questions via Twitter to #askJimmyCarter.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e73344315db34d48a39625c4c89af949/jimmy-carter-make-rare-address-british-house-lords

[ErisDiscordia]

1. Well done, Mr. President!

[Awknid]

2. We are all so proud of you, President Carter!

[Kip Humphrey]

3. Jimmy Carter is the very definition of greatness!

[morningglory]

5. I have always admired and been proud of Jimmy Carter! nt

[karynnj]

4. Jimmy Carter is an amazing, very good man

I love that he is now getting the respect that he deserves. I admit that I was one who did not appreciate him as much as I should have when he was President. I wonder how it must have felt through the many years where he was not really welcome in his own party. From the point he left office in 1980, he was not offered a speaking slot at a Democratic convention until 2004. A long time in the wilderness.

[sarge43]

6. Instead of making big bucks making speeches, he helped build homes.

It wasn't the wilderness; it's where he wanted to be, witnessing and doing service.

[karynnj]

8. good point and I had really not meant to imply otherwise, just that it is a shame that

the powers that be in the Democratic party did not accord him the respect he was due.

[sarge43]

10. Couldn't agree more.

However, politic and shame have a very thin overlap on the Venn diagram. Further, I suspect Carter is of the mind that living well while doing good is the best revenge.

[forest444]

7. Will the 'lords' that brought their Peerage by throwing money at Cameron attend?

Or will President Carter's warnings about democracies being turned into oligarchies hit too close to home.

[jwirr]

9. This is a legacy. The world is finally seeing how valuable he

has always been.

[lame54]

11. It pisses me off when...

I hear ignorant people putting him down

this man is a real hero and role model

I hope Obama models his ex-presidency after Jimmy Carter's

[valerief]

12. Bravo!

[Betty Karlson]

14. Now that is a token of honour.

But then: Carter has always carried out his service to the world, with dignity and honour.

[Bad Dog]

15. There's nothing on the BBC about this.

On the parliamentary website it says he's number 2 in a series of occasional lectures, the first was by Bill Gates.

[LeftishBrit]

18. The Daily Fail reports it, however.

Hate to link to that rag, but it does show that there's some awareness of his visit in the UK.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3424169/Jimmy-Carter-make-rare-address-British-House-Lords.html

[Bad Dog]

19. That must be the most informative

and unopinionated article they've ever written.

[DrBulldog]

16. For those of you who had continually ridiculed Jimmy Carter with lies over the years . . .

. . . this is how the rest of the world thinks of him. Jimmy Carter is one of the very few remaining exceptional icons of America, in an America that now sucks in many ways big-time, that we can point out with pride to the rest of the world.

[Bad Dog]

17. I think you're reading too much into this.

He's addressing the Lords, not the Commons. When I searched "Jimmy Carter" on the BBC website there was no mention of this at all. I only know about it because of this thread. Let's wait and see if it even gets reported over here on 3rd Feb.