LTTE: In Defense of Jimmie Carter's Mission to Hamas

[Stevepol]

The latest LTTE from Bob Layne, the retired Episcopal priest in MdPherson KS. Don't know if this was actually published or merely sent in hopes of getting published:

The Hutchinson News
Hutchinson, Kansas 67504-0190
Attn: The Western Front

Gentleperson: “views and cues from the slightly reverend”

An old “Peanuts” (Charles Schultz) cartoon pictured Lucy, with fists clenched, angrily chasing Linus threatening to “clobber him”. Just prior to making the catch, Linus abruptly turns to face Lucy and begins explaining his actions and the injustice of Lucy’s wrath. Half way through the rational explanation, Lucy smashes Linus, decking him unconscious. Lucy then opines, “I had to hit him quick, he was starting to make sense”. Sadly such is the story of America’s intransigence toward those persons we dub “terrorists.” We must bash’em first, and refuse to listen. If we ever listened we just might find that their grievances make sense.

President Jimmy Carter recently attempted to reverse this deaf-eared and belligerent American stance toward one such group, Hamas (a duly elected Palestinian leadership in Gaza that we’ve designated terrorist). President Carter met with their leaders and listened to their grievances. Carter willingly invited them to share with him why they are so committed to violence and death (even their own death). Carter has long known that understanding begins with listening, and that understanding is the first step toward respect, and that mutual respect is the way to peace. President Jimmy Carter is the winner of the Noble Peace Prize. He has long worked for peace in the Middle East. He brokered the Camp David Accords of 1978 that developed into the first peace treaty between the State of Israel and an Arab state, Egypt in 1979.

That’s why the editorial cartoon (?) of April 22nd, is insulting. If any man knows the difference between a “dove of peace” and a “vulture of war” it is Jimmie Carter. He knows that both species exist in every human being, in every nation, in every society, and in every religion. Carter is not blind, deaf, or dumb. Of all people, he listens with a loving heart: he doesn’t simply hear with his ear! He sees in the light of the Prince of peace, and not with the jaundiced eyes of mankind’s Gods of War. The ex-President was seeking peace by first listening, understanding and then seeking ways to peacefully and justly respond to those who heretofore have been simply isolated and condemned. Jimmie Carter knows that there can be no lasting peace until all the warring parties are included in a process that demands everyone listen first, and then each speak from their own experience, with justice for all the ultimate goal. Warriors simply shunned, denied, and condemned without a just hearing will continue to be warriors.

Dietrich Bonhoffer the great German Lutheran theologian, martyred by the Nazi’s, wrote, “Nothing that we despise in other men is completely absent from ourselves. We must learn to listen to people less in the light of what they do or omit doing, and more in the light of what they suffer”. That’s what President Jimmy Carter was attempting to do. That’s what Jimmy Carter is calling us all to do. Jimmy Carter was willing to listen and learn!! That’s the exact opposite of Lucy and America ’s deaf-eared policy that “hits’em first, before they start making any sense.” Are we really afraid of just what we might learn if we listen?

Always in hope….

Fr. Bob Layne, (Episcopal Priest, retired)
McPherson , Kansas

[benddem]

1. great lte

I think Jimmy should go to Iran...he's really a great diplomat.