Carter book signing gets protested!

[EvilMonkey]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/384/5738416.html

 

Carter's book resonates with his fans

A man who once made his name as a political outsider signed copies of his latest book, a treatise on what's wrong with politics today.

Matt McKinney, Star Tribune

Last update: November 20, 2005 at 11:45 PM

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Books: A boy, a key, a journey

 

Biography review: 'The Narnian' by Alan Jacobs

The president who once filled the White House with common touches, appearing in sweaters when he addressed the nation and vacationing on a Mississippi riverboat with other Americans, drew fans by the hundreds on Sunday when he appeared at an Edina bookstore to sign copies of his latest work.

 

That Jimmy Carter would take time at all to sign his books was enough for some fans, who waited for hours at the Galleria Barnes & Noble before he arrived.

 

"We need his voice," said Susan Van Prooyen of Minnetonka, who said the former president speaks for her when he questions the rise of fundamentalism in today's politics. She was one of some 400 people to meet Carter, the 39th president.

 

However, Carter, who since leaving the presidency has worked to further human rights and democracy, was criticized by a crowd of at least 40 Ethiopians protesting outside the store for his involvement with that country's elections this year.

Carter helped monitor the elections, with his Carter Center staff authoring a generally favorable report of the process, though it singled out problems and condemned post-election violence. The protesters, many of them Ethiopian Americans, urged Carter to take a more aggressive stand against the leaders of Ethiopia.

 

Carter's book, "Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis," is an unusual departure for the usually placid author because it takes aim at the Bush administration and its most ardent supporters.

 

Alarmed at the rise of fundamentalism and the eschewing of public debate, Carter warns of the diminished role of the public. That resonated with people like Mel Pittel, who waited six hours to meet Carter.

 

"They [presidents] are elitists now, and they wouldn't do something with the common man," said Pittel of Edina. "The people did the election. Sometime sooner or later, you've got to start listening to them."

 

The book signing came two days after a fractious debate in Congress in which Democrats and Republicans squared off over the Iraq war in a series of blistering and sometimes personal speeches, exactly the kind of debate that Carter decries in the book.

 

"He just seems to be a beacon of hope in an otherwise pretty dismal time," said Sheryl Louie of south Minneapolis. "I've seen a lot of his interviews lately, and you're going, 'Yeah, this is what we're thinking!' "

 

Fans such as Michael Hines said the long wait was worth it.

 

"There's only been 40 some presidents, so there's not much of a chance to see one. When one shows up, you should go see him."

 

Other fans were simply happy to see someone they've long admired.

 

"Jimmy Carter has been a hero of mine since I was a young grade-school student," said Janette Leslie, a Montessori teacher from Richfield. "He sees a bigger global picture. He sees beyond the United States. He's concerned about issues of justice and peace."

 

Carter's views on the separation of church and state, and how that division is threatened today, drew people like Paige Harmon-Pittel of Edina.

 

"I like his message ... that we are all allowed to have our individual views and our individual positions on either side of the fence, but we don't mix the bananas with the oranges."

[EvilMonkey]

http://ethioforum.org/News/article/sid=265.html

 

Looks like they plan more protests for Carter. Apparently they think he didn't do what he said he was going to do, and instead looked the other way.

 

Reported by - EMF

November 21, 2005. Tonight, starting at 4 pm, President Carter will have a book signing at Borders, 1360 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA.

 

The book store has started to give out wristbands at 10 am and will continue do so until 4 pm today. Only those with wristbands will be allowed to be in the line. This is a great opportunity for Ethiopians to aggregate in front of the Borders to remind the former President of the ever deteriorating political conditions in Ethiopia.

 

President Carter was signing his latest book in MN yesterday, and a number of Ethiopians staged a demonstration and appealed to him end his silence about the state-sponsor terror in Ethiopia.

 

Ethiopians in the Los Angles Area can have a similar opportunity to get the attention of President Carter.

 

 

Place: Borders

 

1360 Westwood Blvd,

 

Los Angles, CA

 

Date: Today, Monday November 21

 

Time: the line will begin at 4 PM, but be sure to go earlier to get your wristbands

[Texsox]

I remember when George Sr. was speaking at Pan American in Edinburg, Texas last year there was about 200 protesters and no media reported it. I guess ex-Presidents aren't newsworthy. What was so stupid, IMHO, they were protesting current stuff, I think they can't read which George Bush was showing up.

[Texsox]

BTW, every President and every ex-President has protesters everywhere they go. It's the nature of the job. If they ever made an appearance and no protesters showed up, that would be news. Presidents bring cameras and a world audience.

[Balta1701]

Is this the same group of Ethiopians that staged a much larger protest outside the White House last week?

[Texsox]

Is this the same group of Ethiopians that staged a much larger protest outside the White House last week?

 

How many groups of Ethiopian protestors can we have in this country? It's an epidemic