A World View: From Plains to the Planet
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
with The Honorable Jimmy Carter and The Honorable Andrew Young
As part of the month-long series of events celebrating the school's new building, the Andrew Young School hosted a policy discussion on April 13, 2005. Former United States President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) and his friend and former ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, met to discuss global policy from the Carter Administration to the present at a symposium hosted by the school. "A World View: From Plains to the Planet" was moderated by Dean Roy Bahl. During the event, AYSPS Advisory Board Chair Paul Rosser and Board Member Carolyn Young awarded Carter the school's Andrew Young Medal for Capitalism and Social Progress.
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Carter and Young's policy discussion touched on the growing divide between rich and poor nations, U.S. aid, the changing role of the United Nations, finding common ground between Christians and Muslims, free trade policies and the current administration. They reminisced about their early influences, and shared their visions for the future. Several of their anecdotes and rejoinders brought the audience to laughter.
Carter receives medal
In accepting his award, Carter said, "I feel very close to Georgia State University as well as to my friend, Andrew Young. When I was elected to the Georgia State Senate . I began to see this great institution near the Capitol as one of the more promising aspects of the entire university system.
"Andy, my friend, was an object of my admiration when I was governor. I saw him very rapidly growing into a leader in the U.S. Congress. When I was elected president, it was not an accident that I asked Andy to represent our country in the United Nations." Carter said he then "immediately elevated that position to a Cabinet post, which it had never known, because of the stature of Andy Young."
Carter said, "I have to say also that there has never been a more outspoken, provocative and aggravating ambassador who served in New York. Not aggravating to me, but aggravating to everybody who was delinquent in their duties to promoting peace and human rights around the world. Even representing the most powerful and rich nation on the earth, Andy's voice was focused on those who were not powerful and were not rich, and he spoke on behalf of our country.
"Because I love Georgia State University and because I love Andy Young, I'm especially grateful for this award which bears his name."
Sharing their earliest influences
Bahl asked Carter how, growing up in rural Georgia , he developed such a tremendous interest in the world. Carter credited the small town he grew up in, which was populated predominantly with African American families, and the influence of his mother, a registered nurse who cared for these families in their homes. "I went from there to the Georgia Governor's Mansion and then to the White House with a realization that was highly personal in nature; that one of the greatest challenges in the world was the discrimination that existed, almost without notice, between powerful and rich people on the one hand and poor people on the other.
"My main interest in world affairs was not just to negotiate a nuclear arms agreement with the Soviet Union, but to try to do something to establish our country in a position that I thought had been overlooked at the time. So I announced in my inaugural address that the foundation of U.S. foreign policy when I was president would be human rights.
"This was a very provocative and controversial subject. I was derogated, or condemned, as weak and naïve," said Carter. "'Human rights' was a revolutionary term, and that's the reason I reached out to Andy Young.
"I'm very proud that Andy Young is still carrying on that crusade," he said.
Young responded with his early history. "I was born in the middle of a block (in New Orleans). On one corner was an Irish grocery store and on the other corner was an Italian bar. On the third corner was the German-American boat, and the fourth corner was the back door of a Chevrolet dealership. I heard people 'heiling' Hitler fifty yards from where I was born, so my parents had to explain to me how I was to get along in that neighborhood. Then I had to go out of that neighborhood to a segregated black school where I was a stranger. By the time I was 10, I was a pretty good ambassador."
Young said four years of travel-as a missionary in Angola, at a non-violent work camp in Europe and similar experiences in his youth-also shaped his world view. "I had seen almost all of the world from the perspective of the people on the ground, mainly from the churches. One of the things that got me in trouble was that as the President was getting reports from our intelligence agencies - and now we know how reliable they are - I was coming in and telling him what I was hearing from my missionary friends. To his credit, he always gave me the benefit of the doubt."
"That's why I didn't get re-elected," shot back Carter, to much laughter.
In discussing foreign policy today, Carter said that in the next year or two "we might have the first really international pressure focused on America to be more generous. And when that pressure comes, I believe that almost every person would be completely supportive.
"We are generous people; everyone would like to give more," he said. "When something like the tsunami strikes, we give money. There were about 170,000 people killed in 11 nations by the tsunami, but every month about 240,000 people die of AIDS, 165,000 people die of malaria, 130,000 people die of diarrhea, every month." Carter believes that if our nation would increase its global charitable contributions, it would be in the forefront of correcting global problems.
After Young discussed his belief that businesses have the means and the tools to deal with global issues that more directly impact their employees, Bahl pointed out that Young melds capitalism with a social conscience.
"That's a good partnership," said Carter, "and I think that's one of the things this school does in an exemplary way-in fact, you've gotten international recognition for your achievements here-is to bring together in an unprecedented way, certainly in an unequaled way, the concept of good governance and good economics. That happens so rarely, particularly in the Third World.
"You've got to combine the effectiveness of benevolent governments and people and private foundations on one hand with enlightened business on the other," he said.
Many reasons to celebrate
Georgia State Provost Ron Henry opened the symposium with an introduction that serves just as well as a closer. "In 1996 Georgia State created the School of Policy Studies , which later became the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. That has been a marvelous thing," he said. "It has moved not just itself, but the university so far in both national and international recognition in the last nine years. We're very proud of it."
"We have a right to celebrate," said Bahl. "We've taken Andrew Young's name for our school, and what better name for a policy school that does what we're trying to do."
In closing his remarks, Carter agreed. "My overwhelming sense has been one of pride in what Georgia State has been able to do and the skyrocketing reputation that Georgia State has earned in this country in competition with other academic institutions. On an international scale it has been really notable. I think that this particular school here, which has so successfully combined Andy's knowledge and presence and experience in the Third World with a powerful academic base, is a notable example of what's going to happen further in the future."
--Story by Jennifer Echols
Video clips of this event are now available; order a copy of the videotaped discussion; and see photos of the event.
Photo above: President Carter, Dean Bahl, and Ambassador Young discussed issues that affect our society and reminisced about the country's past.
