USA Today - 21.10.2019

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NICOLE CARROLL

“USA TODAY hopes to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation.” – Allen H. Neuharth, Founder, Sept. 15, 1982

OPINION

GARY MCCOY/POLITICALCARTOONS.COM

I could not help but be moved by re-

cent photos circulating out of Nash-

ville, Tennessee, showing Jimmy Car-

ter, looking as though he had been

punched in the eye, patiently fashion-

ing a piece of wood and preparing to

use a power drill — lending his energies

to a building project for one more per-

son in need.

Yes, that Jimmy Carter, former

president, the man for whom I cast my

first ballot. The man, 95, who just be-

came the nation’s oldest former presi-

dent. The man in whom, apparently,

there is no quit.

In the photos, Carter wears a red

bandanna, a baseball cap, a large ban-

dage over his left eye, and a large bruise

beneath it and across his cheek, along

with 14 stitches courtesy of a fall he had

taken a couple of days earlier at his

home in Plains, Georgia.

Carter, whose humanitarian streak

knows no end, is an inspiration. He has

been building homes with the nonprofit

Habitat for Humanity for decades,

while taking on scores of humanitarian

projects both at home and abroad.

He seems, as one old friend used to

describe such folks, driven to do good.

“I fell down and hit my forehead on a

sharp edge and had to go to the hospi-

tal,” Carter told a crowd on Oct. 6 at

Nashville’s fabled Ryman Auditorium.

“And they took 14 stitches in my fore-

head and my eye is black, as you’ve no-

ticed. But I had a No. 1 priority, and that

was to come to Nashville and build

houses.”

Indeed, Carter and his wife, Rosa-

lynn, 92, now the longest married

presidential couple in history, were

part of a team building new porches on

21 Nashville homes. The project was

part of the 36th Jimmy and Rosalynn

Carter Work Project with Habitat for

Humanity.

Enduring service to humanity

Carter, as president, was not our

greatest. His critics cast him as weak

and ineffective.

Maybe he was. People still blame

him for the so-called Iranian hostage

crisis without delving too deeply into

our problematic relations with Iran that

continue today.

He is also looked on with disdain for

disallowing American athletes to par-

ticipate in the 1980 Summer Olympics

in Moscow. Carter called for the boycott

to protest the Soviet invasion of Af-

ghanistan. In other words, he did

something you rarely see today. He took

a stand on principle, not politics.

He also kept us out of war, and he

fought hard for a smarter and more sus-

tainable energy policy.

And yet for all that, he is considered

a failure in some circles. He lost to Ron-

ald Reagan, the Gipper, who was Holly-

wood handsome and had a way with

words and who was also going to “make

America great again.”

Even so, we are right to celebrate

Carter’s endurance even as it comes

around in these same days that some

are questioning the health of Vermont

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who suffered a

heart attack on Oct. 1, and encouraging

him to drop out of the presidential race.

Sanders, 78, directly addressed the

event that put him in a Las Vegas hos-

pital, where he underwent a 45-minute

procedure to have two stents inserted

to address a blockage in an artery.

“I was at an event and ... for the first

time in my life I said, get me a chair, I

have to sit down. And I was sweating

profusely,” Sanders said. “I said to my

staff, ‘Guys, we’ve got to get out of

here.’ ”

Lessons for the journey

In an interview with CNN’s Sanjay

Gupta in at his home in Burlington, Ver-

mont, on Oct. 10, Sanders indicated he

would be continuing with the cam-

paign, adding that “at the appropriate

time, we’ll make all the medical records

public for you or anyone else who

wants to see them.”

I don’t know whether Sanders

should drop out of the race. It strikes

me as the most personal of decisions.

He alone knows how he feels. What I

would say about Sanders, though, is

that he seems genuine, a politician to

be sure, but one who, like Carter, is

driven to do good.

In the end, I think that as you get old-

er you gain appreciation for your elders,

those who came before, who have been

where you are now walking, and some-

how survived into greater maturity.

Both Carter and Sanders are teaching

us lessons about the journey, and may-

be we can take some of them along as

we make our own way.

Bruce Lowry is the editorial page ed-

itor for The (North Jersey) Record,

where this column first appeared.

Carter, Sanders show

age is just a number

The pair are role models

for serving into maturity

Bruce Lowry

Former President Jimmy Carter at

work in Nashville, Tennessee.

LARRY MCCORMACK/THE TENNESSEAN

YOUR SAY

I mourn the passing of Rep. Elijah
Cummings, D-Md.
I remember his exceptional leader-
ship, tough questioning of witnesses as
chair of the House Oversight and Re-
form Committee, and relentless pursuit
to hold President Donald Trump and his
administration accountable.
Cummings will always be remem-
bered for demanding the release of the

unredacted Mueller report and holding

the attorney general accountable for

trying to deceive the American people.

Cummings stood up for the values

of truth, justice, equality and the prin-

ciple that no one is above the law.

Cummings’ leadership and legacy

follow in the footsteps of Dr. Martin

Luther King Jr. and Rep. Shirley Chis-

holm, D-N.Y., the first black woman in

Congress.

Anh Lê

San Francisco

Cummings represented American values

LETTERS

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to 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA, 22108.

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your
AR-15, your AK-47.”
That was former Rep. Beto O’Rourke
of Texas at the Democratic debate in
Houston in September, underscoring
his commitment to a new gun policy.
He wanted not only to ban the sale of
new assault weapons but also to im-
pose a mandatory government buy-
back of the assault weapons already in
private hands. Sens. Cory Booker of
New Jersey and Kamala Harris of Cali-
fornia support that idea as well.
I understand the sentiment. I’ve
worked on the gun issue for nearly two
decades. I sit on the board of Sandy
Hook Promise. And I know well that as-
sault weapons contribute to the ob-
scene carnage of mass shootings, in-
cluding at a Walmart in O’Rourke’s
hometown of El Paso. These are weap-
ons of war and should not be in private
hands. If we could wave a magic wand
to take them away, I would be all for it.
But we can’t. As former Housing and
Urban Development Secretary Julian
Castro and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor
Pete Buttigieg noted in last week’s de-
bate in Ohio, a mandatory buyback isn’t
feasible policy. And it’s very bad poli-
tics for Democrats.
Let’s start with the policy.
There are a lot of assault weapons
out there. The gun dealer trade group
National Shooting Sports Foundation
estimates that 15 to 20 million such ri-
fles are in circulation.
But whose hands are they in? No-
body knows. America has no central
registry of guns or gun owners. That
means that the authorities have no idea
how many are out there, who owns
them or where they are.
O’Rourke says he wouldn’t send the
authorities “door to door” to collect
them, which is good news. As Castro
notes, in communities of color like
where he grew up, “we weren’t exactly
looking for another reason for cops to
come banging on the door.”
Moreover, it would be quite an un-
dertaking. Consider that the authori-
ties have trouble getting their hands on
the small number of guns we are al-
ready supposed to be taking back.
Right now, the Bureau of Alcohol, To-
bacco, Firearms and Explosives should
be collecting guns from people who
failed background checks but who got
their firearms anyway under a “default
proceed.” That means if the check takes
too long, the sale goes through. And it
often takes too long because there are
red flags in the potential buyer’s record.

Politics couldn’t be worse

Keep in mind, these people have just
bought a gun and have provided their
address on a form. That makes these
relatively easy gun retrievals, and they
are incredibly high-priority. (Dylann
Roof, the shooter in the church massa-
cre in Charleston, South Carolina, got
his gun through a default proceed.) And
their numbers, about 5,000 a year, are
minuscule compared with the millions
of assault weapons.
What makes us think government
authorities could handle locating and

confiscating these rifles?

And what about the politics? Those

couldn’t be worse. Because let’s face it,

if it’s mandatory that a gun is turned

over to the government, that is confis-

cation. That is not, as some have

charged, an “NRA talking point.” That is

a fact.

Gun confiscation is the wrong battle

for the gun violence prevention move-

ment to fight. We are winning the gun

debate for the first time in a quarter

century. Voters are sickened by the toll

of gun violence. They are tired of their

kids doing active shooter drills in

school. They are disgusted by the emp-

ty “thoughts and prayers” of the Na-

tional Rifle Association and its allies.

And they are demanding action.

Keep NRA on its heels

That fight is being led by powerful,

well-funded gun safety groups, with

huge grassroots armies behind them.

And the scandal-plagued NRA is on its

heels.

If we are smart and strategic, and

have a new president who is not under

the control of the NRA, we can make

background checks universal, closing

the loopholes that allow criminals to

buy guns on the internet and at gun

shows. We can get federal law behind

Extreme Risk Protective Orders, allow-

ing families to take guns out of the

hands of their loved ones in crisis. And

with some big political wins, we could

even ban the sale of assault weapons

and high-capacity magazines.

These steps would be among the

most significant gun safety laws ever

passed in America. And these laws

would save lives.

But we are in danger of forfeiting

those gains if we change the subject. If

we go beyond what we know will work

and try to do things that strike voters

(and an increasingly hostile Supreme

Court) as too far, we will lose. And the

NRA will win.

This is not about timidity or caution;

this is about reality and cold hard facts.

To support gun violence prevention, we

should harness our momentum to pass

commonsense gun laws that super-

majorities of Americans support. And

we should start by ensuring that the

Democratic nominee is best positioned

to beat Donald Trump, the NRA’s all-

time favorite president.

Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third

Way, was director of communications

for Americans for Gun Safety and sits

on the Board of Directors of Sandy Hook

Promise.

Badly needed gun

control is in reach

But not if we push mandatory buybacks

Matt Bennett

Confiscated guns to be melted down in

California last year.

DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGES