Professor Susan Marquis, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Envisioned and led by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Fair Food Program is transforming agriculture, ending the endemic abuse on farms across the U.S. and, increasingly, around the globe. When this groundbreaking program was still a bold but untested idea in the early 2000s, Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center brought expertise in conflict resolution and Carter’s prestige to the farmworkers’ campaign for human rights.”
Decades-long relationship began in 1997 with the former President’s public intervention in the CIW’s month-long hunger strike, continued through birth of Fair Food Program and growth of WSR model, carried over into support for CIW’s anti-slavery efforts
Today’s world of extreme political radicalization, social media-fueled division, and unprecedented norm-bending behavior on the part of our political leaders is unlike anything in our country’s collective living memory. Today’s is not a political climate kind to traditionalists, nor men and women of high character. And, indeed, in the waning years of his century of life on this planet, with each passing day it became increasingly clear that President Jimmy Carter was not a man for our current political season. In that way, his death late last month seemed — as did most everything about his public life — like a graceful exit from a stage that had long ago grown too undignified for a man of his mettle.
Sadly, from where we stand today, it seems a nearly impossible task to find our way back to the world of honesty, integrity, and respect for fundamental human rights that defined President Carter’s all-too-brief time in the spotlight. But a recent op/ed by Princeton University’s Professor Susan Marquis about President Carter’s decades-long support for — and critical involvement in — the CIW’s struggle to claim and enforce human rights in the fields casts a much-needed light on a path marked by consciousness and commitment that led to unparalleled change, and that just might provide a roadmap to a more decent, more humane politics for leaders in this country who are looking for a way out of today’s current nightmare.
Here below is an excerpt of the op/ed. It is an excellent telling of a little-known history and reflection on a man whose life and work stand in stark contrast to our turbulent political universe today. To read the op/ed in full, click "Read More" below.
