This letter came to Special Advisor Jay Hanley as a e-mail forward this week.
"February 12, 2006
Office of Jimmy Carter
The Carter Center
One Copenhill
Atlanta, GA 30307
Re: Your behavior
Dear Jimmy:
If my Mother were still alive, she would scold me for not using a salutation like Mr. President or The Honorable, but after your performance at the Coretta Scott King Memorial Service, where you showed no respect for a sitting President, I don't think you deserve any yourself. I doubt that Miss Lillian would be too pleased with you either. If you have read any of Faulkner's novels, you will know that he created a fictional, but true to life family he named the Snopes. They were the epitome of what all of us raised in the South recognize in an instant as "white trash," and I'm sure you are familiar with the term. Your tasteless, inappropriate and classless, except for ultra low class, political remarks at the service for Mrs. King indicate that you might have a pedigree from this group.
During your administration, most of us felt sorry for you because you seemed to have a buffoon for a brother, poor Billy. In recent years, I have begun to think that Billy was the rational and stable one of the two of you.
I don't believe for a second that you would have made such remarks in a Jewish synagogue or mainstream Protestant white church, or Muslim mosque, if a similar service were being held there for a similarly good person. The fact that you made them at a black church indicates to me that at best, you have a condescending attitude toward blacks and at worst, even bigger problems.
George W. Bush possesses an attitude and demeanor that nearly always demonstrates a "turn the other cheek" style. You, who fancy yourself a moral and Christian compass seem to display a "cast the first stone" attitude.
You also are the most vain do-gooder I know. I sincerely doubt that you would have pounded those nails for Habitat for Humanity if there had not been TV cameras present and microphones for you to extol your good works to the public.
You ran a campaign as focused and deliberate as any of your election campaigns to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and you succeeded. Now you share it with Yasser Arafat, an admitted terrorist and killer who denied his people a chance for a separate state and peace when it was offered to him and chose war for them instead. Some prize you got there.
Go take an anger management course and quit acting a fool in front of the public. Bush has made mistakes, but you had the most failed presidency in the 20th century and your opinions don't persuade many people.
Sincerely yours,
Barbara Russell
Atlanta, GA
"
