Monday, August 24, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-heroes-legion-of-honor-paris-french-president-hollande-train-attack/

American heroes honored in France
CBS/AP
August 24, 2015

18 PHOTOS -- Americans thwart train attack in France
Play VIDEO -- American heroes were "ready to fight until the end"


PARIS -- French President Francois Hollande presented three young Americans with the prestigious Legion of Honor on Monday for their quick reaction to an attack on a train that likely saved many lives.

The three Americans -- two service men and a civilian -- plus a Briton and a Frenchman helped overpower a lone gunman on an Amsterdam to Paris high-speed train Friday.

It was the Frenchman who first came across the Moroccan gunman near a train bathroom before U.S. Airman Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler subdued him.

The British man joined to help tie up the assailant.

The three American travelers said over the weekend that they relied on gut instinct and a close bond forged over years of friendship as they took down the heavily armed attacker on the train speeding through Belgium.

They arrived together for the award ceremony Monday in Paris, stepping out of a dark SUV and posing briefly for a photo before walking into the Presidential Palace.

CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata said as the three young men arrived at the palace in polo shirts, he was reminded that just three days earlier they were on vacation -- and Monday the French president was personally lauding them, saying the whole world "admires their courage and cool composure."

After giving remarks, Hollande personally pinned the Legion of Honor medal -- France's highest honor -- on each of the Americans and the Briton in turn.

Stone, recounting for the first time on Sunday how a likely catastrophe was averted two days earlier, said the gunman, an assault rifle strapped to his bare chest, seemed like he was "ready to fight to the end." But he added, "So were we."

Without a note of bravado but a huge dose of humility, the three described Friday's drama on an Amsterdam-to-Paris fast train.

His arm in a sling, Stone, 23, said he was coming out of a deep sleep when the gunman appeared.

One of his friends, Skarlatos, a 22-year-old National Guardsman recently back from Afghanistan, "just hit me on the shoulder and said 'Let's go.'"

The gunman, identified as 26-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El-Khazzani, was in custody and being questioned by French counterterrorism police outside Paris. French and Spanish authorities have said El-Khazzani is an Islamic extremist who may have spent time in Syria. El-Khazzani's lawyer said on Sunday that he was homeless and trying to rob passengers on the train to feed himself.

Authorities in France, Belgium and Spain, where he once lived, are investigating the case. French authorities can legally hold him for questioning until Tuesday, when they must charge him or free him.

His case raises questions about train security as well as how a man who had been on the radar of all three countries managed to board the train unbothered and loaded with weapons.

Skarlatos said El-Khazzani "clearly had no firearms training whatsoever," but if he "even just got lucky and did the right thing he would have been able to operate through all eight of those magazines and we would've all been in trouble, and probably wouldn't be here today, along with a lot of other people."

Armed with an arsenal of weapons and apparently determined, he presented a formidable challenge to the vacationing friends who snapped into action out of what Skarlatos said was "gut instinct."

His and Stone's military training "mostly kicked in after the assailant was already subdued," he said, noting the medical care Stone provided and checking cars for weapons elsewhere.

"We just kind of acted. There wasn't much thinking going on," he said, at least on my end." Stone replied with a chuckle, "None at all."

Stone and Skarlatos moved in to tackle the gunman and take his gun. The third young man, Anthony Sadler, 23, moved in to help subdue the assailant. "All three of us started punching" him, Stone said. Stone said he choked him unconscious. The British businessman then joined in the fray.

Stone, of Carmichael, California, spoke at a live news conference at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Paris along with Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University in California, and Skarlatos, of Roseburg, Oregon.

Stone is also credited with saving a French-American teacher wounded in the neck with a gunshot wound and squirting blood. Stone described matter-of-factly that he "just stuck two of my fingers in his hole and found what I thought to be the artery, pushed down and the bleeding stopped." He said he kept the position until paramedics arrived, apparently in Arras.

El-Khezzani boarded in Brussels with what France's interior minister said was an arsenal of weapons that included an automatic pistol, numerous loaded magazines and the box cutter. He was subdued while the train traveled through Belgium, but was taken into custody in the northern French town of Arras, where the train was rerouted.

El-Khezzani's lawyer said her client doesn't understand the suspicions, media attention or even that a person was wounded. For him, there were no gunshots fired, Sophie David said.

"He is dumbfounded that his action is being characterized as terrorism," she said.

He described himself as homeless and David said she had "no doubt" this was true, saying he was "very, very thin" as if suffering from malnutrition and "with a very wild look in his eyes."

He claims to have found the weapons in a park near the Brussels train station where he had been sleeping, stashed them for several days and then decided to hold up train passengers.

"He thought of a holdup to be able to feed himself, to have money," she said on BFM-TV, then "shoot out a window and jump out to escape."

Spanish authorities said El-Khazzani had lived with his parents in the southern city of Algeciras until last year and had a police record for drug-dealing. Spanish newspapers El Pais and El Mundo both reported that he had lived in the relatively poor neighborhood of El Saladillo, which has around 6,000 inhabitants and an unemployment rate close to 40 percent.

It was unclear how long he was in Spain.

However, Spain notified French intelligence in February 2014, and he was placed on a watch list of potentially dangerous individuals, Cazeneuve has said.

There were discrepancies between French and Spanish accounts of the gunman's travels.

An official linked to Spain's anti-terrorism unit said the suspect lived in Spain until 2014, then moved to France, traveled to Syria, and returned to France. That official spoke on condition anonymity because he wasn't authorized to be identified by name.

A French official close to the investigation said a watch list signal "sounded" on May 10 in Berlin, where El-Khazzani was flying to Turkey. The French transmitted this information to Spain, which advised on May 21 that he no longer lived there but in Belgium. The French then advised Belgium, according to the official close to the investigation, but it wasn't clear what, if any, action was taken after that.

He didn't escape the Americans as easily.

"When most of us would run away, Spencer, Alek and Anthony ran into the line of fire, saying 'Let's go.' Those words changed the fate of many," U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley said.

Asked if there were lessons, Sadler had one for all who find themselves in the face of a choice.

"Do something," he said. "Hiding, or sitting back, is not going to accomplish anything. And the gunman would've been successful if my friend Spencer had not gotten up. So I just want that lesson to be learned going forward, in times of, like, terror like that, please do something. Don't just stand by and watch."




“After giving remarks, Hollande personally pinned the Legion of Honor medal -- France's highest honor -- on each of the Americans and the Briton in turn. Stone, recounting for the first time on Sunday how a likely catastrophe was averted two days earlier, said the gunman, an assault rifle strapped to his bare chest, seemed like he was "ready to fight to the end." But he added, "So were we." Without a note of bravado but a huge dose of humility, the three described Friday's drama on an Amsterdam-to-Paris fast train. …. He claims to have found the weapons in a park near the Brussels train station where he had been sleeping, stashed them for several days and then decided to hold up train passengers. "He thought of a holdup to be able to feed himself, to have money," she said on BFM-TV, then "shoot out a window and jump out to escape." … It was unclear how long he was in Spain. However, Spain notified French intelligence in February 2014, and he was placed on a watch list of potentially dangerous individuals, Cazeneuve has said. There were discrepancies between French and Spanish accounts of the gunman's travels. An official linked to Spain's anti-terrorism unit said the suspect lived in Spain until 2014, then moved to France, traveled to Syria, and returned to France. That official spoke on condition anonymity because he wasn't authorized to be identified by name. …. Asked if there were lessons, Sadler had one for all who find themselves in the face of a choice. "Do something," he said. "Hiding, or sitting back, is not going to accomplish anything. And the gunman would've been successful if my friend Spencer had not gotten up. So I just want that lesson to be learned going forward, in times of, like, terror like that, please do something. Don't just stand by and watch."

Unfortunately, most people in what I tend to call a “civilized” society – one in which most people are educated well enough to read a classic novel or if necessary, an insurance document -- tend to be relatively passive and perhaps slower thinking than some. Most of the travelers on that train did not get up from their seats to help tackle a frightening man with an AK47 strapped across his bare chest. Many of them would simply have watched for the entertainment value of the spectacle, but more would have ducked quickly down in their seats to avoid being shot. They are followers rather than leaders, and basically timid. That goes for both men and women.

I think the recent military training that two of them had experienced set them up mentally to “do the right thing” in this circumstance. It does seem, judging by the news articles I’ve seen over the last few years, that we are going into a period in which we could conceivably encounter terrorists or simply more and more mentally ill individuals with a gun like this man. The more poverty and ill health in general become the norm in America, the more individuals will degenerate in their mental and emotional condition to the point that they want to strike back at the world. That is the only reason why a man takes a gun and shoots a large number of completely innocent strangers, like the orange-haired man in the movie theater last year did and so many others have also done.

Insanity has always been around in human society, but that particular kind of random slaughter began to happen when I was in college in the late 1960’s. A clean-cut and very healthy looking young Catholic man took a rifle up to the top of a college bell tower in Texas and shot sixteen people. He was killed by a police officer finally after 45 or so minutes. See the Wikipedia article on the incident: “Charles Whitman, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.” That article goes on to state that the first know mass killer of that kind was Richard Speck, who entered a private apartment and killed nine student nurses, then completed a bizarre and ritualistic sexual act on them. One young women managed to remain silent where she was hiding under a bed and told officers who he was. Speck’s act preceded that of Whitman by just one month, according to the article. Whitman may have been “inspired” by Speck’s violence to do the same thing. Of course no normal person would do that.

It would be interesting if a law were made that every competent American up to the age of 60 or so be required to do some martial arts training and first aid. There was, I notice, nobody on that train except for the attacker who had a knife or gun, and hand to hand fighting would have been useful. I also noticed in this article that Stone outrightly saved a woman’s life by placing two of his fingers inside the wound on her neck and putting pressure on the artery to stop the blood. With a wound like that on her neck she would almost certainly have died within minutes had he not thought quickly and stopped the blood. In Sadler’s words, “So I just want that lesson to be learned going forward, in times of, like, terror like that, please do something. Don't just stand by and watch."






http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-rise-of-childish-workplace-behavior/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+cbsnews/feed+(CBSNews.com)

The rise of childish workplace behavior
By BRUCE KENNEDY MONEYWATCH
August 20, 2015

Questionable workplace behavior is making headlines again. The catalyst this time is a recent New York Times article that described a "bruising" and Darwinian office culture at Amazon (AMZN).

New academic research notes rudeness in the workplace isn't just unpleasant but contagious, and such negativity can quickly spread around an office like a bad cold.

And now, a national survey conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder adds a new element to the mix: It noted the rise of workplace behaviors more suited to school playgrounds.

According to the poll of over 2,500 hiring and human resources managers as well as more than 3,000 adult employees across a wide spectrum of industries and companies, "adolescent" behaviors such as whining, pouting and temper tantrums are an all-too-common occurrence in U.S. offices and other work spaces.

More than three-quarters of the employees polled said they've witnessed some type of childish behavior among their colleagues. More than half, 55 percent, said they've dealt with whining, and 46 percent have watched other employees openly pout over events that didn't go their way.

Tattling on a co-worker was a behavior that 44 percent of respondents had witnessed. And more than a third of those polled said they've seen the classically immature make-a-face-behind-someone's-back scenario while at work.

It also appears a lot of workers indulge in practices that many others probably thought they left behind in elementary school. Around a third said they've come in contact with office cliques, as well as rumors being spread about co-workers and other employees being targeted for pranks.

Some actions would have gotten you sent to "time out" in kindergarten. Nearly 30 percent of those polled have seen co-workers storm out of a room, 27 percent said they've witnessed at-work tantrums and 23 percent said they've dealt with co-workers refusing to share office resources with others.

Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer of CareerBuilder, believes some of this behavior can be harmless and can be seen as a way for employees to let off steam or even build a sense of camaraderie.

"But there's a fine line between innocent fun and inappropriate behavior," she continued in a press statement. "Actions like spreading rumors, 'tattling' and forming cliques to exclude others can be perceived as mean-spirited, bullying and even harassment."




“New academic research notes rudeness in the workplace isn't just unpleasant but contagious, and such negativity can quickly spread around an office like a bad cold. And now, a national survey conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder adds a new element to the mix: It noted the rise of workplace behaviors more suited to school playgrounds. According to the poll of over 2,500 hiring and human resources managers as well as more than 3,000 adult employees across a wide spectrum of industries and companies, "adolescent" behaviors such as whining, pouting and temper tantrums are an all-too-common occurrence in U.S. offices and other work spaces. …. Tattling on a co-worker was a behavior that 44 percent of respondents had witnessed. And more than a third of those polled said they've seen the classically immature make-a-face-behind-someone's-back scenario while at work. It also appears a lot of workers indulge in practices that many others probably thought they left behind in elementary school. Around a third said they've come in contact with office cliques, as well as rumors being spread about co-workers and other employees being targeted for pranks. …. Nearly 30 percent of those polled have seen co-workers storm out of a room, 27 percent said they've witnessed at-work tantrums and 23 percent said they've dealt with co-workers refusing to share office resources with others. …. "But there's a fine line between innocent fun and inappropriate behavior," she continued in a press statement. "Actions like spreading rumors, 'tattling' and forming cliques to exclude others can be perceived as mean-spirited, bullying and even harassment."

I can’t really remember working in a business as bad as what these people have described except one. In that case the boss herself was one of the “bad girls,” and was very angry at her superiors across the campus. That was a library, which are usually good places to work. She felt that the nun who was not in residence, but was in charge, would “sneak” into the library and walk along the aisles quietly to catch people disobeying the rules and “plotting” something wrong. Let’s face it, the nun was in charge and had every right to come through and see what was happening, and the library head was more than a little paranoid. I can only say that I am delighted to have come to the age of retirement and to have a pension, though not very large, from Social Security.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/louisiana-trooper-steven-vincent-dies-day-after-traffic-stop-shooting/

Louisiana trooper dies day after traffic-stop shooting
CBS/AP
August 24, 2015

Photograph -- Police take Kevin Daigle, 54, into custody in connection with the shooting of Louisiana State Trooper Steven Vincent. WAFB
Photograph -- Senior Trooper Steven Vincent LOUISIANA STATE POLICE


NEW ORLEANS -- A Louisiana trooper died Monday, a day after an apparently stranded motorist shot him in the head and then stood over him to tell him he was going to die soon, state police said.

Authorities plan to charge the accused shooter with first-degree murder after the death of Senior Trooper Steven Vincent, 43. Vincent had been trying to help a man whose pickup truck was stuck sideways in a ditch, Col. Mike Edmonson said.

"As an organization, we are heartbroken over this senseless and tragic death," Edmonson said in Facebook post. "This loss exacts an enormous emotional toll on the state police family, but we will do what is necessary and proper to honor Steve and support those who knew and loved him."

Edmonson said Kevin Daigle, 54, of Lake Charles, was under arrest at a hospital where he was taken after other motorists saw the fallen policeman and wrestled Daigle to the ground.

Police video showed Vincent, a 13-year state police veteran in southwest Louisiana and member of a law enforcement family, very professionally trying to talk a man out of the vehicle stuck sideways in a ditch, Edmonson said during a news conference Sunday.

He said the truck door opened and Daigle came out with the shotgun.

"That shotgun wasn't to do anything else but hurt someone. Kill someone," Edmonson said.

He said the tape shows the shotgun blast. "I saw my trooper go backwards and back toward his unit, where he was going to try to get some help out there," Edmonson said.

After the shooting, he said, Daigle wandered into the road and over to Vincent, asking if he was alive.

"You could hear him breathing, telling him, 'You're lucky. You're lucky - you're going to die soon.' That's the words that came out of his mouth," Edmonson said.

He said two or three drivers stopped immediately, one of them spinning around on the two-lane highway.

That driver wrestled the shotgun away from Daigle, and, with the others, got him to the ground, and snapped Vincent's handcuffs on his wrists, Edmonson said. As far as he knew, he said, the good Samaritans were unhurt.

The motorists used Vincent's radio to call other officers to the scene, Sgt. James Anderson, State Police spokesperson for southwest Louisiana, told CBS News.

Edmonson said Daigle had "numerous DWIs" and other arrests that he wouldn't discuss because he didn't know whether they resulted in convictions.

Anderson said Daigle was hospitalized for some scrapes and other injuries he sustained while the other motorists subdued him.

Both Daigle and the trooper who was shot are white, he said.

Edmonson said Vincent leaves behind a wife, Katherine, and a 9-year-old son, Ethan. Edmonson said one of Vincent's brothers is also a state trooper, while another is police chief in the nearby town of Iowa.

"His family lives and breathes law enforcement," Edmonson said.




“A Louisiana trooper died Monday, a day after an apparently stranded motorist shot him in the head and then stood over him to tell him he was going to die soon, state police said. Authorities plan to charge the accused shooter with first-degree murder after the death of Senior Trooper Steven Vincent, 43. Vincent had been trying to help a man whose pickup truck was stuck sideways in a ditch, Col. Mike Edmonson said. …. Edmonson said Kevin Daigle, 54, of Lake Charles, was under arrest at a hospital where he was taken after other motorists saw the fallen policeman and wrestled Daigle to the ground. Police video showed Vincent, a 13-year state police veteran in southwest Louisiana and member of a law enforcement family, very professionally trying to talk a man out of the vehicle stuck sideways in a ditch, Edmonson said during a news conference Sunday. He said the truck door opened and Daigle came out with the shotgun. "That shotgun wasn't to do anything else but hurt someone. Kill someone," Edmonson said. He said the tape shows the shotgun blast. "I saw my trooper go backwards and back toward his unit, where he was going to try to get some help out there," Edmonson said.

From the way Daigle was acting it seems to me that he may be paranoid, but at the least he is hostile to authority figures. This unfortunate officer was clearly trying to help him, though from his long list of prior arrests perhaps he thought he might go to prison instead. Perhaps he was under the influence at the time. For some reason he thought that pulling a shotgun on an officer was a smart thing to do. These kinds of interactions with the unknown which patrol officers do have to go through every time they pull a car over are innately dangerous. This officer was apparently doing his job in a professional manner and definitely didn’t deserve what happened to him. This is a sad story – a useless loss of life. Vincent was, at least at this time, being a “good cop” rather than a “bad cop.”





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/amy-klobuchar-defends-hillary-clinton-amid-email-scandal/

Amy Klobuchar defends Hillary Clinton amid email scandal
By REBECCA KAPLAN CBS NEWS
August 24, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Another bad week for Clinton: Democratic pool heats up
Democrats are increasingly vocal about their concern that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign is suffering because of questions about her email, but she has a defender in Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a fellow Democrat.
Play VIDEO -- Biden's private meeting stokes presidential rumor mill

"She's made it clear she has handed over the hard drive and 30,000-some emails and has been willing to go before a public hearing at Congress as well as debates," Klobuchar, who has already endorsed Clinton's 2016 bid, said Monday on "CBS This Morning." "I think there's going to be plenty of time to continue to discuss that, but key for me is really getting to the debate on real issues here with the economy, where our country is."

Clinton has also been dogged by the persistent questions about whether or not Vice President Joe Biden will jump into the Democratic nomination contest. Over the weekend, Biden met with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, the strongest sign yet that he is seriously considering another presidential bid.

Klobuchar acknowledged that Biden was meeting with people, but "no one knows" if he will run again.

"A lot of us love the vice president. I'm obviously a supporter of Hillary Clinton. I think she has some great ideas, and being right close to Iowa I've seen her campaign and how well-run it's been and, you know, we go from there," she said. If Biden runs, "I think that there will just be one more strong candidate in the race."

Klobuchar is a proponent of women in politics and said she hopes there is a woman on the ticket for both parties. Not only can young girls see they can get those kinds of jobs, she said, but women get more done.

"Certainly in the Senate, now that we have 20 women, it's made a big difference," she said. "The women in the Senate, and there's numbers to show it, have gotten a lot done. And we certainly need more results in government."

As for whether she might a woman on a presidential ticket in the near future, Klobuchar referenced her newest book, "The Senator Next Door," and said, "I like my job now."

The book has some personal anecdotes from her childhood and also talks about her relationship with her family. Klobuchar writes that one of her daughters called her a "submarine mom," and told her it meant, "'You lurk beneath the surface and come up unexpectedly.'"

"I think a lot of moms who are balancing a lot of things can relate to that. You can't always do it all, which is one of my points here," she said. She said she thought submarine mom was "about the best description I can get."

Klobuchar also weighed in on the Iran nuclear deal, which she predicted will pass when lawmakers will vote on it this September.

"I think that in the end it will be upheld, the agreement. We don't quite know where the votes are, but the way I look at it is it is the best option to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon," she said.




"I think there's going to be plenty of time to continue to discuss that, but key for me is really getting to the debate on real issues here with the economy, where our country is." Clinton has also been dogged by the persistent questions about whether or not Vice President Joe Biden will jump into the Democratic nomination contest. …. Klobuchar is a proponent of women in politics and said she hopes there is a woman on the ticket for both parties. Not only can young girls see they can get those kinds of jobs, she said, but women get more done. "Certainly in the Senate, now that we have 20 women, it's made a big difference," she said. "The women in the Senate, and there's numbers to show it, have gotten a lot done. And we certainly need more results in government." …. Klobuchar also weighed in on the Iran nuclear deal, which she predicted will pass when lawmakers will vote on it this September. "I think that in the end it will be upheld, the agreement. We don't quite know where the votes are, but the way I look at it is it is the best option to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon," she said.”

Klobuchar seems to be backing Clinton partly because they see eye to eye, but also because she is a woman. I would like to see more polls on ALL the Democratic candidates who have “thrown their hats in the ring,” and what their weaknesses are. I personally don’t think Trump is going to beat our BEST Democrat, and if Sanders is not chosen, which may be the case because the culture is so biased against the word “Socialist,” I would next like to see Biden and Warren run. They are both Liberal, or “Progressive” if that is the current word of choice in the party, and very intelligent. I think we can make a good run for the Presidency in 2016.




http://www.npr.org/2015/08/24/434149426/a-mighty-fine-teacher-hundreds-gather-for-carters-sunday-school

'A Mighty Fine Teacher': Hundreds Gather For Carter's Sunday School
GRANT BLANKENSHIP
AUGUST 24, 2015

Photograph -- Before dawn on Sunday, the line to get into Maranatha Baptist Church was already long. The crowds were hoping to catch former President Jimmy Carter teaching his customary Sunday school class. Carter recently announced he has been diagnosed with cancer. Grant Blankenship/GPB
Former President Jimmy Carter is keeping up his regular Sunday school teaching at his home church in Plains, Ga. He taught there this past Sunday, and is on the calendar again in a few weeks. Grant Blankenship/GPB


The sun is not yet up over Maranatha Baptist Church, a little red brick building in a south Georgia pecan grove, and already the line to get in wraps around the sanctuary. Some near the front of the line slept on the church porch, or even in their cars.

The crowd consists of the faithful and the curious alike: They've gathered here this Sunday to try to catch the Sunday school teachings of former President Jimmy Carter.

The church, located in Plains, Ga., is Carter's home church. The former president recently announced he was diagnosed with cancer – melanoma, which has spread to his brain. But he has made it clear that he won't give up his regular teaching at Maranatha Baptist.

Jane Gurley, who came Saturday from Hendersonville, N.C., says she plans to take notes in her Bible.

"Just regular Sunday school, that's what this is to me," she says. "Just happens to be a different teacher. A mighty fine teacher."

Gurley says hearing Carter's take on the gospel is one of those things she's always intended to do but has never done. She isn't alone.

Once many years ago, Maranatha Baptist tried to seat everyone on one of Carter's teaching days. The sanctuary swelled to almost 900 people, which pushed the limits of the law, so the church said never again. Today, space is at a minimum.

Mildred Calhoun of Jacksonville, Fla., came with her husband and their 10-year-old grandson. She's at peace with the idea they might not get in.

"It's God's will," she says. "We prayed about it and if we don't get in, it's still OK."

Denice Gamper came from Brooklyn, N.Y. For her, this is a chance to see a living president she ranks among the greats.

"He's like my favorite," she says. "It goes FDR, Jimmy Carter, Abraham Lincoln."

As it gets closer to the time for church to start, the staff do their best to fit as many people as possible.

Still, about 200 people are left outside. As the crowd watches Carter's wife Rosalynn enter the church, he slips in on the other side of the sanctuary. He asks where everyone is from, and attendees speak up with the names of their states.

Then, after briefly describing how his cancer will be treated, Carter gets right to it, teaching straight from the heart of his Christian faith.

He reads from the book of Matthew: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,' but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

After the lesson, Carter heads to the old schoolhouse in town to meet those who didn't make it into the church.

Even there, a handful of people are locked out. Colby and Larry Sparkman of Hattiesburg, Miss., say now just a glimpse of President Carter would be fine.

"Hopefully the girls can wave at him," she says.

"And we'll try to come back, maybe in a month or so, and try this again," he says.

They're right to plan ahead. Carter has another Sunday school session on the calendar in a few weeks.




“The sun is not yet up over Maranatha Baptist Church, a little red brick building in a south Georgia pecan grove, and already the line to get in wraps around the sanctuary. Some near the front of the line slept on the church porch, or even in their cars. The crowd consists of the faithful and the curious alike: They've gathered here this Sunday to try to catch the Sunday school teachings of former President Jimmy Carter. …. Jane Gurley, who came Saturday from Hendersonville, N.C., says she plans to take notes in her Bible. "Just regular Sunday school, that's what this is to me," she says. "Just happens to be a different teacher. A mighty fine teacher." Gurley says hearing Carter's take on the gospel is one of those things she's always intended to do but has never done. She isn't alone. Once many years ago, Maranatha Baptist tried to seat everyone on one of Carter's teaching days. The sanctuary swelled to almost 900 people, which pushed the limits of the law, so the church said never again. Today, space is at a minimum. …. Denice Gamper came from Brooklyn, N.Y. For her, this is a chance to see a living president she ranks among the greats. "He's like my favorite," she says. "It goes FDR, Jimmy Carter, Abraham Lincoln."

Even those Republicans or other hardliners who thought Carter’s efforts were too “soft” have to respect his intellect and personal goodness. I noticed Ms. Gamper put his ranking up with FDR and Abraham Lincoln. Carter’s achievement in international relations was admirable. In addition he is a believing Christian who follows the social gospel rather than the radical right fringe of the religion. He’s a man I find it easy to have faith in. I believe him when he claimed that he only “lusted in his heart” after some woman other than his wife. I don’t think a woman of Rosslyn’s personality would let him get off easily with anything else.