Jimmy Carter Visits Google, Depression and Inspiration Follow in His Wake

So, late last week we heard that former president, Jimmy Carter, was going to come by Google and chat with those of us at the company. On Tuesday he was up in Mountain View, and those of us at the remote offices (i.e. Santa Monica) had a video link and were set up to ask questions if we liked. Our geeky founder, Larry Page, introduced Carter and two staff members from the Carter Center. The first staffer was a male doctor who's working on eradication of the Guinea Worm (primarily in Central Africa), the second, a woman working on preserving and strengthening democracy in the Americas. After their brief comments, Eric Schmidt (Google CEO) came up on stage, invited President Carter on up and they had a talk-show like discussion for about an hour.

Schmidt asked Carter a bunch of questions, mostly spurned by the reading of his book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis. I was truly moved by Carter's efforts at improving the lives of so much of the world's humanity.

I wondered why Carter was there and the sense that I got is that the multi-millionaires and multi-billionaires minted by Google's public stock offering wanted to know how to use their newfound wealth, not only to "do no evil" but to actually do some good. What better person than Jimmy Carter to get some great advice on the subject. What impressed me is how Larry Page and Eric Schmidt both seemed sincerely interested in helping the world through sincere humanitarian efforts. It was equally interesting to see how Page, a newly minted multi-billionaire, works through the complex of feelings associated with being so rich and recognizing that so many in the world have so little. I respect his desires to help and wish him luck.

When Jimmy Carter spoke, I was pretty awestruck. Here's a guy who's 81 years old, in the process of writing his 25th book, worked tirelessly with Habitat for Humanity, pushed constantly to further peace efforts around the globe, and shows no sign of slowing down. Carter is a man of deep Christian faith who is very disturbed by the mounting strength of fundamentalism in this country and around the world. He spoke eloquently.

Carter did not have kind words for President Bush, and the Bush Administration. It is difficult to live in our country with such an authoritarian and cynical administration (and congress) running the show. It frankly is difficult to remain optimistic when considering the damage the Bush regime is doing to the United States, its citizenry, and the world. Carter spoke to some of the more dangerous aspects of the current administration: its authoritarianism (he used a slightly
less severe term), lack of interest in engaging with those with whom it disagrees (North Korea, Iran, etc.). The current administration is so bad that it has made many of us despondent and hopeless.

What I appreciated was Carter's discussion of his own faith and the parallels many of us (who are not religious) feel with his perspective. I felt like an ethical vision connected us both, and it filled me with hope that those of us who aren't in the right-wing camp can actually start building a coalition that will pull us back from the negativity, authoritarianism, arrogance, and cynicism that have dominated over the last five years.

After Carter spoke, there was a question and answer period. The two statements that were made that had the most impact on me were as follows: the first was a gay man (speaking over the telephone from another Google office) who simply asked for political and spiritual guidance from Carter with regard to how to survive in a society that seems to be getting increasingly intolerant of gays and lesbians. Carter was very positive and clear in his support of non-discrimination. It moved me to hear a Christian of deep religious faith say he saw no incompatibility with his religion and acceptance of homosexuals. The second statement was when Carter was wrapping up: he made a plea to Googlers as to what they could or should do. It was an impassioned plea to go out and do something that helps people, to reduce the distance between rich and poor (both in the world and in your own neighborhood), to help the less fortunate. I hope some of the millionaire Googlers present took his plea to heart. I may not have millions, but he sure motivated me to keep trying to do good in the world.

It is amazing that a company like Google has a former president of the United States come on by for a chat, and that so many of us were interested in what he had to say.