As a longtime resident of Garden City and reader of the GC Life, I was dismayed by the choice to put excerpts of former President Carter's remarks from his acceptance speech for his Nobel Peace Prize on the cover of your New Year's issue [Jan. 2, 2003]. The concept of a cover extolling the ideal of peace on earth in the New Year is a laudable one. However, Mr. Carter is the last person that should be quoted.

Perhaps the most galling aspect of your decision to use Mr. Carter's Nobel lecture is the way in which the entire process of awarding that once esteemed honor was handled this year. Mr. Carter has done nothing in the quarter-century since the Camp David Accord to deserve even a nomination for this award and the chairman of the nominating committee admitted as much.

Instead, it was a way for certain European left-leaning anti-Americans to mock President Bush, the war on terror and any potential war in Iraq. Indeed, Gunnar Berge, the Nobel committee chairman, said, "It [the award] should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken. It's a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States."

Worse, President Carter used his acceptance speech, in language not quoted on your cover, to criticize the policies of the current administration - and was doing so while on foreign soil. Even a mere actor like Sean Penn - no fan of the Bush administration's foreign policy - had enough class and respect for his country not to criticize the policies of his government while on foreign soil during his recent "fact-finding" trip to Iraq. Mr. Carter's actions are deplorable and beneath him.

Mr. Carter is a good man who has done many good works in his retirement - particularly his work with Habitat for Humanity. However, his policies as president and his meddling in foreign affairs during his retirement have done little to further the cause of world peace. Quite the opposite, his naïve approach has often led to creating dangerous situations. It was Mr. Carter who gave in to North Korean blackmail in 1994 and made the accord with Pyongyang to have the US provide the North Koreans with oil and light-water reactors in exchange for their promise to cease work on their nuclear weapon development project. Any rational observer at the time knew that Mr. Carter was being taken for a ride as Pyongyang took advantage of his trusting disposition. The current crisis on the Korean peninsula is largely a result of Mr. Carter's ineptness.

As president, Mr. Carter oversaw a crumbling US military and bungled one foreign policy crisis after another. Peace, as his far more effective successor once articulated (and proved) comes through strength.