November 1, 2006

Dear #,

Thanks for your willingness to serve as a member of The Council of Elders. Enclosed is a copy of the names, addresses and telephone numbers of your fellow members.

When I privately showed this list to David Broder, the distinguished Washington Post syndicated columnist, he was much impressed. He intends to write a column about it near the November 7th elections suggesting that newly elected members of Congress and others might well consult with one or more older heads on our Council. Likewise those aspirants for the Presidency in 2008.

There are other possible uses of the Council. We may at times wish to pick up the phone and consult with other members on a thesis we are considering for a speech, an article or a book. Simon and Schuster have just published a short book that I have co-authored with diplomat and professor Wm. Polk entitled Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now. A copy is enclosed. If you are so inclined, I would welcome your criticisms.

Still another possible use of the Council is that it is a reminder that we oldsters don't want to be put on the shelf. We are probably wiser, more tolerant, better informed and better seekers of the truth than we were in our younger years. Those are qualities that our society needs to draw upon.

I disagree with the notion expressed in some editorials and by some commentators and authors that the growing longevity of Americans is a national calamity. At age 84 I want to reach 100 because there are so many things I still want to do. One of those is to advance the “George McGovern - Robert Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition Act” with the U.N. and with the U. S. in the lead. This act would provide a good nutritious lunch every day for every hungry school age child in the world not now being fed - an estimated 300 million hungry kids. Congress has endorsed this concept and has allocated $500 million in agricultural commodities to get it started on a pilot basis in 38 countries. Other countries are now adding cash, which can be used to buy fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs and other perishable produce from producers in the countries that the school lunch program reaches. In view of its strictly bipartisan character, is this an idea the Council could support unanimously?

You might have other proposals to submit to your fellow Council members.

I've asked my long-time friend, former Missouri Congressman and Washington attorney Jim Symington to assist in activating and energizing the Council. Jim was my deputy when President Kennedy asked me to serve as Director of the U. S. Food for Peace Program in 1961-62 - a program first authorized in 1954 with the passage of Public Law 480 in the Eisenhower Administration. I could not have had a better deputy than Jim.

We might even call a meeting at some future date so that we can get to know each other better and possibly generate some ideas as to the functions of the Council. I only wish that when I was running for President in 1972 a council such as this had been accessible to me.

Sincerely,

George McGovern