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“The time is ripe for us to know whether we are at the intellectual center of the universe.”

Three years later, in his book “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land,” Carter wrote: “Everyone who engages in Middle East peacemaking is bound to make mistakes and suffer frustrations. Everyone must overcome the presence of hatred and fanaticism, and the memories of horrible tragedies. Everyone must face painful choices and failures in negotiations. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the time is ripe for peace in the region.”

“The time is ripe to go for a wage increase,” he said.

As Collins wrote in his own unpublished memoir, “Bringing in the Sheaves,” he pleaded with Steinbeck to write about what he had witnessed: “What you want to do, John, is to keep your impressions in your mind and when the time is ripe DO something about those conditions. If you fail to do that then you are letting those thousands of people down.”

Biden’s sense is that the time is ripe for reform, and that this time the public may go along.