This week, as one of the worst people in American history prepared to return to power, we mourned one of the best. 

Jimmy Carter lived by a set of high ideals—morality, honesty, integrity, peace, justice and respect for human rights. He spent his life putting those ideals into practice. His journey reminds us, in a bleak moment, that those in public life can inspire us. 

Born in Plains, Georgia, a century ago, James Earl Carter, Jr., the son of a nurse and peanut farmer, was better known as Jimmy, a humble public servant from the South. He met and fell in love with Rosalynn Smith while attending the U.S. Naval Academy. They wed after graduation—and remained married for more than 77 years.

Throughout his life—and from his first day as Governor of Georgia—he took a stand for what was right and demonstrated his commitment to civil rights, undaunted even in the Deep South. In his inaugural address, he stated it plainly: “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.” It was an aspiration framed as a declaration. But he sought, day by day, to make it real. 

He built a presidency dedicated to honesty, to integrity, to brokering peace in the world, and marked by the humility that was on display from his walking of the Inaugural parade route through the final moments of his presidency, and far later, of his life. 

Carter’s post-presidency—from Habitat for Humanity to the Carter Center for Human Rights to his work monitoring elections and, as he put it, “waging peace”—rightly earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. In his acceptance speech, he spoke to our greatest hope, and a truth that he lived out: “The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.” 

President Carter reminds us that Trumpism—the cynicism and avarice, self-aggrandizement and dishonesty, the viciousness and bigotry that Trump embodies and fuels—doesn’t have to be what politics are about. 

President Carter shows us that politics can be about speaking truth. Brokering peace. Ending human suffering. And looking out for your fellow human beings.

These are ideals that all of us can aspire to embody. As we lay President Carter to rest, and as we thank him for his life of humble service on the world’s biggest stages, let’s commit—in our own lives and in our politics—to finding our own paths to live out our values. If Jimmy Carter, in the face of the infinite pressures of presidential politics, could do it, then so must each of us. 

In solidarity, 

Ben