He was the best of us. RIP, President Carter.

Barack Obama:

For decades, you could walk into Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia on some Sunday mornings and see hundreds of tourists from around the world crammed into the pews. And standing in front of them, asking with a wink if there were any visitors that morning, would be President Jimmy Carter--preparing to teach Sunday school, just like he had done for most of his adult life.

Some who came to hear him speak were undoubtedly there because of what President Carter accomplished in his four years in the White House--the Camp David Accords he brokered that reshaped the Middle East; the work he did to diversify the federal judiciary, including nominating a pioneering women's rights activist and lawyer named Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the federal bench; the environmental reforms he put in place, becoming one of the first leaders in the world to recognize the problem of climate change.

Others were likely there because of what President Carter accomplished in the longest, and most impactful, post-presidency in American history--monitoring more than 100 elections around the world; helping virtually eliminate Guinea worm disease, an infection that had haunted Africa for centuries; becoming the only former president to earn a Nobel Peace Prize; and building or repairing thousands of homes in more than a dozen countries with his beloved Rosalynn as part of Habitat for Humanity.

But I'm willing to bet that many people in that church on Sunday morning were there, at least in part, because of something more fundamental: President Carter's decency.

Elected in the shadow of Watergate, Jimmy Carter promised voters that he would always tell the truth. And he did--advocating for the public good, consequences be damned. He believed some things were more important than reelection--things like integrity, respect, and compassion. Because Jimmy Carter believed, as deeply as he believed anything, that we are all created in God's image.

Whenever I had a chance to spend time with President Carter, it was clear that he didn't just profess these values. He embodied them. And in doing so, he taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service. In his Nobel acceptance speech, President Carter said, "God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace." He made that choice again and again over the course of his 100 years, and the world is better for it.

Maranatha Baptist Church will be a little quieter on Sundays, but President Carter will never be far away--buried alongside Rosalynn next to a willow tree down the road, his memory calling all of us to heed our better angels. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and everyone who loved and learned from this remarkable man.

Heidi Przybyla
@heidireports.bsky.social

The arc of history may bend toward justice.
But what an injustice that this took 43 years to come out, when Carter was 98 and in hospice care.

RIP, Jimmy Carter.

"Don't release the hostages before the election. Mr. Reagan will win and give you a better deal."

"History needs to know that this happened," said Mr. Barnes, who turns 85 next month. "I think it's so significant and I guess knowing that the end is near for President Carter put it on my mind more and more and more. I just feel like we've got to get it down some way."

"History needs to know that this happened," said Mr. Barnes, who turns 85 next month. "I think it's so significant and I guess knowing that the end is near for President Carter put it on my mind more and more and more. I just feel like we've got to get it down some way."

A Four-Decade Secret: One Man's Story of Sabotaging Carter's Re-election
A prominent Texas politician said he unwittingly took part in a 1980 tour of the Middle East with a clandestine agenda.

Up thread I wrote: "He was the best of us." What I thought but didn't add at the time: The polar opposite of Trump, who is among the worst of us.