Editorial: The legacy of Jimmy Carter
We will pause this coming week to remember the 39th president of the United States who was a star basketball player in high school, then a Navy officer who returned home to save his family peanut farm in Plains, Georgia.
Jimmy Carter entered politics on the ground floor serving on local school and library boards, before running for the Georgia Senate and then becoming President. Carter鈥檚 lasting legacy is not so much from his time in office but his time with helping people.
He was the only U.S. President to win a Nobel Peace Prize after leaving office. He had been nominated 5 times including while in office.
Let us embrace the principles Mr. Carter and his wife of 77 years Rosalynn embodied in action and his own words from his 1975 book, "Why Not the Best?"
"We have a tendency to exalt ourselves and to dwell on the weaknesses and mistakes of others. I have come to realize that in every person there is something fine and pure and noble, along with a desire for self-fulfillment," Carter wrote.
In his 2002 Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, he spoke about the need for people to come together.
"The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices. God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes 鈥� and we must," Carter said.