Yesterday afternoon the announcement came that President Carter had passed into the gates of Heaven and we were all saddened, but in awe of what he accomplished in his 100 years-plus in his life on this planet.
Each day, Jimmy Carter worked to the best of his ability to SERVE others. He did hands on work. He taught. He worked with others to spur innovation and inspire solutions to cure dreadful diseases. He pulled people together to do good work. He lived as a true Christian doing what Jesus Christ taught that many “Christians” have totally missed and messed up.
Jimmy Carter epitomized working for the greater good. His wife, Rosalyn, at his side as long as she could be, shared in doing these same selfless acts – their embodied impact on planet Earth and its people have been widely received and deeply appreciated by those in need. With Habitat for Humanity, the Carters built houses for the homeless across the globe. They worked on disease eradication in Africa. They helped people in Asia and Africa and other continents, learn how to properly farm to get better yields from crops to improve the farming livelihood and impact positively local economies.
He was a civil rights advocate and activist. A broker of peace in the Middle East. A Nobel Laureate. His involvement in politics was brief in comparison to his decades long efforts to make change for the better. To make people aware of the dangers of the direction that political factions are having on human rights and existence especially the rights of women being primary to much of this – this was a large part of his crusade for the improvement of human rights and women’s rights in particular.
I was heartbroken when he stayed alive to cast his vote for what we hoped would be the first woman president of the United States. However, we will take his legacy and be inspired by what he did. The flags will fly at half-staff from yesterday through January 29th at least – to give a backdrop to the state of the nation as it faces four years of uncertainty. May we look upon his passing as a ray of hope that his influence will help inspire us to building a strategy and solutions to throttle and check once again the spread of fascism.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Carter. We will miss you. We hope to see you on the other side.
