by Kathie England

Imagine Who We Can Be

Four years ago on this date, I celebrated the inauguration of President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris by launching Who We Can Be.

I have now changed the title of my blog posts to Imagine Who We Can Be.

In my December 20, 2024, post I shared the words of John Lennon’s immortal song, “Imagine,” to help us focus on imagining the best of who we can be and to help us shift from those who exemplify the worst of who we can be.

Each month I will share someone who exemplified the best of Who We Can Be.

The recent death of President Jimmy Carter provided the inspiration for a person who truly exemplified the best of Who We Can Be.

The son of Carter’s Vice President Walter Mondale shared the eulogy written by his father before his death in 2021 that captured their legacy. “We told the truth, we obeyed the law, and we kept the peace.”

Carter and Mondale came up with that sentence to describe their “extraordinary years of principled and decent leadership” and their “courageous commitment to civil rights and human rights.” Their years contrasted sharply with the tumultuous years of President Richard Nixon which included the covert bombing of Cambodia and the cover-up of the Watergate break-in.

President Biden’s words further captured the essence of Jimmy Carter. He was a man who showed “us how character and faith start with ourselves and then flow to others.” Biden’s words continued to describe Carter as a person who lived a “good life of purpose and meaning, of character driven by destiny and filled with the power of faith, hope, and love.”

I invite each of us to imagine ourselves as people who tell the truth, obey the law, and keep the peace in our daily lives. I invite us to imagine ourselves as people who live a life of purpose and meaning, of character driven by destiny and filled with the power of faith, hope, and love.

Today, January 20 is also the day we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, the man who had a dream that imagined who we could be in this country.

Let us imagine the best of who we can be on this day and in the years ahead that many of us fear will be tumultuous!