Must read: If you enjoy this post, pick up a copy of the book, His Very Best, by @jonathanalter

Today, on the 14th birthday of my my youngest child, I am thinking about how we measure greatness.

If you have a teen in your house, surely you’ve heard GOAT this and GOAT that. This “greatest of all time” acronym is being used as a verb. Goated. I kid you, not. (Insert face palm emoji here.)

When it comes to determining who among us is the greatest of all the greatest, we are certain to never agree. And yet, many of us can agree most Americans today seem incapable of agreeing on anything.

Let’s go one step further and agree that most Americans have a difficult time seeing positive attributes of anyone who opposes our political or religious worldview.

Are we still aligned? Ok, let’s proceed.

I’m old enough to say that as a kid reared in a religious and patriotic middle-class household, I was taught to never disrespect the President of the United States. No exceptions. My parents disagreed with Jimmy Carter on most things but there was no room for peanut jokes.

We could also agree things have changed for the worse but let’s not. This makes us sound crusty and bitter. Instead, let’s follow the advice of the brilliant theoretical physicist, David Bohm, and “suspend our assumptions” for a brief moment and see each other not as good or bad.

Imagine if someone told you one day your daughter will grow up to become President of the United States. Not only that, she would change the world for the better in a measured way. She would lead while holding on to her spiritual convictions while honoring the myriad of beliefs and religions held by millions of fellow Americans.

While president, she would hire more women and people of color than any other president. She would double the size of the National Park Service. You’d be proud right? Would you be proud that she was the first president to embrace the unharnessed energy of the sun? Not only that, she would normalize relations with China and help more than a million people in that country crawl out of poverty. That would be something, right?

What if they told you she would negotiate peace between two countries that would last for 50 years? And after she left office, she would go on to help build one-million houses for families without homes. In her retirement, she would help oversee free and fair elections in 80 countries, while running an organization that offers medicine and medical expertise to eradicate at least two preventible diseases that have plagued tens of millions of people for ages.

Surely we would all be proud of such a person. So why don’t we celebrate the life of James Earl Carter, Jr., like we do other presidents? Here are 30 reasons why we should.

Of course, I remember the long lines at gas stations, high interest rates, and the images of 52 blindfolded American hostages in Iran. The same hostages he negotiated a successful release, bringing every single one of them home without a single ounce of credit.

Many of the people who still invest their energy in mocking Jimmy Carter have never served their nation in the Armed Forces like he did, let alone possess the intelligence and courage to work on a nuclear submarine.

It’s time for America to celebrate a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia. Jimmy Carter is an American treasure, a Nobel laureate, and one of the most worthy recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. More than this, we have one of the best cases ever for honoring this particular human being—and his incredible wife and partner for 75 years, Rosalynn Carter—as one of the best examples of a human life ever lived.

The GOAT of GOATs, if you will.

Did you know that 246 years since the Declaration of Independence, the United States has only enjoyed 16 years of full peace? A quarter of those years with no hostilities came when Jimmy Carter led our country.

Thank you, President Carter.

You have waged peace in 140+ countries. It’s not enough to say you have had the most successful post-presidency career. You were a good and decent President. You were my President.

For anyone who disagrees, please try and get accepted to the Naval Academy. Run a family farm and then run for Governor and win. After that, run for President of the United States. Win that. Then try your best. Fail and succeed on your own terms. And while you are at it, try to earn the reputation for always telling your fellow countrymen the truth for as long as you occupy the Oval Office. Go for it. You’ll get my vote.

Happy Birthday, Oscar Penn. A.H.A.W.