I flew to Atlanta from my home in South Florida to visit a friend who is battling cancer.  And I stayed a day longer to see Jimmy.

I lived in Georgia most of my life. Arriving from Los Angeles in 1992 to work for CNN, I had an opportunity to report on the work of our greatest former president Jimmy Carter. After he left the oval office, Jimmy had his hand in everything from human rights to Habitat for Humanity. From brokering peace and monitoring elections to eradicating diseases… he did so much because he believed it was the right thing to do.  Jimmy believed in people. It didn’t matter where you came from, the color of your skin, your politics or what’s in your bank account, Jimmy believed you deserved respect.

Former President Jimmy Carter was lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Library in the heart of Atlanta starting the night of January 4th. Jimmy had just arrived from Plains on his way to his state funeral in Washington.  I talked one of my oldest and dearest friends, Suzanne, to go with me to see Jimmy.

Since I had arrived unprepared to stand outside in the Atlanta cold to see Jimmy, Suzanne took me to a mall to buy some warmer clothes.  I told the teenager who took my money that we were “Going to see Jimmy Carter tonight,” and she said, “Have fun at the concert.”

I hate that schools don’t teach history anymore.  It is why we are in our current chaos… but that is a much more complicated discussion.  I digress.

It was a cold Atlanta night and we walked past the Secret Service and the Atlanta Police, through a security checkpoint into the Carter Presidential Library to join the line to see Jimmy.  From outside to inside we slowly made our way through the decades of Jimmy’s life.

From Plains, to Atlanta, to Washington to the world. Unlike other former U.S. Presidents, when Jimmy left the oval office… he kicked off an incredible second act.  He was mobilized by a sense of duty and honor.  With great power comes great responsibility and Jimmy used his status and a former president as a force for good.

But where I saw Jimmy the most was not in the things that represented his life in the presidential library… it was in the faces of the people who came to pay their respects. People of every color, every age, seemingly every walk of life.  Georgians who wanted to honor the man from Plains who served his country in the military, as a governor, as a president and finally as a champion for human rights around the world.

When we got to the flag-draped casket surrounded by the U.S. Military Honor Guard, I was moved to tears.  I was surprised at my emotion.  Jimmy Carter didn’t know me, but I considered him to be a good man.  Good men are in short supply in the current “Bro Culture.”  I mourned not just for Jimmy and what he represented but for my country, for women, for minorities, and anyone who has been demonized by the angry little orange man and his minions.

Jimmy never stopped being Jimmy. Kind, thoughtful, caring, humble, and human.

After seeing Jimmy and brief prayer, Suzanne and I signed the visitor’s book and received a prayer card just like any other visitation.  The next stop was nearby Manuel’s Tavern which has deep roots to my CNN past and Jimmy Carter.  Jimmy announced his run for Governor of Georgia in the 1970’s at Manuel’s, and he forged a bond with owner Manuel Maloof.

We wanted to toast Jimmy one more time in one of his favorite places. I asked the waiter what Jimmy would have had to drink and he said, “A tea.”  We picked something a little harder to drink, but it was not lost on me I should have ordered a sweet tea.

Jimmy Carter was our 39^th President.  He was elected when I six years old and I really only remember the final day of his presidency when the Iranian Hostages were released.  I was a child of the Reagan Era and became a Republican when I voted in my first presidential election in 1988.  I was a Republican until my political party left me in 2016.

But my respect for Jimmy never left me. I felt like he was my people.  I think we would have been friends.

A fan of Southern Rock, Jimmy probably would have loved being called a Simple Man, like the Lynryd Skynyrd song.  “Forget your lust for the rich man’s gold.  All that you need is in your soul… All that I want for you, my son, is to be satisfied. And be a simple kind of man.”

Simply an amazing life. Simply an amazing legacy.  A simple man from Georgia who is respected around the world.  I was honored to go see Jimmy on a cold Atlanta night, just weeks before the end of the Great American Experiment.

Thank you, Jimmy.