GRIFFIN, Ga. — We can all use reminders of the good in the world.
We got one of those reminders, Monday, after a video of a stranger named Justin Jackson blocking traffic to help an elderly man cross the street went viral.
"I just got out and did what I needed to do," Jackson humbly said.
11Alive's Natisha Lance spoke to the father of five back at the spot where his simple act of kindness became a viral video.
E'Ondria Weems was driving in Griffin, Georgia on Sunday when she noticed a man with a walker trying to cross the road in the rain. She said before she could react Jackson stepped in. He pulled his white ram truck over "got out of his car and stopped traffic for the elderly man and helped him across the street."
Weems captured the video of the kind act and posted it to her Facebook page.
By Monday night, Jackson's gesture was all over the Internet. Jackson told her simply he was just doing the right thing.
"He was coming from that side and he was already halfway in that side of the lanes," he explained. "I was coming at him and he was in my lane and that's… he said he was just trying to go to the gas station."
The father of five said he learned to act this way by watching his day do similar things. Two of Jackson's own children were in the car with him when everything unfolded, not only leading by example within his own family, but now showing more than a million people how to do so. Jackson said that's the ultimate goal.
"It makes me feel good because it's obviously making other people want to do good, too," Jackson said. "And that's the ultimate goal – make everyone do good."
Jackson said he didn't get the man's name or even know one of the cars behind him recorded the whole thing, but he's glad people are being inspired by it.
"I just did what I would want someone else to do," he said simply.
