On this episode of Our American Stories, listener Richard Hood from Valencia, California, takes us back in time to the Battle of Fredericksburg and tells a story about compassion in the midst of America's deadliest war. Christina Long has always had a mind focused on education, dedication, and service. Thanks to partners like Koch Industries, she able to go above and beyond in the ways in which she can reach out to those around her.
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Time Codes:
00:00 - The Angel of St. Marye's Heights
23:00 - "You Must Get To Know Your Community Before You Can Serve It"
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is leeh Habib, and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on the show,
including yours. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites. Indeed. Next is a listener's
story from Valencia, California. This is a history story that
is fascinated listener Richard Hood for a long time and
(00:31):
he wanted to share it with us. Take it away, Richard.
You've probably heard that the darker the place, the brighter
any light appears. Well, I'd like to share with you
a story about a very dark place and a very
bright light, in fact, an angel of light known as
the Angel of Mary's Heights. It all happened back in
(00:56):
the month of December sixty two, and I'm talking about
eight sixty two, during our country's bloodiest war, the Civil War,
especially known as the War between the States, but more
poignantly as the Brothers War. One reason why it was
called the brother's War is because the war actually did
pit in some cases brother against brother. You can imagine,
(01:19):
you know, if you have an older brother and he's
gone off to Afghanistan to fight. That's one thing. What
if he was going off to Afghanistan to fight you.
That kind of changes the whole familial situation. And in
the Civil War, the brothers war that not only happened
on occasion of father, was sometimes pitted against son. So complicated.
(01:45):
So let me tell you more about this angel though,
because at the Battle of Fredericksburg there was an important
vantage point a clifftop called Mary's Heights. The Southern Confederate
Army was wisely using it as a cannon emplacement. Below
this cliff was a protective wall keeping the Northern Army
from gaining that cliff top. Hunkered down behind this wall,
(02:07):
protecting the stronghold, was one of many soldiers in this case,
a Confederate sergeant who would during America's bloodiest battle to
come an teat them would later lose his life, but
he will survive this day, and a good thing for you,
because otherwise you won't survive either. So are you ready
to do a little pretending, ready to travel back to
(02:29):
your fateful day in time? Okay, Well here we go then,
So you're up before a revelie today. You've only had
a thin, dirty old blanket to cover your during the night,
and can't really sleep that well. Anyway. But the bugle
does sound, you hear, revelie, and so you get up,
(02:52):
splash some water on your face to believe yourself of
the dust that covers everything and adds to the dry
mouth off the battle that's to come. You look down
at your socks, filthy socks, barely holding together, and you
put on your boots that have holes in them, but
you're grateful because you actually have boots. You start to
(03:13):
smell the coffee that someone has started, and that's going
to be one of your sole pleasures today, and you're
grateful for that too. Little comforts are pretty big when
that's all you've got. You're in the army now, as
they say, and you're an infantryman in the Army of
the Potomac, the Northern Army of the Union. Abraham Lincoln
(03:34):
is your president, and you're facing off against the Confederate
States of America, the Southern States, whose president is Jefferson Davis.
I want you to take a moment and notice the
coarseness of your blue uniform. Also, I want to put
on that rucksack again today, and as you do so,
(03:54):
you try and adjust your shoulder straps to find an
area of your shoulders that hasn't been rubbed raw yet.
This is going to be adjusted throughout the day. You're
going to be trading minor pains for greater pains. And
you're also going to notice that pack smells strongly of salt,
and you come to realize that's from your own sweat,
(04:14):
and within an hour or your pack's going to be
soaked again, just as will the back of your uniform.
The enemy sergeant behind that wall that you're approaching, he
was promoted on the battlefield, having survived the Battle of Chancellorsville,
the fabled Gettysburg, and then chick A Maagua too, and
(04:35):
his luck better not run out today because it's tied
directly two years. You're up against a real hero, the
last thing you're feeling like being, and a hero not
do to what he's already done and survived, but what
he will do from the other side of that wall.
He's hunkered down behind, from behind that wall, separating today
(04:57):
not just the quick from the dead, but the quick
from those not very quietly or quickly die. So on
that cherry note, let's load up and start marching in
the direction of that enemy wall. It's not until around
noon that the first wave of your assaults begin in
(05:19):
front of that wall, and no wave reaches as far
as that wall. They continue though, one after another, and
they're also mowed down, one after the other. The reports
are not favorable. Your comrades get as close as seventy
five feet away from that blasted wall, and that's it.
(05:41):
It's going to be your turn any minute. But before
you go, you get the chance to look around and
see all the carnage that has gone on before you,
and you see how it's likely to go for you.
You see the killing filled between you and that wall,
and you see a bottleneck at a ditch that has
(06:01):
only three possible crossable bridges, and no matter which one
you choose, it appears to be nothing but a slaughter pick.
And you've been listening to Richard Hood And by the way,
he is a listener, as we said before, from Valencia, California,
and a heck of a storyteller, putting us in the
(06:24):
spot in the time, in the context, which is so
important as a storyteller, and how we should always look
at history. No one knew what was going to happen
in that war when it started. No one knew it
was going to happen when they charged the next wall
or the next hill, except from what happened in plain
sight from the other guys who had just charged. And
(06:46):
it's so true. This Civil War, this war between the States,
did pit brother against brother, father against son. The Revolutionary
War did the same thing in large measure. Two. When
we come back, we're going to continue this from our story,
the story of the Angel of Saint Mary's Heights here
on our American story. Folks, if you love the stories
(07:31):
we tell about this great country, and especially the stories
of America's rich past, know that all of our stories
about American history, from war to innovation, culture and faith,
are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College,
a place where students study all the things that are
beautiful in life and all the things that are good
in life. And if you can't cut to Hillsdale, Hillsdale
(07:51):
will come to you with their free and terrific online courses.
Go to Hillsdale dot edu to learn more. And we
return to our American stories and Richard Hood's story of
(08:13):
an impactful moment in the Civil War. When we last
left off, Richard was taking us back in time to
the battle of Fredericksburg. Let's pick up where we last
left off. You're exhausted from marching and fighting, and you're
fighting off exhaustion. Now you have to fight with absolutely
(08:34):
no adrenaline left. It's almost gone, and your mind is
shifting gears down to its most basic and primal functions,
while the world around you appears more and more like
some kind of outdoor insane asylum. Above the wall up
on Mary's Heights, the opposing Confederate cannons began to let loose,
(08:56):
so when you hear the order to charge, your going
to not only face a continuous sheet of flame from
frontal small arms fire directed at you, but dismembering and
deadly artillery fire raining from above as well. And later
one of the Confederate artillerymen would remark that not even
(09:19):
a chicken could live on that field. You're looking for
some way to increase the odds of your survival, and
you can't think of a thing, and the insensible amount
of death, along with its apparent utter randomness, sickens you.
From what you can see, you should be one of
(09:41):
this day's twelve thousand, six hundred casualties, and it doesn't
look like you're going to be evacuated should you become wounded,
which is likely. Nor does it appear that you will
receive for a state, but instead it does appear that
you're gonna lie there unattended, becoming just one more member
of the choir of mon. You can ask veterans of
(10:06):
any war, and they'll tell you that of all the
horrors of war, the psychologically worst may well be the
tortured cries of their brothers in arms, insufferable agony when
there's nothing they can do to come to their aid
without exposing their position or putting others in danger, or
becoming just like them, another screaming casualty. And whether it's
(10:28):
medieval or modern weapons used to cause this carnage, you
will always hear cries for one thing, for water. But
this dehydration is caused from blood loss. Now, as in
any fight, your mouth is dry, and at any moment
(10:49):
it might become drier still from the loss of your blood.
And then, surprisingly do you, despite its overwhelming odds and predictability,
that indeed happens with the realization of your fears having
come upon you. Pain and its companions of shock and
immobility join forces against you. You're now one casualty among
(11:12):
the day's eight thousand casualties. So you're asking yourself what
was so important about that wall? Why couldn't your commanders
simply have gone around it? As you drift in and
out of consciousness, whether half dreaming or awake, thoughts are
distilled for you and reduced to one thing and one desire,
(11:33):
only for water. Finally night comes on, and though your
groans and pleas are lost among the thousands of the
others around you, you have never felt more alone. No
one is coming, no one will be coming in time.
(11:53):
So weary from battle himself and desperate for rest, the
Confederate sergeant has been kept from sleep all the same
night thanks to yours and all the other pitiful, disturbing
and debilitating cries of those not quite yet dead. By morning,
he can't take it any longer, and so this enemy
(12:15):
soldier asked permission to put you out of your misery,
and in both his sides and your own sufferings, he's
just stared at. He stared at as if he's lost
his senses or has battle fatigue. Sniping at the wounded,
it's just not done. But he's no sniper. And what
(12:35):
he's asking his commanders for his permission to go over
that wall and meet you head on, to come not
to silence you, but to bring you water. His commanders
tell him of the bullets awaiting him on such a
fool's errand making him a casualty of well, either enemy
or mistaken friendly fire, And they tell him no, But
(12:58):
he is totally aware and totally determined and persistent. Yes.
Most of the wounded are like you, his enemy, or
were now you seem more like fellow mortals, just bleeding
out and drying up. He requests to carry a white
handkerchief as a sign of ceasefire, and he keeps asking
(13:22):
until he gets permission he seeks, but he is told
that no handkerchief, no flag of truce, will be allowed.
He'll be on his own, and he'll be all. You've
got your last chance for tomorrow, meet your sworn enemy.
Richard Kirkland, Confederate Army sergeant, age twenty. The odds of
(13:46):
help coming to you via Kirkland are less than the
odds were of being wounded. There are just too many
wounded sprawled in front of that wall, and Kirkland has
he's alone, and he has no plan except for the
filling of every canteen he can find, and it seems
(14:07):
time itself holds its breath as over the wall he
slips with you in that no man's land between earthly
consciousness and eternity. Eventually he does, indeed stumble upon you,
literally falls over you, and reaching down to support your head,
he gives you all he can from the canteen's left.
(14:31):
He takes off his jacket and covers you with it.
You try to raise your hand in astonished thanks, but
there's no need, as he can read the gratitude in
your eyes. Not a shot is heard in that hour
and a half that Kirkland spends racing from soldier to soldier,
(14:51):
as if in respectful awe of what is happening and
what he's risking. All that is heard are the plane
of cry for the water that is now at least
a possibility. He attends to friend and foe alike, both
sides Americans, both sides brothers of a sort once again,
(15:12):
even if only brothers of the dust. Years later, some
will claim it wasn't Kirkland, but someone else, or many
other someone else's Others will claim that he was sniped
at even wounded, But you know better because you were there.
Although your wonder for the rest of your life why
(15:34):
he did it? What wasn't that was worth more to
him than his own physical life? How could he be
so certain there was something even more important than his
own fears? What or who puts that instinct or knowledge
into people that results in bringing the Kingdom of Heaven
(15:56):
not just on to earth, but overcoming hell on earth.
You won't hear Kirkland's name mentioned nowadays, but you see
it doesn't matter. He's not a household name because heroes
don't do heroic things for the fame. Their self lessness
can inspire us to other, if lesser acts of love. Love,
(16:18):
we must remember, is an action. While Kirkland indeed survived
this day as a result, you did as well. His
eventual dying concern was still for others, particularly his father,
whom he wanted to know that his son had died right.
Perhaps more important is living right day by day, and
(16:42):
to do that you and I must know what we
are living for. Why we were given life. This is
everyone's foundation, so that building up and out from that
foundation brings meaning and purpose to our lives. So that
as much of our lives as possible bring relief and
(17:05):
life to others. You know, you have to wonder why
such stories of heroism create such a unique response in
us psychologically, physiologically, spiritually. It seems to contradict a spirit less,
self serving, survival of the fittest and purposeless worldview. Perhaps
(17:29):
the Brother's War was but one act in a long
play designed to help us recognize and appreciate the true
cost of love, of redemption and reconciliation. And a special
thanks to Monty Montgomery for the production Richard Hood's story
(17:49):
The Angel of Saint Mary's Heights story here on our
American Stories and we continue with our American Stories and
(18:11):
with our Opportunity America series that's sponsored by Coke Industries.
More than sixty seven thousand people across this country are
employed by Coke, and there's a good chance that their
work intersects with your own story in some way. The
great folks that make products that help improve medical devices,
consumer electronics, vehicle safety, fabrics for clothing, filtration for clean water,
(18:33):
and innovations for popular household brands. Learn more about Coke's
incredible work at Coke iand dot com. That's koc Hid
dot Com. And now we go to Christina Long, the
oldest of three girls born in Wichita, Kansas, to tell
her own story. My mother being an avid reader, wanting
(18:59):
to make sure to give me and my sisters a
head start in life, and so she decided if we
could talk, we could read, and she taught us how
to read using phonics. I remember her flash cards, but
we were reading at the age of three and four.
So when I went to preschool, I went to preschool
reading And I think that that set our family up,
(19:21):
not only to demonstrate to my mother that the investment
that she made by giving her all and everything to
her girls paid off. For my father, you know, being
the man in the housepool of women, just being that constant,
steady figure providing such great just support, providing for our
(19:43):
family financially, and then also you know, just really pouring
into his girls, treating us no different than if he
had sons. He was so proud of us, and he
made sure that everybody knew who his three girls were.
We grew up in a neighborhood where it was not
safe to play outside, So our home was our cocoon.
(20:04):
Our home was our base, and our home was our
heartbeats me and my sisters. You know the games that
we would play. We would play store, we would draw.
We have incredible art skills in our family, and so
being able to just tell stories, listen to music, music
was a constant and in my household, it was just
really a powerfully close upbringing and it was a special childhood.
(20:32):
I went to an elementary school where I was tested
in kindergarten that's gifted and talented. And as a result,
because I could read, I remember teachers not necessarily knowing
what to do with me, and so I would often
get sat in a corner with encyclopedias to read, in
book sets to read while the regular students were going
(20:54):
through their lessons. And so it came a point where
I was able to go ahead and go into gifted classes.
And I remember my gifted classes being on the bottom
level of the elementary school that I was bust to
for desegregation purposes. So I was bust forty minutes away
from my neighborhood school and in my neighborhood into a
predominantly white school. And I remember with my classes, when
(21:19):
it was time for me to go to my gifted courses,
I would have to walk downstairs, and I was the
only black student in a class full of white students.
And although I could read extraordinarily, I was not great
at math. It took me longer to catch on. And
I remember the teacher thumping my head during courses because
I wasn't able to catch on it. Some math concepts
(21:40):
pretty keenly call me dumb and stoopid and things like that,
and it was tough, you know, it was tough, And
it also played the other way. One time, during parent
teacher conferences, one teacher I still know his name in
middle school told my parents that I was doing just
finding class. And when he pulled my report card out
of the photo to show them I had a math
(22:00):
sees were not allowed in my house. My mother said,
what do you mean just fine? There's a sea on
her report card. Oh that's average. My daughter's not average.
She can do better. So what needs to happen in
order for this grade to be raised. That's the kind
of household I was raised in when I was young.
Being able to read, being able to comprehend, being able
(22:23):
to use a vocabulary, and things like that. Sometimes I
was teased, sometimes I was talked about and called you
know stuck up or better than However, again, like I
just shared with you and some of the other circles
that I was in being only black, then it was
I could never learn quickly enough. So that's another reason
(22:43):
why home was important. Because home we were celebrated for
who we were. Home was safe for who we were,
and home helped to prepare us for the world outside.
My parents created a difference, they really yeah, So all
(23:08):
of that was packed into us, Me and my sister
Janna and my youngest sister Laurie, and we carried that
from our little corner of the hood at nineteenth in
nash and a home that maybe was nine hundred square
feet but was filled with love. We carried that through
(23:29):
our school, We carried that through our church, and on
through various areas that life took us. And I experienced
East High and all of his glory. East High is
one of the largest high schools in which Tide. It's
the oldest as well, and it was in Vicky Churchman's
(23:51):
journalism class where I was able to break away from
this idea of trying so hard than to fit in.
After all these years, I'm not fitting in. High school
was where I decided to try to fit in so
I would be the little class clown. And she finally
pulled me aside and told me, Christina, you know this
isn't you, And if you want to be who I
(24:13):
believe you can be in this course, then I need
you to cut out all the classroom antics and I
need you to just be who you are. And that's
all that she had to tell me, because she ended
the conversation saying, and who I believe you to be
is the editor of this newspaper. She didn't have to
say anything else to me, and so I was able
to be the editor of the East High Messenger, which
(24:35):
was really great because it allowed me to begin to
truly walk in my purpose, a purpose that I believed
I found and discovered in the eighth grade prior to
entering high school and meeting Vicky Churchman, when two reporters
from the Which Tie Eagle came to visit my eighth
grade class and they shared more information about what it
meant to be a reporter, and they invited those of
(24:57):
us who wanted to to come up to the newsroom
and visit and just kind of check it out and
take a tour. And so I took them up on
that invitation. And I tell you, when I walked into
the Witchita Eagle, it was then at its old location,
which it's no longer there anymore, but it was eight
two five yees Douglas. But being able to go in
and walk and meet the print guys, the big giant
presses they were running, and you could smell the newspaper
(25:19):
ink and you could see the ink stains on their
overalls and see the ink on their hands as they
reached them out to shake our hands, and it was
just an incredible experience. Went up to the second floor,
and that's where the sales and classified ads committees were
and the employees were, and so to be able to
(25:39):
hear them, you know, making deals and selling newspaper ads,
mocking up ads and designing them, that was great. But
it was the third floor that was the newsroom. When
we opened up or stepped off of the elevator actually
into the newsroom, you could hear the police scanners going off,
you could see the bustle on the hustle of the
reporters and all of these voices just talking all at
(25:59):
the same time, and it was so energetic and so
lively and I was like, Oh, my goodness, I want
to be here. And so when Vickie Churchman back at
East High told me I had an opportunity to be
the editor of the newspaper, I did what I needed
to do so that I could live that life and
experience what I experienced professionally when I stepped off of
(26:20):
that elevator in eighth grade. And what a voice in
a story you're hearing. And by the way, the primacy
of family and importance, you can hear it in Christina's voice.
Our home, she said about what her parents created, was
a cocoon, a base, a heartbeat. She lived in a neighborhood,
(26:41):
or was dangerous to be outside, But my goodness, being
taught to read by the age of three and four, remarkable.
Home was safe. I was celebrated. My parents created a difference,
she said, almost holding back the tears. And if you
want to make a difference in this world, the biggest
one be a good parent. When we come back more
of Christina long Story, Our Opportunity America series continues here
(27:05):
on our American Stories, and we continue with our American
(27:38):
stories and with Christina long Story. Christina fulfilled her trialhood
dream of working at the Wichita Eagle, the layoffs started
hitting the industry. She got a job at Wichita Public Schools,
started her own T shirt and design company on the side,
and we returned to Christina on the Chamber of Commerce
asking her for help in catalyzing even greater entrepreneurship in
(28:02):
their beloved city. When I came to the table, they
already decided that they wanted to do something to activate
African Americans and entrepreneurship in Wichita, but they did not
know what to do. I was like, well, I know
the people, but they don't know these service providers. I
(28:23):
was able to benefit from service providers such as the
Kansas Small Business Development Center because when I changed my
company from a T shirt company to a graphic design company,
I didn't do that by myself. I did it with
the help of mentoring and coaching from the ks BDC.
So I thought, if we were able to get service
partners together with these African American entrepreneurs to make the
(28:45):
relationships and the connections real, then maybe those entrepreneurs would
take it upon themselves to be able to grow the
relationships that they had started at an event, and the
service providers would be more comfortable being able to serve
and execute for these entrepreneurs who they might not otherwise see.
So I conceptualized what was called the Create Campaign. It
(29:09):
was a half day form at Wichita State University where
there were workshop speakers and things of that nature. The
Entrepreneurship Task Force felt like we would get about thirty
five black entrepreneurs out and we would be able to
follow them to see if they actually acted upon the
relationships that they began at that event. We got seventy
seven Black entrepreneurs that day, and largely because of all
(29:34):
of the relationships I carry with me. But the interesting
thing about it is the African American entrepreneurs began calling
me asking me Christina. This was a fantastic form. What's next?
How do I really grow my business? And all of
these questions kept coming. Now, I was only in business
(29:55):
for two years before this form took place. The form
happened in twenty fift Remember I started my company, my
T shirt company in twenty thirteen, and it changed to
a graphic design company in twenty fourteen. That's it. That
was all the entrepreneurship experience I had. So yes, I
put together this event, but I had no idea how
(30:15):
to help a plumber grow his company that was beyond
my wheelhouse. However, the calls did not stop, and I
knew that somebody had to answer. So with a lot
of support from Gary o'barney and other mentors along the
way from me, I decided, well, we can do the
create campaign forum again. So we were not attracting at
(30:35):
that time seventy seven entrepreneurs. We have more than two
hundred people on site. By twenty seventeen, we knew two
events or one event a year wasn't enough, so I
went ahead and created six months worth of programming and
we were only bound by my capacity because I was
doing all of this while running my company, while at
that time working for which top public schools. And something
(30:57):
had to give. So I remember around twenty sixteen twenty
seventeen when I said, you know, I can't continue to
do this pace. My business was starting to cut into
my worktime. I'd have to take time off or work
on my lunch break, and it was just beginning to
be a twenty four hour cycle of work that was
(31:18):
no good for me and it was no good for
my family. So I had to be able to make
a choice and so I said, it's time for me
to make a leap. But in order to make a leap,
I have to make up a certain percent of my
income with my business or else I cannot make that leap.
March fourth of twenty sixteen or seventeen. Now the years
kind of blurred together, but I was able to actually
(31:41):
put in my two weeks notice from which top public
schools on the date that I had said, and that
was March fourth, And that's symbolic to me because I
was marching fourth into a new destiny. The amazing thing
about this is we were also seeing growth in people's
businesses as well along the way, So this wasn't just
a good time getting together to network. People were actually
lying unch LLC's the right way. They're actually growing and
(32:04):
securing investor capital into their business. We were able to
create a microlan fund that was specific to minority entrepreneurs,
that didn't require collateral, that dropped the credit requirement of
a score of five hundred forty, which was about one
hundred points lower than a traditional financial institution. Because my
whole goal is, and was and remains we want to
(32:26):
be a compliment to the entrepreneurship ecosystem not a competitor.
That is my method, in my motto. We had a
grand opportunity that allowed us to be able to provide
contractor education for minority contractors in trades fields landscaping, tree trimming, hauling.
(32:50):
Well contractors who went through our programming were then able
to have write a first refusal to perform exterior home
improvement and property hair projects for central Northeast Wichita, which
tends to be highly diverse and highly impoverished, at no
cost to the homeowners who were benefiting from that work.
What that did was it allowed companies that were being
(33:12):
negatively impacted financially because of COVID to receive guaranteed contracts
while also being able to improve properties. Some of them
were preparing to let go of insurance because insurance threatened
to pool coverage on their homes because they had an
issue that needed to be solved that they were unable
to solve for financial reasons or even code violations. That
(33:36):
some of these homeowners are elderly and they just couldn't
get the work done. We were able to remedy that
for them during that time period because of that grant
and subsequent support from sponsors such as Coke Industries. They
really stepped up to help us reach even more homes.
We were able to do more than sixty three thousand
(33:58):
dollars in contracts for those contractors, and we are continuing
to improve up on those homes for those elderly persons
and those who financially could not afford that type of
improvement to happen in their homes. I look at my classmates,
(34:20):
those who were on the path of success, many of
them have left, they're enjoying amazing careers in places like
Atlanta and Dallas. And those of us who have chosen
to stay. It almost seems like we've selected sacrifice in
some ways because we are the chosen few. It seems
like the handful who have the old soul and who
(34:42):
are really tapped to lead. And then I look at
the other side of the equation, though, and that I
have so many classmates of mine who are gone. They
are dead, some are in jail, some are just in despair.
And it didn't have to be that way. It did not.
We all came from the same few blocks who I'm
speaking about, and to see the different roads that life
(35:04):
has taken us. One thing again, I have to credit
that the disruptor to that for me and my family
were my parents. Without them, I am not who I
am the sacrifices they made to be able to give
us a great life, especially now as an adult carrying
(35:27):
multiple responsibilities outside of my home and having three children,
me and my husband. Being able to see what my
parents created in the life that they made for us
out of a little much is sometimes how we describe it,
being able to see it on this side as a parent,
(35:48):
it took effort. It really took effort, and I appreciate
them and a whole other level because being a parent
is a gift, and even though it's a gift, there
is a responsibility that you have to. Yes, those young people,
but you have a lot of things that you have
to be able to navigate and juggle in order to
give them the life that you believe that they should live.
(36:09):
So for me, I did not want my children to
have to go through the nineteenth and Nash experiences that
I went through. But in order to do that, I
have to work so hard to make sure that we
are not paycheck to paycheck, that we can actually afford
to live where we live, and me trying to do
my best to make sure that they had their attention
(36:30):
so I would work. This was back in juggling the
school district in my business. I would work all day
and then I would make sure to come home cook
for them, even though I hate cooking. Come home, cook
for them, ask them about their days, plug in, dial
into them, and then hurry up and get them into
bed between eight thirty and nine so that I could
(36:50):
work until two, three and four in the morning and
do it all over again the next day. And I
remember that one time I asked my kids. I always
ask them, am I doing a good job as a parent,
because I love to hear you know what I can
do better as a parent, what I'm doing well. I
love for my kids to talk to me and converse
with me in that regard. But for my birthday one year,
I asked them if they were writing me letters, and
(37:11):
so they were like, you're a great mommy. We love you,
but we notice when you put us to bed, you
stay up and you work, and when you don't get
enough sleep, you're cranky. And I never wanted my kids
to feel like they're second or third to the work.
And so, of course, correcting through that time that absolutely matter,
but to create a space where our children feel like
(37:32):
they are the Bee's Knees was the first thing that
came to my mind, so I'm gonna stick with it.
That means something, and it takes effort, and I truly
can appreciate what my parents built for us because now
I'm responsible for doing the same for my children. And
our Opportunity America series, as always, is brought to us
(37:54):
by the great folks head Cooch Industries. Go to koci
nd dot com to learn more and to learn more
about and support the work of Christina's nonprofit. To create campaign,
go to create campaign as dot com. Christina long story
here on our American Stories
This is leeh Habib, and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on the show,
including yours. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites. Indeed. Next is a listener's
story from Valencia, California. This is a history story that
is fascinated listener Richard Hood for a long time and
(00:31):
he wanted to share it with us. Take it away, Richard.
You've probably heard that the darker the place, the brighter
any light appears. Well, I'd like to share with you
a story about a very dark place and a very
bright light, in fact, an angel of light known as
the Angel of Mary's Heights. It all happened back in
(00:56):
the month of December sixty two, and I'm talking about
eight sixty two, during our country's bloodiest war, the Civil War,
especially known as the War between the States, but more
poignantly as the Brothers War. One reason why it was
called the brother's War is because the war actually did
pit in some cases brother against brother. You can imagine,
(01:19):
you know, if you have an older brother and he's
gone off to Afghanistan to fight. That's one thing. What
if he was going off to Afghanistan to fight you.
That kind of changes the whole familial situation. And in
the Civil War, the brothers war that not only happened
on occasion of father, was sometimes pitted against son. So complicated.
(01:45):
So let me tell you more about this angel though,
because at the Battle of Fredericksburg there was an important
vantage point a clifftop called Mary's Heights. The Southern Confederate
Army was wisely using it as a cannon emplacement. Below
this cliff was a protective wall keeping the Northern Army
from gaining that cliff top. Hunkered down behind this wall,
(02:07):
protecting the stronghold, was one of many soldiers in this case,
a Confederate sergeant who would during America's bloodiest battle to
come an teat them would later lose his life, but
he will survive this day, and a good thing for you,
because otherwise you won't survive either. So are you ready
to do a little pretending, ready to travel back to
(02:29):
your fateful day in time? Okay, Well here we go then,
So you're up before a revelie today. You've only had
a thin, dirty old blanket to cover your during the night,
and can't really sleep that well. Anyway. But the bugle
does sound, you hear, revelie, and so you get up,
(02:52):
splash some water on your face to believe yourself of
the dust that covers everything and adds to the dry
mouth off the battle that's to come. You look down
at your socks, filthy socks, barely holding together, and you
put on your boots that have holes in them, but
you're grateful because you actually have boots. You start to
(03:13):
smell the coffee that someone has started, and that's going
to be one of your sole pleasures today, and you're
grateful for that too. Little comforts are pretty big when
that's all you've got. You're in the army now, as
they say, and you're an infantryman in the Army of
the Potomac, the Northern Army of the Union. Abraham Lincoln
(03:34):
is your president, and you're facing off against the Confederate
States of America, the Southern States, whose president is Jefferson Davis.
I want you to take a moment and notice the
coarseness of your blue uniform. Also, I want to put
on that rucksack again today, and as you do so,
(03:54):
you try and adjust your shoulder straps to find an
area of your shoulders that hasn't been rubbed raw yet.
This is going to be adjusted throughout the day. You're
going to be trading minor pains for greater pains. And
you're also going to notice that pack smells strongly of salt,
and you come to realize that's from your own sweat,
(04:14):
and within an hour or your pack's going to be
soaked again, just as will the back of your uniform.
The enemy sergeant behind that wall that you're approaching, he
was promoted on the battlefield, having survived the Battle of Chancellorsville,
the fabled Gettysburg, and then chick A Maagua too, and
(04:35):
his luck better not run out today because it's tied
directly two years. You're up against a real hero, the
last thing you're feeling like being, and a hero not
do to what he's already done and survived, but what
he will do from the other side of that wall.
He's hunkered down behind, from behind that wall, separating today
(04:57):
not just the quick from the dead, but the quick
from those not very quietly or quickly die. So on
that cherry note, let's load up and start marching in
the direction of that enemy wall. It's not until around
noon that the first wave of your assaults begin in
(05:19):
front of that wall, and no wave reaches as far
as that wall. They continue though, one after another, and
they're also mowed down, one after the other. The reports
are not favorable. Your comrades get as close as seventy
five feet away from that blasted wall, and that's it.
(05:41):
It's going to be your turn any minute. But before
you go, you get the chance to look around and
see all the carnage that has gone on before you,
and you see how it's likely to go for you.
You see the killing filled between you and that wall,
and you see a bottleneck at a ditch that has
(06:01):
only three possible crossable bridges, and no matter which one
you choose, it appears to be nothing but a slaughter pick.
And you've been listening to Richard Hood And by the way,
he is a listener, as we said before, from Valencia, California,
and a heck of a storyteller, putting us in the
(06:24):
spot in the time, in the context, which is so
important as a storyteller, and how we should always look
at history. No one knew what was going to happen
in that war when it started. No one knew it
was going to happen when they charged the next wall
or the next hill, except from what happened in plain
sight from the other guys who had just charged. And
(06:46):
it's so true. This Civil War, this war between the States,
did pit brother against brother, father against son. The Revolutionary
War did the same thing in large measure. Two. When
we come back, we're going to continue this from our story,
the story of the Angel of Saint Mary's Heights here
on our American story. Folks, if you love the stories
(07:31):
we tell about this great country, and especially the stories
of America's rich past, know that all of our stories
about American history, from war to innovation, culture and faith,
are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College,
a place where students study all the things that are
beautiful in life and all the things that are good
in life. And if you can't cut to Hillsdale, Hillsdale
(07:51):
will come to you with their free and terrific online courses.
Go to Hillsdale dot edu to learn more. And we
return to our American stories and Richard Hood's story of
(08:13):
an impactful moment in the Civil War. When we last
left off, Richard was taking us back in time to
the battle of Fredericksburg. Let's pick up where we last
left off. You're exhausted from marching and fighting, and you're
fighting off exhaustion. Now you have to fight with absolutely
(08:34):
no adrenaline left. It's almost gone, and your mind is
shifting gears down to its most basic and primal functions,
while the world around you appears more and more like
some kind of outdoor insane asylum. Above the wall up
on Mary's Heights, the opposing Confederate cannons began to let loose,
(08:56):
so when you hear the order to charge, your going
to not only face a continuous sheet of flame from
frontal small arms fire directed at you, but dismembering and
deadly artillery fire raining from above as well. And later
one of the Confederate artillerymen would remark that not even
(09:19):
a chicken could live on that field. You're looking for
some way to increase the odds of your survival, and
you can't think of a thing, and the insensible amount
of death, along with its apparent utter randomness, sickens you.
From what you can see, you should be one of
(09:41):
this day's twelve thousand, six hundred casualties, and it doesn't
look like you're going to be evacuated should you become wounded,
which is likely. Nor does it appear that you will
receive for a state, but instead it does appear that
you're gonna lie there unattended, becoming just one more member
of the choir of mon. You can ask veterans of
(10:06):
any war, and they'll tell you that of all the
horrors of war, the psychologically worst may well be the
tortured cries of their brothers in arms, insufferable agony when
there's nothing they can do to come to their aid
without exposing their position or putting others in danger, or
becoming just like them, another screaming casualty. And whether it's
(10:28):
medieval or modern weapons used to cause this carnage, you
will always hear cries for one thing, for water. But
this dehydration is caused from blood loss. Now, as in
any fight, your mouth is dry, and at any moment
(10:49):
it might become drier still from the loss of your blood.
And then, surprisingly do you, despite its overwhelming odds and predictability,
that indeed happens with the realization of your fears having
come upon you. Pain and its companions of shock and
immobility join forces against you. You're now one casualty among
(11:12):
the day's eight thousand casualties. So you're asking yourself what
was so important about that wall? Why couldn't your commanders
simply have gone around it? As you drift in and
out of consciousness, whether half dreaming or awake, thoughts are
distilled for you and reduced to one thing and one desire,
(11:33):
only for water. Finally night comes on, and though your
groans and pleas are lost among the thousands of the
others around you, you have never felt more alone. No
one is coming, no one will be coming in time.
(11:53):
So weary from battle himself and desperate for rest, the
Confederate sergeant has been kept from sleep all the same
night thanks to yours and all the other pitiful, disturbing
and debilitating cries of those not quite yet dead. By morning,
he can't take it any longer, and so this enemy
(12:15):
soldier asked permission to put you out of your misery,
and in both his sides and your own sufferings, he's
just stared at. He stared at as if he's lost
his senses or has battle fatigue. Sniping at the wounded,
it's just not done. But he's no sniper. And what
(12:35):
he's asking his commanders for his permission to go over
that wall and meet you head on, to come not
to silence you, but to bring you water. His commanders
tell him of the bullets awaiting him on such a
fool's errand making him a casualty of well, either enemy
or mistaken friendly fire, And they tell him no, But
(12:58):
he is totally aware and totally determined and persistent. Yes.
Most of the wounded are like you, his enemy, or
were now you seem more like fellow mortals, just bleeding
out and drying up. He requests to carry a white
handkerchief as a sign of ceasefire, and he keeps asking
(13:22):
until he gets permission he seeks, but he is told
that no handkerchief, no flag of truce, will be allowed.
He'll be on his own, and he'll be all. You've
got your last chance for tomorrow, meet your sworn enemy.
Richard Kirkland, Confederate Army sergeant, age twenty. The odds of
(13:46):
help coming to you via Kirkland are less than the
odds were of being wounded. There are just too many
wounded sprawled in front of that wall, and Kirkland has
he's alone, and he has no plan except for the
filling of every canteen he can find, and it seems
(14:07):
time itself holds its breath as over the wall he
slips with you in that no man's land between earthly
consciousness and eternity. Eventually he does, indeed stumble upon you,
literally falls over you, and reaching down to support your head,
he gives you all he can from the canteen's left.
(14:31):
He takes off his jacket and covers you with it.
You try to raise your hand in astonished thanks, but
there's no need, as he can read the gratitude in
your eyes. Not a shot is heard in that hour
and a half that Kirkland spends racing from soldier to soldier,
(14:51):
as if in respectful awe of what is happening and
what he's risking. All that is heard are the plane
of cry for the water that is now at least
a possibility. He attends to friend and foe alike, both
sides Americans, both sides brothers of a sort once again,
(15:12):
even if only brothers of the dust. Years later, some
will claim it wasn't Kirkland, but someone else, or many
other someone else's Others will claim that he was sniped
at even wounded, But you know better because you were there.
Although your wonder for the rest of your life why
(15:34):
he did it? What wasn't that was worth more to
him than his own physical life? How could he be
so certain there was something even more important than his
own fears? What or who puts that instinct or knowledge
into people that results in bringing the Kingdom of Heaven
(15:56):
not just on to earth, but overcoming hell on earth.
You won't hear Kirkland's name mentioned nowadays, but you see
it doesn't matter. He's not a household name because heroes
don't do heroic things for the fame. Their self lessness
can inspire us to other, if lesser acts of love. Love,
(16:18):
we must remember, is an action. While Kirkland indeed survived
this day as a result, you did as well. His
eventual dying concern was still for others, particularly his father,
whom he wanted to know that his son had died right.
Perhaps more important is living right day by day, and
(16:42):
to do that you and I must know what we
are living for. Why we were given life. This is
everyone's foundation, so that building up and out from that
foundation brings meaning and purpose to our lives. So that
as much of our lives as possible bring relief and
(17:05):
life to others. You know, you have to wonder why
such stories of heroism create such a unique response in
us psychologically, physiologically, spiritually. It seems to contradict a spirit less,
self serving, survival of the fittest and purposeless worldview. Perhaps
(17:29):
the Brother's War was but one act in a long
play designed to help us recognize and appreciate the true
cost of love, of redemption and reconciliation. And a special
thanks to Monty Montgomery for the production Richard Hood's story
(17:49):
The Angel of Saint Mary's Heights story here on our
American Stories and we continue with our American Stories and
(18:11):
with our Opportunity America series that's sponsored by Coke Industries.
More than sixty seven thousand people across this country are
employed by Coke, and there's a good chance that their
work intersects with your own story in some way. The
great folks that make products that help improve medical devices,
consumer electronics, vehicle safety, fabrics for clothing, filtration for clean water,
(18:33):
and innovations for popular household brands. Learn more about Coke's
incredible work at Coke iand dot com. That's koc Hid
dot Com. And now we go to Christina Long, the
oldest of three girls born in Wichita, Kansas, to tell
her own story. My mother being an avid reader, wanting
(18:59):
to make sure to give me and my sisters a
head start in life, and so she decided if we
could talk, we could read, and she taught us how
to read using phonics. I remember her flash cards, but
we were reading at the age of three and four.
So when I went to preschool, I went to preschool
reading And I think that that set our family up,
(19:21):
not only to demonstrate to my mother that the investment
that she made by giving her all and everything to
her girls paid off. For my father, you know, being
the man in the housepool of women, just being that constant,
steady figure providing such great just support, providing for our
(19:43):
family financially, and then also you know, just really pouring
into his girls, treating us no different than if he
had sons. He was so proud of us, and he
made sure that everybody knew who his three girls were.
We grew up in a neighborhood where it was not
safe to play outside, So our home was our cocoon.
(20:04):
Our home was our base, and our home was our
heartbeats me and my sisters. You know the games that
we would play. We would play store, we would draw.
We have incredible art skills in our family, and so
being able to just tell stories, listen to music, music
was a constant and in my household, it was just
really a powerfully close upbringing and it was a special childhood.
(20:32):
I went to an elementary school where I was tested
in kindergarten that's gifted and talented. And as a result,
because I could read, I remember teachers not necessarily knowing
what to do with me, and so I would often
get sat in a corner with encyclopedias to read, in
book sets to read while the regular students were going
(20:54):
through their lessons. And so it came a point where
I was able to go ahead and go into gifted classes.
And I remember my gifted classes being on the bottom
level of the elementary school that I was bust to
for desegregation purposes. So I was bust forty minutes away
from my neighborhood school and in my neighborhood into a
predominantly white school. And I remember with my classes, when
(21:19):
it was time for me to go to my gifted courses,
I would have to walk downstairs, and I was the
only black student in a class full of white students.
And although I could read extraordinarily, I was not great
at math. It took me longer to catch on. And
I remember the teacher thumping my head during courses because
I wasn't able to catch on it. Some math concepts
(21:40):
pretty keenly call me dumb and stoopid and things like that,
and it was tough, you know, it was tough, And
it also played the other way. One time, during parent
teacher conferences, one teacher I still know his name in
middle school told my parents that I was doing just
finding class. And when he pulled my report card out
of the photo to show them I had a math
(22:00):
sees were not allowed in my house. My mother said,
what do you mean just fine? There's a sea on
her report card. Oh that's average. My daughter's not average.
She can do better. So what needs to happen in
order for this grade to be raised. That's the kind
of household I was raised in when I was young.
Being able to read, being able to comprehend, being able
(22:23):
to use a vocabulary, and things like that. Sometimes I
was teased, sometimes I was talked about and called you
know stuck up or better than However, again, like I
just shared with you and some of the other circles
that I was in being only black, then it was
I could never learn quickly enough. So that's another reason
(22:43):
why home was important. Because home we were celebrated for
who we were. Home was safe for who we were,
and home helped to prepare us for the world outside.
My parents created a difference, they really yeah, So all
(23:08):
of that was packed into us, Me and my sister
Janna and my youngest sister Laurie, and we carried that
from our little corner of the hood at nineteenth in
nash and a home that maybe was nine hundred square
feet but was filled with love. We carried that through
(23:29):
our school, We carried that through our church, and on
through various areas that life took us. And I experienced
East High and all of his glory. East High is
one of the largest high schools in which Tide. It's
the oldest as well, and it was in Vicky Churchman's
(23:51):
journalism class where I was able to break away from
this idea of trying so hard than to fit in.
After all these years, I'm not fitting in. High school
was where I decided to try to fit in so
I would be the little class clown. And she finally
pulled me aside and told me, Christina, you know this
isn't you, And if you want to be who I
(24:13):
believe you can be in this course, then I need
you to cut out all the classroom antics and I
need you to just be who you are. And that's
all that she had to tell me, because she ended
the conversation saying, and who I believe you to be
is the editor of this newspaper. She didn't have to
say anything else to me, and so I was able
to be the editor of the East High Messenger, which
(24:35):
was really great because it allowed me to begin to
truly walk in my purpose, a purpose that I believed
I found and discovered in the eighth grade prior to
entering high school and meeting Vicky Churchman, when two reporters
from the Which Tie Eagle came to visit my eighth
grade class and they shared more information about what it
meant to be a reporter, and they invited those of
(24:57):
us who wanted to to come up to the newsroom
and visit and just kind of check it out and
take a tour. And so I took them up on
that invitation. And I tell you, when I walked into
the Witchita Eagle, it was then at its old location,
which it's no longer there anymore, but it was eight
two five yees Douglas. But being able to go in
and walk and meet the print guys, the big giant
presses they were running, and you could smell the newspaper
(25:19):
ink and you could see the ink stains on their
overalls and see the ink on their hands as they
reached them out to shake our hands, and it was
just an incredible experience. Went up to the second floor,
and that's where the sales and classified ads committees were
and the employees were, and so to be able to
(25:39):
hear them, you know, making deals and selling newspaper ads,
mocking up ads and designing them, that was great. But
it was the third floor that was the newsroom. When
we opened up or stepped off of the elevator actually
into the newsroom, you could hear the police scanners going off,
you could see the bustle on the hustle of the
reporters and all of these voices just talking all at
(25:59):
the same time, and it was so energetic and so
lively and I was like, Oh, my goodness, I want
to be here. And so when Vickie Churchman back at
East High told me I had an opportunity to be
the editor of the newspaper, I did what I needed
to do so that I could live that life and
experience what I experienced professionally when I stepped off of
(26:20):
that elevator in eighth grade. And what a voice in
a story you're hearing. And by the way, the primacy
of family and importance, you can hear it in Christina's voice.
Our home, she said about what her parents created, was
a cocoon, a base, a heartbeat. She lived in a neighborhood,
(26:41):
or was dangerous to be outside, But my goodness, being
taught to read by the age of three and four, remarkable.
Home was safe. I was celebrated. My parents created a difference,
she said, almost holding back the tears. And if you
want to make a difference in this world, the biggest
one be a good parent. When we come back more
of Christina long Story, Our Opportunity America series continues here
(27:05):
on our American Stories, and we continue with our American
(27:38):
stories and with Christina long Story. Christina fulfilled her trialhood
dream of working at the Wichita Eagle, the layoffs started
hitting the industry. She got a job at Wichita Public Schools,
started her own T shirt and design company on the side,
and we returned to Christina on the Chamber of Commerce
asking her for help in catalyzing even greater entrepreneurship in
(28:02):
their beloved city. When I came to the table, they
already decided that they wanted to do something to activate
African Americans and entrepreneurship in Wichita, but they did not
know what to do. I was like, well, I know
the people, but they don't know these service providers. I
(28:23):
was able to benefit from service providers such as the
Kansas Small Business Development Center because when I changed my
company from a T shirt company to a graphic design company,
I didn't do that by myself. I did it with
the help of mentoring and coaching from the ks BDC.
So I thought, if we were able to get service
partners together with these African American entrepreneurs to make the
(28:45):
relationships and the connections real, then maybe those entrepreneurs would
take it upon themselves to be able to grow the
relationships that they had started at an event, and the
service providers would be more comfortable being able to serve
and execute for these entrepreneurs who they might not otherwise see.
So I conceptualized what was called the Create Campaign. It
(29:09):
was a half day form at Wichita State University where
there were workshop speakers and things of that nature. The
Entrepreneurship Task Force felt like we would get about thirty
five black entrepreneurs out and we would be able to
follow them to see if they actually acted upon the
relationships that they began at that event. We got seventy
seven Black entrepreneurs that day, and largely because of all
(29:34):
of the relationships I carry with me. But the interesting
thing about it is the African American entrepreneurs began calling
me asking me Christina. This was a fantastic form. What's next?
How do I really grow my business? And all of
these questions kept coming. Now, I was only in business
(29:55):
for two years before this form took place. The form
happened in twenty fift Remember I started my company, my
T shirt company in twenty thirteen, and it changed to
a graphic design company in twenty fourteen. That's it. That
was all the entrepreneurship experience I had. So yes, I
put together this event, but I had no idea how
(30:15):
to help a plumber grow his company that was beyond
my wheelhouse. However, the calls did not stop, and I
knew that somebody had to answer. So with a lot
of support from Gary o'barney and other mentors along the
way from me, I decided, well, we can do the
create campaign forum again. So we were not attracting at
(30:35):
that time seventy seven entrepreneurs. We have more than two
hundred people on site. By twenty seventeen, we knew two
events or one event a year wasn't enough, so I
went ahead and created six months worth of programming and
we were only bound by my capacity because I was
doing all of this while running my company, while at
that time working for which top public schools. And something
(30:57):
had to give. So I remember around twenty sixteen twenty
seventeen when I said, you know, I can't continue to
do this pace. My business was starting to cut into
my worktime. I'd have to take time off or work
on my lunch break, and it was just beginning to
be a twenty four hour cycle of work that was
(31:18):
no good for me and it was no good for
my family. So I had to be able to make
a choice and so I said, it's time for me
to make a leap. But in order to make a leap,
I have to make up a certain percent of my
income with my business or else I cannot make that leap.
March fourth of twenty sixteen or seventeen. Now the years
kind of blurred together, but I was able to actually
(31:41):
put in my two weeks notice from which top public
schools on the date that I had said, and that
was March fourth, And that's symbolic to me because I
was marching fourth into a new destiny. The amazing thing
about this is we were also seeing growth in people's
businesses as well along the way, So this wasn't just
a good time getting together to network. People were actually
lying unch LLC's the right way. They're actually growing and
(32:04):
securing investor capital into their business. We were able to
create a microlan fund that was specific to minority entrepreneurs,
that didn't require collateral, that dropped the credit requirement of
a score of five hundred forty, which was about one
hundred points lower than a traditional financial institution. Because my
whole goal is, and was and remains we want to
(32:26):
be a compliment to the entrepreneurship ecosystem not a competitor.
That is my method, in my motto. We had a
grand opportunity that allowed us to be able to provide
contractor education for minority contractors in trades fields landscaping, tree trimming, hauling.
(32:50):
Well contractors who went through our programming were then able
to have write a first refusal to perform exterior home
improvement and property hair projects for central Northeast Wichita, which
tends to be highly diverse and highly impoverished, at no
cost to the homeowners who were benefiting from that work.
What that did was it allowed companies that were being
(33:12):
negatively impacted financially because of COVID to receive guaranteed contracts
while also being able to improve properties. Some of them
were preparing to let go of insurance because insurance threatened
to pool coverage on their homes because they had an
issue that needed to be solved that they were unable
to solve for financial reasons or even code violations. That
(33:36):
some of these homeowners are elderly and they just couldn't
get the work done. We were able to remedy that
for them during that time period because of that grant
and subsequent support from sponsors such as Coke Industries. They
really stepped up to help us reach even more homes.
We were able to do more than sixty three thousand
(33:58):
dollars in contracts for those contractors, and we are continuing
to improve up on those homes for those elderly persons
and those who financially could not afford that type of
improvement to happen in their homes. I look at my classmates,
(34:20):
those who were on the path of success, many of
them have left, they're enjoying amazing careers in places like
Atlanta and Dallas. And those of us who have chosen
to stay. It almost seems like we've selected sacrifice in
some ways because we are the chosen few. It seems
like the handful who have the old soul and who
(34:42):
are really tapped to lead. And then I look at
the other side of the equation, though, and that I
have so many classmates of mine who are gone. They
are dead, some are in jail, some are just in despair.
And it didn't have to be that way. It did not.
We all came from the same few blocks who I'm
speaking about, and to see the different roads that life
(35:04):
has taken us. One thing again, I have to credit
that the disruptor to that for me and my family
were my parents. Without them, I am not who I
am the sacrifices they made to be able to give
us a great life, especially now as an adult carrying
(35:27):
multiple responsibilities outside of my home and having three children,
me and my husband. Being able to see what my
parents created in the life that they made for us
out of a little much is sometimes how we describe it,
being able to see it on this side as a parent,
(35:48):
it took effort. It really took effort, and I appreciate
them and a whole other level because being a parent
is a gift, and even though it's a gift, there
is a responsibility that you have to. Yes, those young people,
but you have a lot of things that you have
to be able to navigate and juggle in order to
give them the life that you believe that they should live.
(36:09):
So for me, I did not want my children to
have to go through the nineteenth and Nash experiences that
I went through. But in order to do that, I
have to work so hard to make sure that we
are not paycheck to paycheck, that we can actually afford
to live where we live, and me trying to do
my best to make sure that they had their attention
(36:30):
so I would work. This was back in juggling the
school district in my business. I would work all day
and then I would make sure to come home cook
for them, even though I hate cooking. Come home, cook
for them, ask them about their days, plug in, dial
into them, and then hurry up and get them into
bed between eight thirty and nine so that I could
(36:50):
work until two, three and four in the morning and
do it all over again the next day. And I
remember that one time I asked my kids. I always
ask them, am I doing a good job as a parent,
because I love to hear you know what I can
do better as a parent, what I'm doing well. I
love for my kids to talk to me and converse
with me in that regard. But for my birthday one year,
I asked them if they were writing me letters, and
(37:11):
so they were like, you're a great mommy. We love you,
but we notice when you put us to bed, you
stay up and you work, and when you don't get
enough sleep, you're cranky. And I never wanted my kids
to feel like they're second or third to the work.
And so, of course, correcting through that time that absolutely matter,
but to create a space where our children feel like
(37:32):
they are the Bee's Knees was the first thing that
came to my mind, so I'm gonna stick with it.
That means something, and it takes effort, and I truly
can appreciate what my parents built for us because now
I'm responsible for doing the same for my children. And
our Opportunity America series, as always, is brought to us
(37:54):
by the great folks head Cooch Industries. Go to koci
nd dot com to learn more and to learn more
about and support the work of Christina's nonprofit. To create campaign,
go to create campaign as dot com. Christina long story
here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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