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Mailman’s retirement party proves community still exists in America · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:08
  You are listening to the Hidden Lightness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
• 0:12
  I'm your host, Jimmy Hinton.
• 0:14
  There's a really cool story out of LA.
• 0:16
  And uh, man, this is just heartwarming, and it's about a maleman who retired, and everybody came together.
• 0:25
  His people all came together, and a bunch of the people who he delivered to threw him a big back uh patio party.
• 0:35
  There were about 200 people in attendance, and uh it's just really cool, really heartwarming story, and it just goes to show how kind and decent mankind is.
• 0:46
  And I say this repeatedly.
• 0:48
  Uh, in fact, I say it every single day.
• 0:51
  I say it because I believe it, and I witness it, and I know that you do too.
• 0:57
  And again, a lot of times we we get one of two different sets of lenses.
• 1:04
  Some people have the rose tinted lenses where they can only see the good, and that can get us in trouble, right?
• 1:12
  Because that makes you vulnerable.
• 1:15
  People prey on our naivety.
• 1:18
  People prey on people who are kind.
• 1:20
  That's how all these scams take place.
• 1:24
  I was just talking to somebody who's a top law enforcement officer for the uh commonwealth of Pennsylvania just the other day, and they were saying, man, the number of cases uh because of artificial intelligence, the number of cases has increased in recent years exponentially to the point where it's impossible to even think about keeping up with.
• 1:55
  And they get taken for, I mean, literally everything that they have left in their savings.
• 2:01
  And he said their entire countries whose entire GDP is founded on, it's based on ripping people off here in America.
• 2:13
  And it's really heartbreaking, and it's you know, it's really sad to me and infuriating all at the same time.
• 2:20
  But those are people who prey on uh either vulnerable people or people who have that uh, you know, the rose tinted lenses where they can only see the good in people and they could never fathom that there are scammers out there because they just don't think like that.
• 2:36
  Right?
• 2:37
  They they can't even begin to wrap their minds around the fact that scammers make a living off of preying on innocent people because it's it's inconscientable, and that makes them very vulnerable, and then there are other people who have I don't know what uh you know what the official name for it is, but it's the opposite of the rose tinted lenses, where you view everything and everyone with skepticism, and there are always problems with people, and you can never trust anybody, and the world's going to to hell in a handbasket, and everybody's just awful, and every time you see something bad happen, it's like, see, that just proves it that all people are bad, all men are chauvinists, right?
• 3:23
  All uh the Democratic Party, by the way, is very professional at doing this at times, at least the uh the modern Democratic Party.
• 3:34
  It didn't used to be like this, and it's really sad what's happened to the Democratic Party because I really used to enjoy the the Democratic Party.
• 3:44
  Uh, but now it's uh my goodness, uh everybody's a white supremacist.
• 3:49
  Everybody who voted for Orange Man is a white supremacist, half the country, racist, homophobes, you know, on and on and on.
• 3:59
  And so there are people who they can only see bad things, they can only see negative outcomes.
• 4:08
  And uh, so I take kind of a middle ground, and I try to be as objective as possible.
• 4:15
  I know none of us are completely objective, but I try to take an objective perspective where uh somebody ought to um have opinions formed based on merit, based on what they do or don't do.
• 4:32
  You know, not based on their gender, not based on uh even sexual orientation, uh preference or whatever you want to call it.
• 4:43
  Uh people ought to have opinions made about them based on the way that they treat other people, the way that they treat their fellow man.
• 4:53
  And so that's what uh that's what this show is all about.
• 4:55
  It's about finding the hidden lightness in the midst of darkness.
• 4:59
  You know, and that by very definition acknowledges that there is darkness out there, and there's a lot of it.
• 5:06
  I think that we're completely naive to think that everybody's good and you know uh nobody has bad intentions out there.
• 5:15
  There are plenty of bad things that go on.
• 5:18
  In fact, tomorrow, on tomorrow's show, I'm gonna talk about a national case that I was a part of.
• 5:26
  Uh there's there's a podcast that just dropped on Monday, uh, yesterday, and it is excellent.
• 5:36
  And uh it's it's a it's a dark story with a happy outcome.
• 5:42
  And uh evil is out there, it exists, but it's up to us, it's how we handle that evil.
• 5:50
  It's how we handle uh unfortunate situations that come into our life, right?
• 5:58
  That's what sets us apart from other people and other nations.
• 6:03
  I was just reading about Haiti the other day.
• 6:05
  Uh fact on Sunday, good friend of mine sent me an article.
• 6:10
  25 people were stampeded to death at the Citadel right outside of Cap Haitian, Haiti.
• 6:22
  I've been there several times.
• 6:23
  It's a beautiful, beautiful space.
• 6:26
  It's a beautiful location, it's a lot of rich history.
• 6:30
  And man, there's just so much evil and so much bad that's going on.
• 6:35
  And the gangs that are taking over and the political unrest and the poverty.
• 6:40
  Uh now the fuel prices, people are extremely desperate.
• 6:44
  If you think fuel is expensive here in America, you ought to see it in countries like Haiti.
• 6:50
  So anyway, you know, we we acknowledge that there's evil out there.
• 6:55
  We acknowledge that a lot of people, billions of people are living in extreme poverty.
• 7:00
  Of people are living in extreme poverty.
• 7:04
  But at the same time, there are people who are making a difference in the world.
• 7:04
  But at the same time, there are people who are making a difference in the world.
• 7:08
  And again, that's what this story is about.
• 7:08
  And again, that's what this story is about.
• 7:10
  And this is kind of a combination of uh a male man who's just a really cool dude.
• 7:10
  And this is kind of a combination of a mailman who's just a really cool dude.
• 7:16
  Uh, he retired after 42 years, and it's about the very wealthy neighborhood that by his own admission, he couldn't afford to live there.
• 7:17
  He retired after 42 years.
• 7:19
  And it's about the very wealthy neighborhood that by his own admission, he couldn't afford to live there.
• 7:28
  But he was delivering to a very wealthy.
• 7:28
  But he was delivered into a very wealthy neighborhood, and he was treated like gold.
• 7:33
  Everybody loved him.
• 7:35
  And he made very good friends.
• 7:37
  In fact, he says, I have 2,000 friends.
• 7:40
  It's the number of people who he had on his route.
• 7:45
  He has a lot of their cell phone numbers.
• 7:47
  They uh they just have become really good friends over the years.
• 7:52
  And it talks about how they they would gift him with things all the time, and he never had to buy lemons because they would always buy him lemons, and like they found out the things that he liked, and they would just shower him, like basically pamper him on his route.
• 8:06
  And again, it blows away this whole concept that because people are wealthy, they're inherently greedy.
• 8:13
  I just I can't, I can't blow that myth apart any more clearly than what I've attempted to do on this show.
• 8:23
  It's just not true.
• 8:25
  To assume that the majority of wealthy people are greedy, that they're mean, that they're cutthroat, they're out to you know, they're out for themselves and to screw over the little man, it is simply not true.
• 8:39
  Now, do those people exist?
• 8:41
  Absolutely, 100%.
• 8:44
  But I also know of people living in poverty who conbab honestly, I mean, my experience has been more so when people are living in poverty, and I don't want to get into the reasons why it's it's not really important.
• 9:06
  But I uh just very briefly, my opinion is because people living in poverty get desperate, or it's a cultural lifestyle that they grew up with, where you rip other people off, and that's just what you do.
• 9:23
  And so my experience has been that people living in poverty are much more likely to take advantage of other people in in really dramatic ways than anybody who has money.
• 9:37
  So kind of interesting, and this story just proves that point again that wealthy people are extremely generous, they're kind, they're compassionate, they're friendly, they're fun.
• 9:52
  So there's this article from the LA Times, and uh this is another one that Malcolm passed my way, and uh I'm I'm really grateful for that.
• 10:01
  I I love that if you ever have stories that you want me to cover or you think are just interesting, by all means send them my way.
• 10:10
  You know, I I don't have this authority where you know, on inspiring stories where it's just me and that this is my show, and I'm gonna pick, I'm gonna pick the stories.
• 10:23
  No, I want to hear from other people.
• 10:25
  I want to hear.
• 10:26
  When you hear of an inspiring story, by all means send it my way.
• 10:30
  I love that.
• 10:31
  I love that I love when other people are inspired.
• 10:35
  And uh Malcolm sent the story my way, and I was like, man, I gotta cover that.
• 10:39
  It's it's just really cool.
• 10:41
  And it again, it breaks this myth away that LA is this cesspool, and it's this awful place where it's just there's crime everywhere, and if you drive anywhere through LA, you better lock the doors, and and in fact, don't even drive through it because it's so dangerous, and uh the streets are closed because the homeless have completely taken over and ravished the city.
• 11:06
  No, LA is actually I've I've been there many, many times, and it is a beautiful place.
• 11:14
  And I gotta tell you, the people are super kind.
• 11:19
  Uh I've always had, I've always had good encounters.
• 11:23
  Every time that I've gone to LA.
• 11:27
  Uh people have always been respectful.
• 11:30
  People have always been friendly, they've been kind.
• 11:34
  Yeah, so a lot of times we have to remember this too.
• 11:37
  And I know I'm I'm going off on stokeboxes today, but um, but I I think it's just important to put this out there.
• 11:44
  That again, the media wants people to be really divided.
• 11:47
  They want us to think that the world's falling apart, and uh a lot of times it's it's painted that way to do one of two things.
• 11:57
  One is to point fingers at the quote wrong party, political party, and by the way, everything is always politicized.
• 12:05
  The media loves to politicize things.
• 12:08
  Uh, but they show these negative stories all the time and and paint these negative uh narratives to prove that the one party is is out to get you.
• 12:19
  But the other side of that is that they want to prove that the other party is for you.
• 12:25
  The other party, uh, they're the ones that are gonna save the day, and they're the ones that are gonna, they're really gonna make a difference.
• 12:33
  And if we just follow reganomics, right?
• 12:38
  That would that was the big thing when when Trump came to office, it was the big thing, like he's gonna bring us back to Reaganomics, and the economy's gonna boom like you've never been like it's never boomed before.
• 12:50
  And I gotta tell you, I mean, the economy's doing it's doing well.
• 12:56
  Uh it's very resilient here in the United States.
• 13:00
  It really is, but my goodness has inflation increased like crazy since President Trump took office.
• 13:10
  And I don't care what political party you you belong to or not, I don't care who you voted for or not.
• 13:18
  All of us Americans can realize your electric bill has gone way up in the last year, and it's gonna keep going up.
• 13:27
  I have news for you.
• 13:29
  Your gas bills have gone up, your water bills have gone up, your groceries have gone up even more.
• 13:42
  Uh gasoline and diesel fuel gone way up, skyrocketed.
• 13:52
  Uh Spirit Airlines is uh they've been operating under uh bankruptcy for I don't know, at least the last year, I think they filed for bankruptcy and they've been operating under uh under that designation, and they may fold all together because of the the fuel prices because of the war, they may cease to exist here pretty soon.
• 14:00
  Under uh bankruptcy for I don't know, at least the last year, I think.
• 14:05
  They filed for bankruptcy and they've been operating under uh under that designation, and they may fold all together because of the the fuel prices because of the war, they may cease to exist here pretty soon.
• 14:22
  Uh they're in talks right now, negotiations.
• 14:22
  Uh they're in talks right now, negotiations.
• 14:25
  Uh, they can't afford to keep operating.
• 14:25
  Uh they can't afford to keep operating.
• 14:29
  You know, this.
• 14:29
  Yo, this is the reality that we're living in.
• 14:31
  And and so I want to get away from this narrative that politicians are the heroes of the day.
• 14:37
  And I do not care what party they belong to.
• 14:39
  I have a good friend who uh I just I I love this thing.
• 14:43
  He says there is no Democratic Party, there is no Republican Party.
• 14:47
  There's one big party, and you and I have not been invited to it.
• 14:52
  I think that's very, very true.
• 14:54
  So anyway, back to this story.
• 14:56
  For four decades, the 61-year-old Ayala, his name is John, John Ayala.
• 15:04
  Uh he delivered mail to people's homes in LA.
• 15:07
  And now he's hired uh retiring.
• 15:11
  And according to the LA Times article, to the great surprise of everyone, including himself.
• 15:18
  He'd been talking about it for years, working uh working it into the many conversations he had each day with the friends he'd made along his mail route in the hills of Mount Washington, a small residential community northeast of Los Angeles.
• 15:32
  Now, the uh woman who wrote this article is uh actually her name is Deborah Netburn.
• 15:39
  She's actually friends with John Ayala, and I believe that she was on on his route, uh, if I'm not mistaken here.
• 15:48
  So it's just cool, and and the world is a really small place, and uh even in a big city like LA, we have these small communities, and we have these tight-knit communities where people know their neighbors, and people are kind and compassionate and friendly.
• 16:08
  Uh so John said, wiping away tears from his eyes as he slow slowly made his way through the intergenerational crowd, he recognized almost everyone in attendance, if not by name, then definitely by address.
• 16:27
  And again, there was a party uh about 200 people attended, they threw him this big retirement party, and that's really cool.
• 16:34
  How often do you see mailmen who get a retirement party from the people who he he or she delivered mail to that's really cool, and the fact that they all came together and organized this, uh, kudos to them and uh kudos to John.
• 16:52
  What a stand-up dude.
• 16:53
  And uh we'll talk more about this story after the break here.
• 16:56
  We are coming up on a break.
• 16:57
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• 19:52
  Mailman John Ayala.
• 19:55
  He retired after 42 years of grinding and working and delivering mail.
• 20:02
  He had two knee replacements and still had to climb in and out of his mail truck day after day.
• 20:09
  He could have retired back in 2020, but he chose to continue to work because, well, he wanted to.
• 20:17
  Now you thought I was gonna stay because he had to.
• 20:20
  Nope, not in his case.
• 20:22
  He maxed his pension out.
• 20:24
  He could have retired, but he wanted to continue to work.
• 20:27
  And that brings me to another point.
• 20:30
  There are a lot of Americans who they work well into retirement age because they want to.
• 20:36
  And there's this age-old thing, there are actually a lot of studies on this.
• 20:40
  Uh I've I've seen a few of these studies that it shows when people retire, they either get really sick or they just up and die.
• 20:50
  Almost immediately, you know, within the first year, certainly, a lot of people.
• 20:55
  I mean a lot, I forget what the percentage is, but it's a lot of people.
• 20:59
  And so these studies have showed that uh it's not coincidental.
• 21:00
  Have showed that uh it's not coincidental.
• 21:04
  There is a direct link to retiring.
• 21:04
  There is a direct link to retiring and your mindset, hmm, your mindset, where people feel like they don't have a lot uh they don't have a purpose anymore.
• 21:07
  And your mindset, hmm.
• 21:12
  Your mindset where people feel like they don't have a li uh they don't have a purpose anymore.
• 21:18
  Uh there's not really a reason to keep on going.
• 21:18
  Uh there's not really a reason to keep on going.
• 21:22
  Um life becomes very dismal for them.
• 21:22
  Um life becomes very dismal for them with without a lack of purpose, or sorry, not without a lack, with a lack of purpose.
• 21:26
  Uh, with without a lack of purpose.
• 21:29
  Or sorry, no.
• 21:34
  Can't use double negatives.
• 21:35
  I've sometimes I forget in English, we can't use double negatives.
• 21:40
  But uh man, isn't that true?
• 21:44
  Negativity literally kills.
• 21:48
  Having a negative mindset.
• 21:50
  And this is not imagined.
• 21:51
  I'm telling you, there are a lot of studies out there that talk about this.
• 21:56
  And it's that lack of hope.
• 21:59
  And I think it's a shame.
• 22:01
  I man, I think that when people get to retirement, they ought to be living their best life.
• 22:06
  And I know several people who do.
• 22:08
  I know several people who are living in retirement.
• 22:10
  They are just absolutely thriving.
• 22:14
  They're loving it.
• 22:15
  I have our next door neighbor.
• 22:17
  She's in her 80s.
• 22:19
  And she is one of the funnest people.
• 22:23
  And we hang out, she comes to my son's baseball games, and it doesn't matter where it is or how far away it is, she's there.
• 22:29
  She's gonna be at his his baseball game tonight.
• 22:33
  And uh she's just she's super cool, super friendly, uh, very, very fun, uh, having a blast, and that's the way life is supposed to be.
• 22:43
  You know, life is not slowing her down.
• 22:46
  So that's part of why we do these positive stories too.
• 22:49
  It's to increase your mental well-being, to put us in a good place with each other, with ourselves, with our sense of purpose and value, and everybody here, everybody within earshot of my voice, all of you have intrinsic value to other humans' lives.
• 23:13
  You just do.
• 23:14
  God created us in his image.
• 23:19
  And according to Paul, in Ephesians chapter 2, we were created for good works.
• 23:26
  God specifically created you and I for good works to do good things toward mankind.
• 23:36
  And I love that.
• 23:37
  And if we don't get that, if we don't understand that, if that's not our goal, if that's not our purpose, uh, of course, we're gonna we're gonna deteriorate as humanity, individually, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, you will decline if you miss the point that we were created in the image of our maker and creator.
• 24:01
  We were created for good works.
• 24:06
  And work, anything that we do secularly, that's just secondary.
• 24:13
  That's just we we get the blessing of being able to work, of being physically able to work or uh, you know, whatever it is, that's just an added blessing.
• 24:25
  But that's not why we're not put on this planet earth to grind and grind and grind and put our 40 or 50 or 60 hours in a week and to provide for our family and uh to be able to afford the boat and the the you know the uh the big house and whatever it is, that is not why God put us here on planet Earth.
• 24:47
  He put us here for good works to take care of each other.
• 24:51
  So when I see stories like this, the one that we're talking about today, the one of John Ayala, when we see communities coming together and caring for one another, it it's this is exactly what God created us for, and I love it.
• 25:10
  So uh the article goes on.
• 25:12
  It says, at a time when just 26% of Americans say they know their neighbors, according to a recent Pew Research study, Ayala helped create a sense of community in Mount Washington, even if it was only through the shared experience of having an unexpectedly personal relationship with a local mailman with a gruff voice and a gregarious disposition.
• 25:38
  Man, 26% of Americans know their neighbors.
• 25:42
  I can't wrap my mind around that, but I live in a rural area where everybody knows everybody.
• 25:49
  I just met with somebody who uh came up from a federal um a federal uh worker, law enforcement worker, who came up and met me in my town, and he was like, What in the world?
• 26:06
  He's like, Does everybody know everybody here?
• 26:08
  He's like, Does everybody know you in this town?
• 26:10
  I'm like, yep, pretty much.
• 26:12
  But it's not just me, it's everybody knows everybody.
• 26:15
  We're all connected.
• 26:18
  So I can't fathom this.
• 26:20
  Like, this is just not rural American.
• 26:22
  This does not describe rural American uh America, where 26% of Americans know their neighbors.
• 26:28
  This is definitely an urban thing, in my opinion.
• 26:33
  You know, rural America, everybody knows everybody.
• 26:37
  And uh, we're just uh maybe it's getting less and less so since since we have uh everybody's connected, I guess, by internet, so people are getting outside less, but yeah, that just blew my mind.
• 26:51
  26% of Americans say they know their neighbors.
• 26:53
  Well, John Ayala knows everybody, and that's awesome.
• 27:00
  Over the years, he would invite people from his route to the shows he played with his metal band horns up, and whether or not they like the music, they'd come out because they liked him.
• 27:10
  I love that guys, this is so cool.
• 27:14
  You don't have to like something in order to go and show support for somebody.
• 27:21
  And I've heard so many people him hum around and like they get invited to something that like a kid is doing a concert or whatever, and they're like, Well, I'm not really into I'm not really into concerts, not really into to school chorus concerts.
• 27:37
  So what go anyway?
• 27:42
  It means the world to people.
• 27:44
  We had, and I'm not kidding, we had probably close to 50% of my congregation showed up when my my daughter and my nephew and niece and several other other of their friends from from church, they were in a musical, and we had probably 50% of the church show up.
• 28:00
  Musical.
• 28:01
  And we had probably 50% of the church show up.
• 28:06
  That made these kids day.
• 28:06
  That made these kids day.
• 28:08
  It was so cool.
• 28:08
  It was so cool, absolutely incredible.
• 28:11
  Absolutely incredible.
• 28:12
  Show up anyway, be supportive.
• 28:12
  Show up anyway.
• 28:13
  Be supportive.
• 28:14
  So here you have these snobby people, right?
• 28:14
  So here you have these snobby people, right?
• 28:17
  That's what we're supposed to be.
• 28:17
  That's what we're supposed to be.
• 28:19
  Uh it's what we're supposed to believe.
• 28:19
  It's what we're supposed to believe.
• 28:22
  You have these snobby people on the hill in Los Angeles.
• 28:22
  You have these snobby people on the hill in Los Angeles, all these rich snob nosed people who.
• 28:26
  All these rich snob-nosed people who we're all beneath them.
• 28:32
  And yet they're showing up to their mailman's metal band concerts.
• 28:39
  Whether they like the music or not.
• 28:41
  They're just showing up because they like them.
• 28:43
  It's so cool.
• 28:45
  We've got to get this idea out of our head that Americans are just these snobby, awful people.
• 28:53
  You know, the think of think of Rosie O'Donnell and people like her.
• 28:57
  Ellen degenerate.
• 29:00
  We're going to move away.
• 29:01
  America's it's it's oppressive.
• 29:03
  It's awful.
• 29:04
  It's the worst country in the world.
• 29:06
  I'm embarrassed to be an American.
• 29:07
  How many times have we heard that from a handful of people?
• 29:12
  There aren't that many people saying it.
• 29:14
  But there are a handful of people who have a big platform.
• 29:18
  You know, De Niro, Robert De Niro.
• 29:22
  Americans are in such an awful place under orange man's roll.
• 29:26
  No kings, no kings.
• 29:30
  America's great.
• 29:33
  I don't care what they say.
• 29:34
  You are not going to drag this person down.
• 29:37
  Uh-uh.
• 29:38
  I refuse.
• 29:41
  So as Americans, we need to uh we we really need to dig our heels in and just smile and say, sticks and stones will hurt my bones, but names will never hurt me.
• 29:53
  Or whatever.
• 29:55
  Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.
• 29:59
  Dumb rubber, you're glue.
• 30:00
  Anything you say will bounce off of me and stick to you.
• 30:05
  You know what I mean?
• 30:07
  Like, it's just so ridiculous.
• 30:09
  And I see so many politicians, and and I like, I'm friends with politicians.
• 30:14
  So don't ever mishear me.
• 30:18
  You know, I I don't want people to think that I think that all politicians are bad.
• 30:23
  I'm friends with politicians.
• 30:24
  I just spent the day with uh with two senators and uh our attorney general for Pennsylvania, Attorney General Sunday.
• 30:34
  What a cool dude.
• 30:35
  I mean, I mean that like really personable, uh super super good guy.
• 30:42
  Uh Senator Chris Dush, uh, he and I have got to be, we've got to be friends.
• 30:47
  Uh, just a really stand-up guy.
• 30:50
  Super cool guy.
• 30:53
  So uh, you know, hearing from them, they're like, man, politics have it's just gotten so cutthroat and so awful.
• 31:06
  Where it's it's really hard to work together with people on on the opposite side, and uh hostile, that's the word.
• 31:13
  It's it's it's become hostile.
• 31:17
  And they're like, it's just it's it's exhausting.
• 31:19
  And they said, uh, by the way, it might be hard to believe this, but being a politician doesn't exactly make you a favorable person in the public's eye.
• 31:33
  And uh, you know, like it's just a shame.
• 31:38
  It's a shame that a handful of people have to ruin it, but politicians, they really can be good people, and there are a lot of politicians who are legitimately good people.
• 31:53
  And uh, I don't know, like it's it's just it's cool to get to see people and hang out with them and hang out with politicians and realize uh they're godly men, they're really, really godly people with godly families.
• 32:05
  Uh, they talk very openly about their faith, and they get a lot of ridicule for that, trust me.
• 32:11
  A lot of ridicule, but they don't care.
• 32:15
  They're very open about their faith, and I I appreciate that about them.
• 32:19
  So, anyway, that's the America that we live in.
• 32:21
  You know, we're kind of a mixed bag, and and that's a good thing.
• 32:24
  But when you hear people talking about how they're embarrassed of America, and it's just awful, it's such a bad place, it's so oppressive.
• 32:31
  They're they're full of it, they're absolutely full of it.
• 32:36
  And so that's what this story is about today.
• 32:38
  It's about people come together and having um shared humanity together.
• 32:44
  Uh it talks about the article, it talks about how he'd talk about sports uh with some of the people that he knew.
• 32:52
  Uh, they all again knew about his knee replacement, and uh they they took care of him while he was kind of hobbling around, they took care of him.
• 33:05
  Uh, he started delivering reams of college marketing materials to families with high school seniors, and he'd inquire where the soon-to-be graduate was was headed.
• 33:19
  Uh this is from John Armour, a Mount Washington resident.
• 33:24
  He's known John, his mailman, John Ayala since the 90s.
• 33:28
  He said he's amazing.
• 33:30
  He knows my kids.
• 33:32
  My daughter is 40, and my son is 37, and they love him.
• 33:36
  They've grown up with him.
• 33:38
  He remembers their name.
• 33:40
  He says, How's Brianna?
• 33:44
  Uh that's it's pretty cool.
• 33:48
  And it doesn't take much.
• 33:50
  It really doesn't take much to be a kind person.
• 33:55
  To be gracious, to be kind, to treat everybody the same.
• 34:00
  It really doesn't, it doesn't take that much.
• 34:04
  People act like it's it's it's this really strange thing that it's it's the rare gem if you find somebody who treats people with kindness.
• 34:13
  I disagree with that.
• 34:15
  I think there are a lot of people who treat other people with kindness all the time.
• 34:19
  It just doesn't, it doesn't get noticed.
• 34:23
  And that's why we highlight stories like this is to show how common it is.
• 34:28
  I mean, every day five days a week we talk about stories like this.
• 34:34
  That's that's a lot of stories that we share, and uh it doesn't even scratch the tip of the iceberg.
• 34:42
  These stories are out there, I mean, by the millions.
• 34:46
  I just saw Jimmy Darts the other day.
• 34:48
  He he uh Jimmy Darts is a social media, very famous social media guy, and uh he just posted another go fund me for somebody.
• 35:00
  And it was I if I remember right, it was a homeless, homeless guy or homeless vet or something like that.
• 35:00
  And it was I if I remember right, it was a homeless, homeless guy or homeless vet or something like that.
• 35:06
  And he posted it within like two hours, it had I don't know, over a hundred thousand dollars was raised.
• 35:06
  And he posted it within like two hours, it had I don't know, over a hundred thousand dollars was raised.
• 35:13
  And I just I see stuff like this every single day.
• 35:13
  And I just I see stuff like this every single day.
• 35:18
  It's really, really cool.
• 35:18
  It's really, really cool.
• 35:22
  So anyway, uh back to the article here.
• 35:22
  So anyway, uh back to the article here.
• 35:24
  A few years ago, he was delivering mail to a man whose wife had been in the hospital.
• 35:24
  A few years ago, he was delivering mail to a man whose wife had been in the hospital when I left.
• 35:28
  When Ayala uh Ayala asked, What's up with Sandy?
• 35:34
  The man shared that she had just passed away.
• 35:39
  I was the first one to see him after that, and I just had to hug him.
• 35:43
  Ayala said.
• 35:45
  They still still text occasionally.
• 35:50
  If people if people are sick, he'll tell people in the neighborhood, said Larlie, who's lived in Mount Washington for 40 years.
• 35:59
  If I start wondering about someone I haven't seen in a while, I'll ask him just to make sure they're okay.
• 36:05
  And this is what I'm talking about too.
• 36:07
  Neighbors checking up on neighbors, neighbors taking care of neighbors.
• 36:11
  Hey, I haven't seen so and so for a while.
• 36:14
  Then they ask our mailman, do you know what's up with uh you know with Sandy down the block?
• 36:19
  I haven't seen her for a while.
• 36:22
  That's really cool.
• 36:25
  Having that connection, staying uh compassionate and connected with people in your neighborhood, it's just really cool.
• 36:35
  And this is this is what America's about.
• 36:38
  Not the crap you see on on the on the media.
• 36:43
  This is what America's about.
• 36:47
  And I'm telling you, I I have gone very few places in my life here in America where I've felt unsafe.
• 36:57
  Now they exist, they're out there, trust me.
• 37:00
  I drove truck, I've uh I have like two and a half million miles under my belt.
• 37:04
  I just got back from vacation uh a few days ago.
• 37:08
  We drove 2400 miles in six days.
• 37:12
  Two of the days we we parked ourselves and just kind of chilled out.
• 37:16
  So we averaged 600 miles of driving per day, stopped at a whole bunch of different places.
• 37:22
  I took my family everywhere and felt perfectly safe.
• 37:27
  You know, this is America.
• 37:31
  The vast majority of places in America are completely safe.
• 37:37
  We went to Pensacola Beach, felt safe.
• 37:40
  It was packed, absolutely packed, felt safe.
• 37:45
  All these stories of college kids getting out of control and going crazy and bonkers and whatever.
• 37:50
  I felt safe.
• 37:52
  We didn't see any of that.
• 37:55
  Completely safe.
• 37:56
  All right, we're coming up on another break here.
• 37:58
  All of our shows do go to podcast the next day after the broadcast is heard on talk radio.
• 38:02
  You can hear them on your favorite podcast app.
• 38:05
  Be sure to subscribe, rate the show, share it, and check out America Outloud.news.
• 38:09
  Use the code out loud for 20% off at the store, and sit tight, we'll be right back.
• 38:14
  I cannot tell a lie.
• 38:16
  My sinuses are blocked.
• 38:18
  George, you crossed the Delaware.
• 38:20
  You can cross congestion.
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  Here, try clear.
• 38:26
  Freedom smells like victory.
• 38:29
  Come celebrate 250 years of American independence.
• 38:33
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• 39:53
  John Ayala.
• 40:01
  And he didn't just hand out mail, he became the neighborhood friend.
• 40:06
  This in a suburb of LA, uh just north of LA in California.
• 40:13
  And uh the people are just really cool.
• 40:16
  And this story is what it's about to be in American, what it's about to be neighborly, and it doesn't matter what the socioeconomic level is of the people who interact.
• 40:31
  In fact, he was in a very, very rich neighborhood in Mount Washington.
• 40:37
  And he couldn't afford to live there.
• 40:45
  And the people treated him like gold.
• 40:47
  They threw him a retirement party.
• 40:49
  200 people attended, they showered him with gifts.
• 40:54
  And a lot of people on his route, the 2,000 some people on his route, uh, when they found out that he was retiring, they would they would walk out when he delivered the mail and they would they would shower him with tons of gifts.
• 41:08
  A bottle bottle of vodka, uh, a couple bottles of wine, uh things that they had made, homemade food, uh just really really cool, very friendly, friendly neighborhood.
• 41:23
  Uh he grew up in El Sereno and is married with two sons.
• 41:30
  Uh, he has a very deep history with the United States Postal Service.
• 41:36
  His mother, Yolanda, worked for the United States Postal Service for 39 years.
• 41:42
  As did each of his four brothers and a sister-in-law.
• 41:47
  His uncle was the first Latino vice president of finance for the Postal Service in the 1990s.
• 41:53
  So they have deep roots with the US PS.
• 41:57
  Uh, he was an honor student at South Pasadena High School, but he had no interest in college.
• 42:00
  Pasadena high school, but he had no interest in college.
• 42:05
  Here we go.
• 42:05
  Here we go.
• 42:07
  This is what I'm talking about.
• 42:07
  This is what I'm talking about.
• 42:08
  I love this.
• 42:08
  I love this.
• 42:10
  Here you have an honors student who probably honestly was shamed for not going to college.
• 42:10
  Here you have an honors student who probably honestly was shamed for not going to college.
• 42:19
  You know, it's maybe a little bit less uh frequent today as it was years ago, but uh back when he was growing up for sure, that was a very
• 42:19
  You know, it's maybe a little bit less uh frequent today as it was years ago, but uh back when he was growing up for sure, that was a very big no-no.
• 42:32
  If if you were smart, if if you were a top student, it was expected that you go to college, not typically by parents as much as by society.
• 42:45
  Teachers really pushed the kids.
• 42:48
  There was that narrative, you're not really gonna make it in life, you're not gonna go anywhere if you don't go to college, you have to go to college to get a good job.
• 42:56
  Well, he proved them wrong, he's doing quite well for himself.
• 43:03
  The article says toward the end of his senior year, his mom saw a job opening at work and encouraged him to uh to apply.
• 43:11
  He's been working for the Postal Service since 1984.
• 43:17
  During that time, his metal band Lace was selling out the whiskey uh go-go and the Roxy in the mid-80s.
• 43:28
  I love that he's a rocker.
• 43:29
  That's so cool.
• 43:31
  That's just awesome.
• 43:32
  What a cool dude.
• 43:34
  He says, I always wanted to be a rock star, but I probably wouldn't be alive today if we'd made it.
• 43:41
  Isn't that the truth?
• 43:42
  It's a tough life.
• 43:44
  My kids and I talk about this all the time.
• 43:46
  We're like, man, like people who get into into the rock life it's tough.
• 43:55
  It is really tough not to lose yourself, not to lose your soul, because you get just it's such a bizarre thing, you get showered with fame, and uh everybody idolizes you, and they they faint when they see you, and like it's just if you come from a small town, especially, and you're not used to that kind of uh culture, it is a shock to the system.
• 44:22
  It's crazy, and a lot of people they just uh they instantly get fame and money, I mean unlimited money, and they just they start blowing the money, start buying uh crazy cars, luxury cars and huge houses, and then they become house poor.
• 44:44
  Uh, then they're trying to manage their their band and write new music, and then they the pressure is crazy.
• 44:51
  It is so intense for musicians.
• 44:54
  I wish people knew just how intense that life is.
• 44:58
  And you hear all the time people get jealous of musicians, they're like, oh, it must be nice.
• 45:03
  I don't envy them for one second.
• 45:06
  It is a tough, tough life.
• 45:09
  That's why a lot of them turn to drugs and alcohol.
• 45:12
  It's you know, basically just kind of numbing them, and poor Brittany.
• 45:15
  You know, Brittany Spears is entering into rehab again, and it's just the the public shame, the public pressure, the humiliation, on and on and on, and it's it's tough.
• 45:29
  And Britney was shoved into the spotlight from a very young age, and it just it brought her to ruination, and it's it's sad.
• 45:41
  You know, I look at people like that with compassion.
• 45:43
  I'm not like, well, who cares?
• 45:46
  She's a rich snob and she has more money than all ever.
• 45:49
  I don't look at it that way.
• 45:52
  Like here, here was a young girl who just got shoved into the spotlight.
• 45:56
  So anyway, uh I'm with John Ayala.
• 46:00
  So uh he's very smart, very smart dude because he he gets to uh still rock out, but he does it on a small scale.
• 46:12
  He's working full time for the postal service, and then he kind of on the side, he rocks out with his band, and uh, you know, he's not making millions of dollars off of his band, and he's okay with that.
• 46:23
  He doesn't care about the money and the fame, he cares about his neighbors.
• 46:30
  So Mount Washington, he started delivering mail there in 1987, and uh he says it's a neighborhood I I could never afford, it's like a different world, and some of us have a hard time realizing that.
• 46:45
  Like, there are very, very rich pockets around LA, like very rich.
• 46:52
  So, this is one of those neighborhoods, it's extremely wealthy, and uh he loved it though.
• 46:59
  He loved the people, obviously.
• 47:02
  He said, I never had to buy lemons.
• 47:04
  My customers always gave me lemons.
• 47:06
  I'm guessing he likes lemons.
• 47:10
  It doesn't say that, but I'm kind of picking up here on the fact that he likes lemons.
• 47:16
  Uh it's pretty cool.
• 47:19
  So they changed his route once in 2008, but then they uh returned back to Mount Washington, and he said, I couldn't wait to get back up there.
• 47:27
  It's just like, oh man, I'm gonna be in heaven again.
• 47:30
  Man, I want you to listen very closely to this.
• 47:34
  He is calling a very rich neighborhood, just outside of LA, very, very rich neighborhood.
• 47:42
  He's calling it heaven.
• 47:44
  That's how he describes it.
• 47:48
  He's he's by all definitions, I I suppose, if we're gonna slap labels on people, which Arnold love doing, but by all definitions, he kind of qualifies as a quote average American.
• 48:08
  He's working a an average job, making decent money, but uh if you know people working for the United States Postal Service as delivery men or women, they're they're not making a killing.
• 48:25
  Yeah, they have good benefits, they have good retirement, but it's it's not like obscene amounts of money, it's really not.
• 48:33
  So it's a very average, average job.
• 48:38
  By the way, nothing in the world wrong with that.
• 48:42
  I'll put a little plug-in for my book again here, because that's exactly what I wrote about.
• 48:49
  Tithing your time, treasure, and talent, a practical guide to biblical budgeting and investing.
• 48:54
  It's the whole premise of the book is that you can become extremely wealthy on very little income.
• 49:00
  Extremely wealthy on very little income.
• 49:05
  I just ran the numbers with my 10 soon-to-be 11 year old.
• 49:05
  I just ran the numbers with my 10 soon to be 11 year old.
• 49:11
  I just we just ran numbers.
• 49:11
  We just ran numbers.
• 49:12
  We we did a retirement calculator, which we literally just did that the other night, and I was showing him if if you put in the bare minimum, bare minimum, he already has investments, and uh my daughter who is soon to be.
• 49:13
  We did a retirement calculator.
• 49:16
  Which we literally just did that the other night, and I was showing him.
• 49:21
  If if you put in the bare minimum, bare minimum, he already has investments.
• 49:26
  And uh my daughter, who is soon to be 16, uh, she has already made uh quite a bit on her investments because of compound interest.
• 49:40
  And I I encourage my kids, I don't force them, I don't uh, and this is all their money, by the way.
• 49:46
  My wife and I have not primed their pump, so to speak.
• 49:50
  This is money that they work, uh they work for through um doing chores around the house and so forth.
• 49:59
  But very little money.
• 50:01
  I mean, I I pay I pay them uh my sons mow the yard.
• 50:05
  I give them $10 each, one mows half the yard.
• 50:09
  If you mow the full yard, it's $20.
• 50:13
  And it's a riding mower.
• 50:16
  Uh and they usually split it up, they do half.
• 50:18
  So you're talking $10 each time they mow the yard.
• 50:22
  They'll take that money and they'll invest 75% of it.
• 50:28
  And uh it just shows over, and I'm showing them over the course of not even years.
• 50:35
  It's they've only had their investments less than a year.
• 50:39
  And uh I guarantee you they have a lot more money than I had at their age, a lot more because they're putting their money to work.
• 50:46
  So, anyway, uh, you know, John Ayala is by every definition an average American with an average job.
• 50:57
  But that doesn't mean that you can't be well off, you can't be wealthy.
• 51:01
  It's quite the opposite.
• 51:03
  You can and you should build wealth no matter what your income is.
• 51:09
  I don't care if you are working at a fast food restaurant, there is nothing in the world wrong with that.
• 51:14
  Nothing.
• 51:15
  Nothing.
• 51:16
  We've got to get rid of these stigmas, and we got to get rid of this idea.
• 51:21
  Speaking of LA, they just passed a bill of the $30 uh mandatory minimum wage.
• 51:29
  It is absolutely wrecking the economy.
• 51:35
  We have to get away from this idea that you have to be making just tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of money in order just to survive.
• 51:44
  It's not true.
• 51:47
  Uh there are there are ways.
• 51:51
  And there are ways to build wealth.
• 51:53
  So anyway, I just wanted to put that little uh sidestep uh little side conversation in because it's it's important for people to get that.
• 52:01
  There's no shame working any job, and I love that the people in this community.
• 52:06
  Uh they really they really get that.
• 52:09
  You know, you don't have wealthy people looking down on him because he's a mailman, it's just the opposite.
• 52:14
  They love him, absolutely love him.
• 52:16
  So here are some of the signs that people put up on telephone polls, they taped their mailboxes, they just littered the whole area with messages for John.
• 52:25
  Good luck, John.
• 52:26
  We'll miss you.
• 52:27
  Mailman John, thank you.
• 52:29
  Rock on, mailman John, enjoy your retirement.
• 52:33
  We love you.
• 52:35
  Uh, so it's pretty cool.
• 52:39
  So uh the article goes on.
• 52:41
  It says even after even after he retired, Ayala was still bringing the people of Mount Washington together.
• 52:48
  The farewell party at the Verdugo Verdugo bar was put together by a trio of neighbors who got to know each other because they all wanted to be involved in celebrating their beloved mailman.
• 53:03
  At the bar, residents who live on the same street finally got around to introducing themselves.
• 53:10
  Uh, that's pretty cool.
• 53:12
  So it's literally bringing an entire neighborhood together.
• 53:17
  And I love stories like this.
• 53:20
  You know, I I'm a firm believer that we need to do block parties more often.
• 53:26
  We we've my wife and I have talked about this, and she's not a social butterfly.
• 53:31
  She's introverted, I'm extroverted.
• 53:34
  And so it's a little bit more challenging for her to see the vision because extroverts are like, yeah, let's do the block party.
• 53:40
  Where introverts are like, let me lock myself in my house, and uh that's how I rejuvenate myself.
• 53:50
  And there's nothing wrong with that.
• 53:52
  It's just it's a difference in how we're wired.
• 53:56
  But for me, I love this idea of block parties because I'm like, man, it's just it brings people together, and if you can do it for a good cause, that's even cooler.
• 54:05
  And uh it's just it's really neat.
• 54:07
  And our town does like the the town itself puts on block parties all the time.
• 54:14
  We do all these really cool events, and I'm I'm I'm talking like six or seven of them uh per year, even in the wintertime.
• 54:22
  We do a fire and ice festival, and they are wildly popular.
• 54:30
  So this is kind of right up my alley.
• 54:32
  I I I love that places in America are doing this.
• 54:37
  That they're coming together, neighbors are meeting neighbors, they're hanging out, they're they all have a common interest, they're all celebrating John, the mailman.
• 54:46
  Uh, it's just really cool.
• 54:50
  So I I want you to hear what John says here.
• 54:55
  Because I get this.
• 54:56
  I really like I get this.
• 54:59
  He says, I just miss everybody.
• 55:02
  It's hard.
• 55:03
  You lost a friend, one person.
• 55:07
  I lost like two thousand friends.
• 55:14
  You hear that.
• 55:17
  You know, somebody moves away, you have a friend who moves away, or they retire and you're not going to see them as much or whatever.
• 55:24
  You lost that one friend.
• 55:25
  I lost 2,000 friends.
• 55:29
  Because when you retire, I don't care what people say, life gets busy, and uh people kind of go back to their normal lives, and uh because he's not in that position of delivering mail to their houses every day, he doesn't have a reason to go to their houses, and uh so he got to be really close with everybody.
• 55:46
  I mean, they got to legitimately become friends, and it's not just that he's the mailman, he legitimately is a good friend.
• 55:56
  So I said sometimes in the middle of the night when he's tossing and turning, he imagines traveling street by street, just thinking about everyone on his mail route.
• 56:00
  He imagines traveling street by street, just thinking about everyone on his mail route.
• 56:06
  He's committed to staying in touch.
• 56:06
  He's committed to staying in touch.
• 56:08
  He texts some of his friends about sports.
• 56:08
  He texts some of his friends about sports, uh, planning, and he's planning to make a trip up the hill soon just to walk around and greet people.
• 56:11
  Um, planning, and he's planning to make a trip up the hill soon just to walk around and greet people.
• 56:17
  I love everything about this story.
• 56:17
  I love everything about this story.
• 56:20
  This is what inspires me.
• 56:20
  This is what inspires me.
• 56:23
  This right here.
• 56:23
  This right here.
• 56:25
  Not hearing how how bad the war is going, not hearing about how high the prices of everything are.
• 56:25
  Not hearing how how bad the war is going, not hearing about how.
• 56:31
  Like that doesn't inspire me, and I'm sure it doesn't inspire you.
• 56:35
  But these stories do.
• 56:37
  Why?
• 56:38
  Because we're all on this planet together, all of us.
• 56:43
  And the sooner we can realize that we all have a lot in common and we all can be friends, the better.
• 56:51
  There is nothing stopping any of us from being good friends with each other.
• 56:57
  Literally nothing.
• 56:58
  Oh, those those rich people up on the hill, they wouldn't they would never relate to somebody like me.
• 57:04
  You want to bet.
• 57:09
  I promise you that we have a lot more in common than uh what people are led to believe.
• 57:16
  This is America, and what a great, great nation that we live in.
• 57:21
  That's the hidden lightness.
• 57:22
  You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu navigation bar at America Outloud.news under our shows or schedule.
• 57:29
  You'll be in the know.
• 57:30
  There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
• 57:32
  When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
• 57:40
  Join me in being a light.