Latest / Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News / How a wrong-number text sparked America’s favorite Thanksgiving friendship

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How a wrong-number text sparked America’s favorite Thanksgiving friendship · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

0:11
You're listening to The Hint Likeness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
0:14
I'm your host Jimmy Hinton.
0:16
As we lead up to Thanksgiving, I want to share positive stories that have to do with thankfulness and being grateful.
0:24
And quite frankly, just being good human beings.
0:28
And this story is one that you might have heard about many years ago.
0:33
And it's the story of a teenager who received a bizarre text message.
0:40
And this was in 2016.
0:42
Jamal Hinton, great name, by the way.
0:46
Jamal Hinton got a text message from an unknown number.
0:50
It simply said, Thanksgiving dinner is at my house on November 24 at 3 o'clock.
0:57
Well, he was kind of confused because he was like, Who in the world is inviting me to Thanksgiving dinner?
1:03
So he replies back, and he asked who the texter was.
1:08
He simply got a reply, your grandma.
1:13
Now he, again, was a teen at the time.
1:16
So he asked for a picture of his grandma, knowing full well that this wasn't his grandma texting him.
1:24
He didn't recognize the number.
1:26
So obviously it must be a wrong number.
1:30
So he says, send me a picture.
1:33
So he gets a picture of a white woman.
1:37
Well, Jamal Hinton is black.
1:40
And he took a picture of himself, sent it back to her, and he said, You're not my grandma.
1:48
Can I still get a plate, though?
1:51
And she replied back almost immediately and said, Absolutely.
1:55
Come on over for dinner.
1:57
So they have been doing this every single year since.
2:02
They've made this an annual tradition.
2:04
And this Thanksgiving marks the 10th Thanksgiving that they will will spend together.
2:11
And the story is really incredible, and it's cool and it's it's upbeat and it's happy.
2:16
And we need so much more of this in America right now.
2:20
Yesterday I was talking about this uh slippage of pride that Americans aren't feeling pride anymore.
2:28
They don't feel pride in America.
2:30
They're disappointed, they're disgruntled.
2:32
They uh they are not happy or proud of this nation, which I think is it's it's it's a shame.
2:40
It's a great shame that people aren't proud of America.
2:47
And this is especially true among Democrats.
2:51
Democrats are very, very unhappy with America.
2:55
They think it's awful, they think it's ridiculous, they uh they they don't love America, they're not proud.
3:02
Only 30, it's something like 36%, 38% of Democrats are actually proud of America, down from 87% when Gallup first started doing the poll.
3:18
You know, it's like these nasty attitudes that are poisoning this great nation.
3:26
Uh people who are like, oh, it's the worst worst nation in the world.
3:29
No, it's not.
3:31
We have it so bad here.
3:32
No, you don't.
3:34
It's the worst place that you could live on the planet.
3:36
No, it ain't.
3:38
America is a great, great place.
3:41
We're so blessed, and I'm I mentioned this on yesterday's show.
3:46
If we're looking for bad things, we're gonna find it.
3:50
If we're actively seeking, if we're if we're programming our algorithms to find stories where people are just angry and burning things to the ground and they're just awful and people are behaving like despicable human beings, we're gonna find it.
4:06
And I feel like Washington is kind of low hanging fruit.
4:10
Like a lot of people talk about Washington, and you know, I get I'm guilty of doing the same thing.
4:16
We talk about Washington and all the problems that are in Washington.
4:20
It's kind of low, low-hanging fruit.
4:22
I mean, Washington is a cesspool, it really is.
4:27
And, you know, we can spend our time and effort and energy on Washington and how bad it is and how bad politicians are, and spend our time, effort, and energy cursing the fact that Washington is broken.
4:44
We can talk about the racial disparity in America, where we can actually do kind things for our neighbors.
4:54
We can invite them to dinner.
4:56
You know, and and silly stories like this, where it's a mix-up of a phone number.
5:04
And they just own a whim.
5:06
Like I love this about young Jamal Hinton.
5:10
He was a teenager, and he was he was witty, he was quick.
5:16
He's like, yeah, uh, you're not my grandma.
5:21
Can I still come over for a plate?
5:24
Knowing that she's white, that he's black.
5:28
You know, automatically people's minds go to, oh, well, you know, if if you're a white, uh, you know, if if if you're a white American, you're privileged, and you automatically have racism that's built into your DNA.
5:43
I radically reject that.
5:45
I think that's the most ridiculous thing.
5:47
I think it's a little bit embarrassing that people come up with that theory and actually teach that.
5:53
That we're all racist to our core, and you know, we don't know it, but we're all privileged and racist.
6:03
I reject that to my core.
6:04
I think that's just ridiculous.
6:07
And I think that's such a stretch, and it's like almost like people want us to be racist.
6:13
They want us to have this um friction between white, black, and brown people.
6:22
You know, and and I just think it's I think it's nuts.
6:27
And I think it's not a good reflection on America as a whole.
6:32
When that's our attitude, when we're talking about how awful people are, and constantly berating people, talking about how privileged and terrible they are.
6:46
So I just reject that notion that we're inherently inherently racist.
6:53
Because I think it it does nothing but causes division and unnecessary division, and it teaches people that they're racist when they're really not.
7:04
In fact, that's what a lot of people wanted, right?
7:07
They wanted to teach out in our school systems that this is a white supremacist nation, and that we're all racists and all cops are racist, and you know, it's just kind of silly and not just silly, it's it's it's frustrating.
7:23
So I don't know.
7:26
I would rather shift, and I would rather highlight stories where we show that these things just aren't true.
7:35
You can't throw this, cast this wide net and talk about this widespread racism in the nation when you have story after story after story like this.
7:46
And this is one of the coolest stories.
7:49
And kudos to the grandma, kudos to Jamal Hinton.
7:53
Uh, the grandma, by the way, is Wanda Dench.
7:57
And um I just think it's really cool that they keep spending Thanksgiving together.
8:03
They always take an annual picture, and this year I believe they're gonna live stream at least part of it.
8:10
Uh, they've done raffles before and invited people to Thanksgiving dinner with them.
8:14
So they've really made this into a cool thing, and they've uh they've sparked community hospitality.
8:21
And I think that's something that's really special.
8:24
And the fact that they're inviting the community to be a part of the story is really inspiring.
8:32
And it's just really cool.
8:33
So I'm gonna read an article here.
8:34
This is um, let's see, this was published just a few days ago.
8:40
So this is the route, and the article is the sweet Thanksgiving tradition sparked by an accidental text inside Wanda and Jamal's friendship ten years later.
8:53
It's been a decade since one accidental text sent to the wrong phone number led to the start of an unlikely but beautiful friendship.
9:03
But believe it or not, 2025 will mark the 10th year that Jamal Hinton and his quote grandma won a dench will break bread together on Thanksgiving, and they're keeping the tradition going strong.
9:20
10 Thanksgivings ago, a simple text brought us together.
9:23
This year we're celebrating a decade of friendship.
9:27
Hinton captioned a recent Instagram photo of himself and his holiday companion.
9:34
Over on X, Hinton wrote how Wanda is moving back to Phoenix, and how he will post on his TikTok of the festivities leading up to year 10.
9:44
We may live stream our Thanksgiving this year while inviting a good amount of fans to join us for year 10.
9:51
So that's pretty cool too that on the 10-year anniversary, they're uh they're inviting fans to come eat Thanksgiving.
10:00
Dinner with them.
10:01
Again, I think they've done this in the past, but probably not to a large extent.
10:06
But it's really cool.
10:08
Then the story talks about how they met in 2016 when Dench texted a 17-year-old Hinton inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner.
10:19
Now she must have thought he's absolutely crazy to text back.
10:24
Like I can't imagine.
10:26
First of all, you kind of get embarrassed, right?
10:28
Whenever you text the wrong person.
10:31
And then sometimes there's a scammy, spammy kind of stuff that happens.
10:36
And you're like, oh man, like here's another, here's another scam.
10:40
You get those all the time now.
10:42
It's like the the AI bots.
10:45
They'll text you, hey, how you doing.
10:49
Yeah, it's I sometimes I mess with them like none of your business.
10:54
But it happens all the time, right?
10:57
It's uh then they want you to go over to they're like, hey, do you have WhatsApp?
11:02
Why don't you come over there and talk to me there?
11:05
No, thanks.
11:08
Again, unless you want to mess with them, whatever, but these scams are out there constantly.
11:15
And uh for them to actually engage in conversation, and then he showed up.
11:20
And I wonder if she really wondered whether he was gonna show up or not.
11:25
So I think to her surprise when he actually showed up and had Thanksgiving with her.
11:30
That was just a really sweet gesture.
11:33
So uh reading on here, Dench did the grandmotherly thing and opened her home to feed Hinton an invitation that led to an annual tradition.
11:43
Over the course of their friendship, Hinton and Dench have been there for each other through many major life events, including Dench's breast cancer diagnosis and death of her husband from COVID-19 back in 2020.
11:58
I mean, this is like I'm actually tearing up reading this, so excuse me here, but this is the kind of stuff America needs.
12:07
These are the kind of stories that we need to cover.
12:11
These are the kinds of things that we need to highlight.
12:15
You know, you always hear about the the bad, and you know my spiel with young people.
12:22
The young people just constantly get bashed about how they're just they're so selfish, they're so self-centered, they're they don't want to work, they're terrible, they're rude, they're crude, they've not been taught, they don't have manners.
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You know, it's funny because this comes from the old people who themselves are not having very good manners when it comes to talking about the young people.
12:45
And I just love that Mr.
12:50
Hinton and Mrs.
12:52
Dench got to become very good friends, and they were there for each other, they supported each other and loved each other through really difficult times.
13:02
And that's what this is all about.
13:04
They became best friends.
13:07
And it just goes to show that the hidden lightness, right?
13:12
That's what this show is all about.
13:15
You be the hidden lightness.
13:18
Let your light shine.
13:21
Stop worrying about what other people are doing.
13:23
We're so worried all the time about what other people are doing or what they're thinking or how they're behaving.
13:30
And we just we constantly want to chase that.
13:33
It's like we're chasing our own tail.
13:37
And I don't know if you ever had an animal that did that.
13:41
Uh, we've had animals that chase their own tails.
13:45
And while it's funny, like ours never got out of control, but I've seen videos of animals that like it's actually a condition.
13:53
Like they they just exhaust themselves.
13:56
And it's kind of funny at first, but then they're they just keep going and going and going and going and going, and you're like, wait, when are they gonna stop?
14:03
And then you try to stop them, you try to intervene, and they just go right back to it.
14:07
They're chasing their tail around and round and around and around until they finally just they pass out from exhaustion.
14:13
Sometimes they they get really sick, they get physically sick.
14:20
I'm like, that's that's not it's not really funny.
14:24
You know, it's funny if an animal does it like you know a couple times and they're just being silly, but for the ones that can't stop, it's it it stops being funny, and then you actually feel sorry for the animal, and you look at humans and we're a lot the same.
14:40
Right?
14:40
A lot of a lot of humans are constantly, so to speak, chasing their own tails.
14:46
They're looking for that next story, they're looking for that next shoe to drop, they're looking for that next disappointment, that next person who's gonna let them down, the next person who's gonna do something wrong, and they just wait and wait and wait.
15:01
And it's it's it's not funny, it's exhausting.
15:06
And it's really making people it's making their sense of pride in America slip.
15:11
That's why I covered that story yesterday.
15:13
And I'm like, there's there's another option out there.
15:17
There are other options other than chasing her own tails and finding negativity.
15:23
If you're looking for negativity, I promise you're gonna find it.
15:28
If you're looking for the next person who's gonna disappoint you, you will find it.
15:35
And I reject the notion, I reject it in in my congregation.
15:40
Yeah, negative talk just doesn't have it doesn't have any place.
15:44
Now we can be honest.
15:46
I'm all for being honest, but it's the negative talk.
15:49
It's the self-fulfilling prophecy of well, nobody ever does anything around here.
15:54
That's not true.
15:56
Nobody ever volunteers, yeah, they do.
16:00
Nobody ever steps up to the plate.
16:02
Yeah, they do.
16:03
People are always disappointing us.
16:06
No, they're not.
16:09
People are just terrible.
16:10
No, they're not.
16:12
People are so selfish and and they just never want to give their money or their time.
16:17
That's not true.
16:21
Yeah, are there some?
16:22
Sure.
16:24
But to make those kinds of blanket statements and to say that as gospel fact, it's just it's not cool.
16:32
It's not cool at all.
16:34
So here we have an incredible story, and we'll talk more about this after the break because it's really, really inspiring.
16:40
And I just I've been so moved by this story over the years.
16:44
And uh, I saw that they're meeting again for their tenth year, and it's just it's really cool.
16:49
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We'll be right back.
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This story of Jamal Hinton and Wanda Dench is just really.
20:00
Really cool.
20:01
And it's inspiring.
20:02
It was a wrong text.
20:04
Wanda was texting who she thought was her grandson.
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And instead, she was texting a complete stranger, a 17-year-old young man.
20:15
Um, I guess until you're 18, you're considered a child.
20:21
So a young child, a young man who was a complete gentleman and just a good sport about it.
20:28
And he texted back, he's like, hey, send me a picture of yourself.
20:33
And she did.
20:34
And he took a picture of himself and sent it back.
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And he said, You're not my grandma.
20:40
She's white, he's black.
20:43
And then he said, can I still come over for a plate of food?
20:47
And she was like, absolutely.
20:49
And that started their friendship.
20:51
And they've made this an annual tradition.
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But it's not just the Thanksgiving meals.
20:56
It's that they are good, good friends.
20:59
And they've been there for each other through thick and thin.
21:03
Through a lot of disappointments and sadness and uh sorrow.
21:08
And this is what it means to be a neighbor to your neighbors.
21:14
To love your neighbors as yourself.
21:16
It's a second greatest command greatest commandment in the Bible.
21:21
Love your neighbors as yourself.
21:23
How would we want to be treated?
21:27
You know, would we want to be ignored?
21:30
Would we want to be called names?
21:33
Have fingers pointed at us, told how racist we are, how lazy we are, how stupid we are, how deplorable we are.
21:42
You know, words really matter, and you look at what politicians are doing repeatedly.
21:50
All the name calling that goes on in Washington is just it's it's so embarrassing that these are our elected officials.
21:59
They just constantly run their mouths, a lot of them.
22:03
And so we have the choice.
22:08
We either get consumed in that, and we make that part of our world, or we ignore those nasty voices.
22:20
The people who talk down to people who constantly berate people.
22:30
News media is not much better.
22:32
They're pretty good at uh writing stories in a way that just paint people in the worst possible light.
22:41
You know, that it could be the best meeting in the world between two people, and somehow they're they're gonna make it into some kind of a nasty feud between them.
22:50
So we either have a choice, we can consume that kind of content and be consumed by that kind of content.
22:59
Or we can surround ourselves with lovely people.
23:06
We can respond to people when people reach out to us.
23:09
We can return phone calls when people call.
23:13
And we can just be kind.
23:14
We can treat people the way that we would want to be treated.
23:17
And that's exactly what Jamal Hinton did.
23:20
And kudos to him.
23:23
You know, to reach out to Wanda and and to do it in a silly way, in a fun way, in a loving way.
23:29
They end up becoming good friends, and during COVID in 2020, Wanda Drench lost her husband.
23:40
Um then she got diagnosed with breast cancer.
23:46
So he missed Thanksgiving last year, I think.
23:50
Um maybe it just the way he phrased it, I can't really tell.
23:56
But it says, uh, Hinton's recent Instagram post has received nearly a thousand comments from fans who live for an annual update on their friendship that has stolen the internet's heart.
24:08
This remains one of my favorite Thanksgiving stories.
24:12
I look forward to updates every year, wrote somebody on the comments.
24:18
So Jamal wrote this November of 2024, November last year.
24:24
He said, Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours.
24:27
We we're all wishing Wanda a fast healthy recovery.
24:32
Year nine didn't go as planned, but we will be back better than ever for year ten.
24:38
See you guys next year.
24:41
And that was her cancer diagnosis last year in 2024.
24:49
So Jamal is all about the love and support and being there, and it sounds like he actually went there to take care of her uh last year.
24:58
And I just think I think it's really touching, very, very inspiring.
25:04
Um, some people said um, you know, this is my favorite holiday story.
25:09
Netflix needs to make a holiday movie about you two.
25:12
I agree with that.
25:13
I think Netflix needs to get on it.
25:16
You know, they they do a lot of these documentaries that are dark and it's about the most evil true crimes have really they're like one of the most popular genres, and so that's kind of what gets gets covered again.
25:30
It's about the ratings, it's about the click.
25:34
Clickbait, even people want drama, they want to hear the deep dark stories and the twisted stuff, and how you know Junior ended up becoming a murderer cannibal who ate his whole family kind of thing.
25:51
You know, like people love the gory stories, and I want to argue that people also like the good stories, and I think they're underrated.
26:01
I think that a lot of networks have not really caught on to this.
26:06
That people are looking for hope.
26:07
People are looking for warm stories, people are looking for kindness, and it's out there.
26:15
You know, we don't have to just search and search and search until we find a good story here and there.
26:21
They're everywhere.
26:23
They're out there.
26:24
I've been covering these stories for nearly a year now, almost every day.
26:30
I mean, these stories are out there.
26:32
There are good people out there.
26:33
That's the entire premise of the hidden lightness, is that all it takes is one person.
26:39
It takes one person to be the hidden lightness, to let their light shine in front of other people, and to spread kindness, to be a good person, to be a decent person, to spread that kindness to other people, and then it becomes inspiring.
26:55
And I have to wonder, we don't really know.
26:57
I, you know, none of these stories really cover that angle, but I have to guess how many other copycats there are of people who texted somebody randomly and did that on purpose and spread that kind of kindness over the holidays.
27:15
And I want to encourage people, wouldn't that be cool?
27:17
Wouldn't it be fun to kind of mimic that?
27:20
Just make it your own.
27:22
Text somebody some some rando and wish them a happy Thanksgiving.
27:28
I mean, I think it'd be pretty cool.
27:31
It's you never know what God's gonna do with that.
27:35
And this story is a case in point.
27:38
These two have shared every Thanksgiving together for the past 10 years.
27:43
This Thanksgiving marks 10 years.
27:47
Jamal wrote this.
27:48
He said, Thanksgiving around the corner, and I'm still receiving text from random number.
27:54
Year eight plans are set with a great surprise.
27:59
So, you know, uh, it's pretty cool.
28:04
He he gives a copy of a number of somebody who sent him a random text.
28:14
Now keep in mind this was a couple years ago, but uh this is funny.
28:18
So somebody sent him a text.
28:21
He gives a screenshot of this, and it says, Hey, Cookamonga, how are you?
28:27
I miss you.
28:29
And Jamal answers back, um, excuse me, who is this?
28:34
Your long lost daughter.
28:36
How are you?
28:38
So he sends a picture of him and his uh his adoptive grandmother, and he says, Hey, sorry, my name is Jamal, and I did not have any kids with the laughing emojis.
28:52
And the reply was, OMG, so sorry, this was my dad's old work phone.
28:57
Then he says, No worries, hope you find your father.
29:02
So it's pretty funny, like he's still getting random text from people.
29:07
And I don't know, these are the kinds of stories again that America needs.
29:12
We we need hope in this nation.
29:14
We need to know that we can still laugh.
29:16
We can still smile, we can still engage with people, even strangers.
29:23
And that's what makes this nation so great.
29:25
And it saddens me.
29:26
It breaks my heart that the Democrats, 38%, only 38% of them think that they're proud of America.
29:36
They have any pride whatsoever in America.
29:39
38%.
29:41
It's the lowest number ever recorded since Gallup started doing the poll in 2001.
29:49
38% have pride in this nation.
29:54
What is wrong with people?
29:57
I mean, are they that miserable?
30:00
I mean, the answer is yes, according to the polls.
30:04
But why?
30:07
Why set yourself up to be that miserable?
30:12
To hate everything about this nation, to complain about everything that's going on.
30:18
When we have the power to make a difference.
30:21
We have the power to make somebody smile.
30:23
We have the power to be kind to somebody.
30:26
We have the power to drop a meal off at somebody's house.
30:31
Or make a meal for somebody.
30:34
Is it inconvenient?
30:36
Sure.
30:37
Is it going to take extra time?
30:39
Absolutely.
30:42
Is it sometimes a pain in the butt?
30:44
Yep.
30:46
But look at what the outcome is.
30:50
When we brighten somebody's day, it could be the difference between life and death for somebody.
30:57
There are so many people who are lonely, and there's study after study that shows this, especially among young people.
31:03
They're so lonely because of isolation because of social media.
31:09
And we have the power to change that.
31:14
Yeah, I think that's the great thing about this nation that people complain about, that people don't believe in, that people have no pride.
31:21
They want to talk about how everybody's messing it up and you know, those dumb, everything from the dumb MAGA red hat wears to uh to the flaming liberals.
31:34
You know, there are all kinds of colorful names to degrade the liberals.
31:40
I'm like, when did we start being victims of everything and everyone?
31:46
It's like this victim mentality just it drives me crazy.
31:52
Let's stop being victims and let's start praising people.
31:56
Why don't we begin with encouragement?
31:59
Why don't we start making friends with strangers?
32:04
Be kind to people, be nice, smile, compliment people.
32:11
Be thankful for the friends that are in your lives.
32:16
Instead of jumping on and being the keyboard warrior and pointing out everything that somebody says wrong that you disagree with, who cares?
32:25
Start with friendships, start with encouragement.
32:29
Encouragement goes a lot longer than criticism.
32:35
And I love this about Jamal.
32:37
Like, what a cool guy.
32:38
And I'm just looking at his smile here, and it's just so contagious.
32:43
And this is what we need during this Thanksgiving season.
32:47
We need America to get back to this kindness and hospitality.
32:53
Remember when people used to invite people into their homes?
32:56
Like I grew up on that.
32:57
My mom was the queen of inviting just random people.
33:04
I mean, she was very always very hospitable.
33:09
Even years whenever we struggled financially.
33:13
That never changed her open door policy, and she's still that way.
33:19
My mom is an absolute rock star.
33:21
And I tell her that all the time.
33:25
She's host so hospitable.
33:30
And she'll find literally the people who she knows.
33:34
Like she actively thinks about people who she knows doesn't have a family or they don't have anywhere to go.
33:42
Now I remember one year, and this wasn't that long ago.
33:46
She gave rides to people, like several shuttles back and forth into Somerset.
33:52
She lives in Shanksville.
33:55
And my mom is literally running shuttles as she's cooking this monster meal.
34:01
She's running shuttles to go pick people up.
34:06
And I'm like, Mom, what are you doing?
34:10
She's like, well, if I don't invite them, they're not going to have anywhere to go, and I just can't.
34:18
I can't be that person.
34:19
I can't know that somebody's not going to have a Thanksgiving meal when I have all this food.
34:24
She's like, God has blessed me with all this food.
34:27
And the ability to cook it and the place to host.
34:32
Like, well, you could ask us to give rides.
34:37
You know what our response was?
34:40
I didn't want to bother anybody.
34:43
Like you're that's not a bother.
34:45
That's we're happy to do that.
34:46
We're happy to help out.
34:50
But that's the America that I know.
34:52
That's the America that I think we need to get back to.
34:58
You know, instead of complaining about how bad the nation is, how terrible people are, and how awful they are, and how disappointed we are, and how everybody's corrupt and everything's wrong with the world.
35:15
Begin the day with Thanksgiving.
35:19
Begin every day with Thanksgiving.
35:22
Yeah, the world's not a perfect place.
35:24
It's far from it.
35:26
There's a lot of brokenness in the world.
35:28
A lot of sadness in the world, a lot of depression in the world.
35:32
I hear stories that my kids bring home from school, and sometimes I have to go in my prayer closet and have a moment with God.
35:42
And sometimes I cry.
35:45
You know, I hear these stories about these young kids that have to face so much sadness in life.
35:55
So much disappointment.
35:59
Brokenness within their family, broken relationships, parents who want nothing to do with them.
36:05
I like I hear these stories for my kids, and I just I melt, I break down.
36:12
And I don't want to be the person who points fingers and talks about how awful the world is, and it's so broken, and it's just the worst place.
36:21
I want to be the person who's hospitable.
36:25
I want to be the person who shines a light in that person's life.
36:32
Who gives them hope?
36:35
Gives them a reason for living to make it to the next day.
36:42
Who smiles?
36:44
You know, if we greeted each other with a smile, how different this world would be.
36:49
If the majority of people did that, if if people smiled and greeted each people each other and said, hey, I'm grateful for you.
36:57
I'm grateful for our country.
36:59
I'm grateful for you.
37:02
Instead, you hear things like, oh, it's national religion or whatever it is.
37:09
Conservative Christians.
37:14
It's just sometimes we gotta let our hair down and smile.
37:19
And be grateful for this great nation and the great people in this great nation that God has blessed us with.
37:26
We're coming up on a break here.
37:28
All of our shows do go to podcasts the next day after the broadcast heard on talk radio.
37:33
You can hear them on Spotify, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeart Podcast, Apple Podcasts, many, many more.
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And again, visit the store at AmericaOutloud.news.
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Use the code out loud, browse around, shop, treat yourself.
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Um this is the one time that I say go nuts and just shop till you drop.
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There are so many great deals, it's incredible.
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We'll be right back.
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40:04
Jamal Hinton back 10 years ago.
40:10
Got a random text from somebody who said, Hey, are you coming over for Thanksgiving?
40:15
And it turns out that the then 17-year-old Jamal Hinton was getting a text from a complete random stranger.
40:23
It was a wrong text, wrong number.
40:27
And he replied back jokingly, took a picture of himself, and you know, they exchanged photos and realized they were definitely not from the same family.
40:37
And he said, Or can I still come over for a plate of food?
40:41
That sparked a 10-year close friendship friendship between two people.
40:49
And I want to contrast this story with what's going on right now because that's my my plea.
40:54
My plea is that we as Americans, we as humans, forget America.
41:00
We as humans need to reach out to our neighbors and do the same thing.
41:05
And have these light hearted conversations and strike up friendships with people because you never know how God is going to bless that.
41:13
And I also want to argue that there are people doing this kind of stuff every single day.
41:18
Lots of people.
43:14
Like I'm just literally every single story is a negative gut punch story.
43:24
I can't find one positive story on their front page.
43:28
All right.
43:29
How about Fox News?
43:32
They typically have more positive stories than other mainstream media.
43:38
Here's the very first story.
43:41
Conservative activist punched in face files lawsuit after Manhattan DA admits error, and they have the picture of this woman getting punched in the face.
44:03
Trump brushes off past Mamdani rivalry, admits I was hitting him a little hard.
44:11
Umastica's nooses confederate flags designated Coast Guard hate symbols after uproar.
44:21
Park Rangers track down visitor who confronted Yellowstone Wolves with mystery spray.
44:28
Katie Porter's jab at opponent exposes hypocrisy as campaign donations emerge.
44:34
New Mexico basketball player ejected after punching opponent in the back of head.
44:40
I mean, just on and on and on and on.
44:46
Not even halfway through this.
44:49
MSNBC.
44:51
Well, MS Now, I guess they're called.
44:55
Fox News poll shows that Trump's aura of invincibility is fading.
45:01
GOP tries to defend Trump, accusing Democrats of seditious behavior punishable by death.
45:16
Nikki Minaj's MAGA pivot was a long time coming.
45:22
He lies so pretty.
45:25
Joe slams Johnson's attempt to defend Trump's seditious behavior post.
45:30
White House says Trump's piggy insult was just him being open and honest.
45:37
On and on and on.
45:40
Not one positive story.
45:43
And we wonder why people are on edge.
45:45
We wonder why people are crippled when it comes to helping their neighbors out.
45:51
We wonder why people aren't motivated to go out and to help other people.
45:58
Why aren't people motivated?
46:00
Well, this is why.
46:03
We believe, because we've been told that the world is full of monsters and evil people and selfish people and terrible people and people who are out to get you.
46:15
Right?
46:15
We hear it all the time.
46:21
And so people hesitate.
46:24
And there are so many gotch out there now.
46:28
The people are like, and cameras.
46:30
My goodness with the cameras.
46:34
People are afraid to do anything nice because they're like, hey, somebody's gonna film this and they're gonna spin it somehow.
46:41
To be honest, that's part of why I quit posting on social media.
46:45
Everything I said was like subject to criticism.
46:48
And I'm like, I I just was just posting about puppies, you know, and like somehow I'm now a racist Nazi or whatever.
47:01
It's like people are just so vicious.
47:06
And we need to get back to recognizing the good in people.
47:12
Because not all people are like that.
47:15
In fact, I argue, I I still argue this all the time that most Americans are really good people.
47:23
Heck, most people are really good people.
47:28
But that shifts our view when we're looking for bad stories, or when we read the news.
47:35
Just by reading the news.
47:39
We know that we're eating about all the bad.
47:42
Just constantly.
47:45
So sometimes we just gotta put it down.
47:46
We just gotta forget about the news.
47:48
Don't read it.
47:48
There are days that you know, there are days where I just don't read the news.
47:52
Like I just, I'm not in the mood.
47:56
I can't keep looking at this garbage.
47:58
It's like absolute garbage.
48:02
So, yeah, let's focus on being good, decent human beings.
48:09
Let's focus on the stories like Jamal Hinton and Wanda Dench, who are celebrating their 10th Thanksgiving together.
48:17
Not only that, did you know that they did like a couple business endeavors together?
48:24
I like you don't find this in news stories.
48:27
I was I was looking on Wikipedia.
48:32
And I was just kind of doing a little bit of background looking, looking at who they are, and I'm like, what incredible people.
48:41
What incredible people.
48:44
So again, just some highlights here.
48:47
This from a wiki article.
48:50
In April 2020, Wanda's husband Lonnie died from COVID-19.
48:55
There was an outpouring of support with video messages sent to the family from around the world.
49:00
That wouldn't have happened had Jamal not answered her back.
49:04
Nobody, nobody around the world knew who this family was.
49:08
They didn't know who the Dench family was.
49:11
The Thanksgiving tradition continued as a small socially distance gathering before the holiday that year.
49:17
That December, Hinton and Dench raffled off a PlayStation 5 and an opportunity to join them for dinner.
49:26
In 2021, the two met again for Thanksgiving dinner.
49:29
It was announced in December that Netflix was producing a movie about their story entitled The Thanksgiving Text.
49:39
I didn't know they were actually doing it.
49:41
I saw the comment that somebody was like, hey, you should do a Netflix story.
49:45
Well, I guess Netflix paid attention.
49:46
Good for Netflix.
49:51
So, yeah, the screenplay is to be written by Abdul Williams.
49:57
In a joint statement, Hinton and Dench said that they hope the
50:00
Film will inspire more people to reach out and make connections that they wouldn't ordinarily make.
50:06
That's exactly what I've been saying.
50:09
This whole show.
50:10
Like, we all need to make those kinds of connections.
50:14
Text a random person.
50:17
Do it just for the heck of it.
50:19
Why not?
50:20
What do you have to lose?
50:21
What's the worst thing that's going to happen?
50:22
Somebody gets mad at you for texting them.
50:25
I've had that happen.
50:26
I've accidentally texted the wrong number.
50:28
And somebody gets a little bit sideways, and they're like, oh, you should you should delete me from your contacts.
50:35
Like you should smile.
50:41
People are just so sometimes they're just angry.
50:43
Whatever.
50:44
That's fine.
50:47
Doesn't ruin my day.
50:50
But we should try it.
50:51
Try it out.
50:52
Why not?
50:55
In 2022, the tradition continued.
50:57
It was preceded by Dench getting her first tattoo with Hinton accompanying her to the appointment.
51:06
I love I love everything about this story.
51:11
Like I'm going to be friends with these guys.
51:17
Right.
51:18
Like, who doesn't go and get tattoos with your with your fake grandma that you accidentally found by a wrong number text?
51:33
Like, how cool is this?
51:35
Alright, how about this?
51:37
The two launched a black water business that year.
51:41
Like they're not only getting tattoos together.
51:45
They're launching a business together.
51:47
They're selling black water.
51:50
And if you don't know what black water is, you can look it up.
51:53
It's like a health health water with minerals, and I forget what the the secret sauce is this stuff that makes it that literally turns the water black, and I guess it's supposed to be super healthy.
52:06
But they launched their black water business together in 2023.
52:12
Hinton and Dench appeared as a team to compete on the TBS game show, The Cube.
52:19
The eighth annual Thanksgiving dinner was sponsored by Airbnb.
52:24
With a promotion allowing for two selected winners to stay in Dench's home and join them for the holiday.
52:36
In October 2024, as part of breast cancer awareness month.
52:42
Dench made a statement that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy.
52:49
Because of her treatment, she was unable to join Hinton in person for Thanksgiving.
52:54
The two opted to video call instead.
52:59
And then November this year, this month, Hinton and Dench announced a partnership with canned vegetable company Green Giant for their 10th Thanksgiving via Hinton's X account.
53:16
I mean, you can't get any cooler than this.
53:20
You can't get any better than this.
53:22
You can't get any more inspirational than this.
53:26
These two have become best friends.
53:30
I mean, they legitimately are our family.
53:35
They treat each other like family.
53:37
They are part of each other's families.
53:39
And it's just so cool.
53:42
And now Dench announced that she's moving to Phoenix, which is where I guess she was originally from.
53:50
That's where Hinton lives now.
53:54
And they're gonna be like practically neighbors now.
53:59
It's just really cool.
54:00
It's really inspiring, and this is what we need more of.
54:03
America needs this right now.
54:05
We crave this.
54:07
We want to know that there's some kind of normalcy in the world.
54:12
We want to know that people still care, right?
54:16
Or maybe I'm off base, maybe I'm just a weirdo.
54:19
But I long for these stories, folks.
54:23
I surround myself with positivity because what's the alternative?
54:28
I don't want to become somebody who's agitated.
54:34
I've seen too many of my friends go down that road where they just they become so annoyed with everything and everyone.
54:41
I'm like, who took your joy?
54:45
Who is sucking your joy?
54:47
Life is hard, life is hard enough.
54:51
Life is difficult.
54:55
I've been surrounded with more sickness and death in ministry than I like it's really affected me big time.
55:04
It's hard, it's tough.
55:06
Life is tough.
55:09
The amount of people living in poverty who I've, you know.
55:13
Some I've been able to help, some I can't.
55:18
You know how hard that is to tell people that you don't have them, you don't have the money.
55:24
I literally just did it last night to a very good friend of mine.
55:31
You know, just it's the needs are endless, and this was a need.
55:37
Uh what he was asking for.
55:39
I just I wasn't able to do it, at least not at this time.
55:43
And I had to say I can't do it right now.
55:45
I'll find a way, as I always do.
55:49
But that stuff weighs on me.
55:50
It's hard.
55:51
It's life is hard.
55:52
Life is difficult.
55:54
People are struggling.
55:57
So, yeah, we need more of these kinds of stories.
56:01
We need to surround ourselves with positivity.
56:03
We need to find people who are doing good things, and we need to hold them up.
56:08
Believe me, the world typically is not.
56:12
We need to encourage people.
56:15
We need to inspire people.
56:18
We need to teach our kids and grandkids and neighbors and friends.
56:23
We need to teach them.
56:24
We need to lead by example and teach them how to just have good, decent relationships with people, including complete strangers.
56:35
You know, being decent costs exactly nothing.
56:38
It's free.
56:39
It's free to compliment somebody, it's free to be kind to somebody.
56:45
And this Thanksgiving season, I I pray that as a nation we begin to get our pride back, our pride in America, our pride in this great nation that people so many people have fought and lost their lives for to give us the freedoms that we have.
57:04
I hope we're all thankful for that.
57:07
The polls don't show that we are.
57:10
But I hope we get to that point.
57:13
We are blessed beyond measure.
57:16
And as Thanksgiving comes up, I'll keep sharing stories of hope and stories that encourage you and uh and and hopefully inspire you to just be the hidden lightness.
57:26
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.
57:34
You'll be in the know.
57:35
There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
57:38
When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light at all to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
57:47
Join me in being a light.