Lee Habeeb is a busy man, so I almost didn’t ask him if he’d write a Foreword for the book. But so many of these already-published stories ended up produced for Our American Stories, so I mentioned that in my request. His answer? “I would be happy to write something! Send the book and I’ll get it done!”
And, bless him, he took the time to write quite a bit. Here’s how it begins:
Foreword
President Ronald Reagan, in his farewell speech from the Oval Office in 1989, talked a lot about historical memory, and why it was so important. “If we forget what we did,” he warned, “we’ll forget who we are.”
Memory, it turns out, does matter. It matters in the health and preservation of a nation. Of a state. Of a town. And of a family and the individuals that comprise that family.
It has also been said that one can’t love something they don’t know. Which is why I have spent a good deal of my life telling the story of America to Americans with the show I founded and host, “Our American Stories.” We have been blessed to feature some of the most prominent storytellers in the country. Great writers of history, great storytellers about sports and the arts. Pulitzer-Prize winning authors of all kinds. We even regularly feature a great storyteller from the grave – the late, great Stephen Ambrose, thanks to the kindness and generosity of his estate. Few have written better stories than Ambrose in their lifetimes about this great country.
But storytelling isn’t just for historians with advanced degrees or professional writers under contract. Storytelling is urgent work for all Americans. Because we all have a story to tell. About our hometown, about our families and our neighbors. We have not just an obligation to tell them, but a duty: because if we forget what the people who came before us did, we will most certainly forget who we are.
On the show I host fine nights a week, I routinely ask audience members to share their stories – and many do. No single person has contributed more to the show than a superb writer from Des Moines, Iowa, Joy Neal Kidney, who listens to us regularly on the legendary iHeart station, WHO in Des Moines. A station that was not just one of the first to carry our show back in 2016, but a station that put our show on the map. Literally.
Joy’s writing and performances have become more than a fixture on the show: she’s the very heart of the show. The reason the show exists, which is to connect the listener to the show – and the show to the listener. Until the two become one.
Joy’s storytelling is as straight as an arrow and a shot from the heart, reflecting her midwestern values. Neither boastful nor cynical, her stories feel like they really happened – and happened yesterday, so packed are they with details and life.
Her latest writing effort is a collection of well-crafted essays entitled The Immigrant and the Outlaw: A Collection of Stories from America’s Heartland. ” . . .
There’s even more!
Autographed copies will be available at the Urbandale Machine Shed Restaurant in another week or so, and in person or by mail through Beaverdale Books in Des Moines (515-279-5400).