This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people, coming to you from

the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. Up next comes a story from a listener in Maine,

Randy Liberty. For most people, a prison is a place they hope never to see from the inside.

For Randy, it was simply a part of childhood. But instead of turning

away from that world, Randy eventually dedicated himself to changing it. Let's take a listen.

I wasn't, you know, I wasn't quite sure in high school what I wanted to do. And then I, I didn't

have any negative or positive feeling about the law enforcement

at the time and when I came off after Dune and I worked at the local police department

I I did my interview with the police chief and the detective and they said who's your dad

and I said you know Ray Liberty I said raise my uncle I tried to leave it there and he said yeah we know Ray's good man I said who's your dad and I said you know Ray Liberty? I said, Ray's my uncle. I tried to leave it there. And he said,

yeah, we know Ray, he's good man. I said, who's your dad? And I said, you know Gene? That's my uncle. And they kept it going. I said, yeah, who's your dad? And I said, we're on Liberty. And they put their pens down and said, we know Ronnie. And I said, yeah, I know you know Ronnie. I'm Randy. I said, I have a year and a half of college at this point.

I was a military policeman. I was a sergeant.

I said, I'm not Ronnie.

And they gave me a chance.

My first memories, I was probably four years old.

And I remember my father coming home drunk again and he was violent.

I remember grabbing my mother by the hair and holler into the bedroom and her screaming and throwing a plate against the wall.

I remember as a four-year-old, five-year-old, ten-year-old, witnessing the domestic violence, witnessing the alcoholism, the drunkardness, and it makes you sick to your stomach as a child because you're along for the ride. You have no say in what's happening in the family. You have no power. You can't prevent anything from happening. You just know that on a Friday night when they start drinking, it's not going to go well. It's not going to go well when dad isn't around for the weekend. And you know Sunday night when he finally comes home, it's kind of go like it always goes. You know that when the landlord comes, knocks on the door, and you know, all those are quiet kids, and you're pretending not to be home, it's not a good thing.

You know, at the end of the month, there's no food in the house.

You know, best meal was at school.

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