In 1987, Illinois teenager Mike Hayes needed nearly $28,000 to attend the University of Illinois, but his family could not afford the cost.
Instead of abandoning his dream, he came up with an unusual idea. He decided to ask 2.8 million people to each send him just one penny.
Hayes wrote to Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene, who shared the story in his nationally syndicated newspaper column.
What started as a small idea quickly spread across the country. Soon, thousands of letters began arriving at his home from strangers who were moved by his determination.
Many people sent pennies exactly as requested, while others mailed dollar bills, checks, coins, and personal notes encouraging him to continue his education.
The response became so overwhelming that bags of mail and donations reportedly filled the local post office.
By the time the campaign ended, Hayes had raised enough money to pay for college and still had about $1,000 left over.
He later graduated debt free in 1991
As a Democrat, I can admit I’ve been voting wrong. Look what Mayor Karen Bass has allowed to happen to Hollywood Boulevard. It’s not only disgusting, it’s an embarrassment.
It’s much worse than the picture depicts.
Hey @Delta can you explain why I just got moved to a different flight for a trip I booked months ago, even the flight isn't canceled?
Did you bump me bc you oversold more expensive tickets & I wasn't good enough anymore? Wanna refund me for the Cubs game I'm gonna miss now, too?
I stand with President @realDonaldTrump. I stand for Tennessee. And I will never apologize for it.
Wore my Trump flag as a cape during the special session and the Democrats started screaming “racist” at me on sight. They don’t know me. Never met me. Just saw the flag and had a meltdown.
That’s the modern Democrat Party in a nutshell.
They smear anyone who stands with President Trump. They’ve called him every name in the book for years. Now they’re doing it to everyday Americans who refuse to bow down. It’s their only move when they can’t win on policy or truth.
They lecture us about “democracy” while they gerrymandered for decades, cheered the 2020 steal, and now cry foul when maps don’t go their way. It’s all an act.
I’ve taken FBI raids, millions in lobbyist attack ads, and every cheap shot the Nashville establishment could throw at me. None of it broke me.
The radical left doesn’t scare me. Their slurs don’t scare me. Their temper tantrums don’t scare me.
Bring it on! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
The Fight Before The Fight Is The Fight:
You have to beat the person in you that likes sleeping more than they like working.
You have to beat the person in you that likes being entertained more than they like learning.
You have to beat the person in you that likes eating more than they like exercising.
You have to beat the person in you that likes doing drugs more than they like watching their health.
You have to beat the person in you that likes watching porn more than they like engaging with women.
You have to beat the person in you that likes making excuses more than they like taking responsibility.
You have to beat the person in you that likes complaining more than they like solving problems.
You have to beat the person in you that likes scrolling social media more than they like creating something meaningful.
You have to beat the person in you that likes instant gratification more than they like long-term success.
You have to beat the person in you that likes fearing failure more than they like pursuing their dreams.
You have to beat the person in you that likes comparing themselves to others more than they like focusing on their own progress.
You have to beat the person in you that likes negative self-talk more than they like building self-confidence.
You have to beat the person in you that likes procrastination more than they like getting things done.
You have to beat the person in you that likes quitting early more than they like persevering through challenges.
-You are your gift & curse.
-You are your alpha & omega.
-You are your victory & defeat.
Any enemy or foe. Any antagonist or opponent you face in your life. Will be a testament to the discipline you either applied or neglected. Choose your price wisely. Because the debt must be paid. Either by hard work and dedication. Or by defeat and suffering through the trials that come with lack of consistency and persistence. Whatever you choose you will be exposed.
~You All Have A Goodnight
BREAKING - A CBS reporter in Austin, Texas, is being massively praised after refusing to follow a text message from his superior telling him not to focus on a massive crowd praising President Trump’s actions in Iran.
“They don’t want us to focus on this.”
“Well, I am.”
🔻 **THEY'RE FALLING FASTER THAN WE CAN COUNT.**
**In the last 24 hours:**
**Leslie Wexner** — billionaire founder of **Victoria's Secret** — **SUBPOENAED**. He will be deposed by the House Oversight Committee. He gave Epstein **POWER OF ATTORNEY** over his entire $5 billion fortune. He built Epstein's **$77 million Manhattan mansion**. For decades, nobody touched him. Now he's being dragged in under oath.
**Thomas Pritzker** — executive chairman of **Hyatt Hotels** — **STEPPED DOWN**. The Pritzker family is worth **$33 billion**. One of the most powerful dynasties in America. Gone. In one day. No warning.
**Casey Wasserman** — chairman of the **2028 LA Olympics** — the Mayor of Los Angeles publicly demanded his **RESIGNATION**. The man chosen to represent America on the world stage is an Epstein associate.
**UK Police** — now investigating **private flight records at Stansted Airport** after the files revealed Epstein flew in and out of Britain dozens of times. Former PM Gordon Brown flagged it. Scotland Yard is moving.
🇬🇧🇺🇸
⚡ **180,000 IMAGES**
The New York Times confirmed today: the Epstein files contain an estimated **180,000 photographs**.
Not documents. Not emails.
**PHOTOGRAPHS.**
Of what? Of whom? In what rooms? On what island?
They haven't told us yet.
But **Trump's DOJ has them ALL.**
And Bondi said: **"More is coming."**
Ask yourself: why are billionaires resigning BEFORE the photos drop?
**Because they know what's in them.**
🔺 **THE SCOREBOARD — DAY 18**
Resignations: **20+**
Countries investigating: **8**
Criminal raids: **4**
Subpoenas issued: **12+**
UN declaration: **CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY**
Obama had 8 years. **ZERO.**
Biden had 4 years. **ZERO.**
Trump needed **18 DAYS**.
And they're STILL falling. Every morning a new name. Every evening a new resignation.
**They can't stop it now.**
⟁ Nothing can stop what is coming.
Final Stop GameStop: The Jig is Up
In Part 1, I outlined how he arrived on the scene – we had a talk in 2019 about GameStop and investing. The Chewy founder then made a big splash as an activist with a Form 13D filing later in 2020.
He has held on with the diamondest hands.
Ryan, the current Executive Chairman, CEO and owner of now about 9% of GameStop stock, ascended to this dual role in September 2023.
Let’s take a look at the business as it stands today.
Here I will introduce the Scion Analyst Template, in parts. This is a Microsoft Word template I put together for my wayward analysts early in 2006. The idea was to get everyone thinking my way about analyzing stocks.
I will now, as I would have in 2006, analyze GameStop stock by working through the template one section at a time.
https://t.co/zlBh9sWfGK
To my leftist friends:
I do not care that a leftist agitator got himself killed because he decided to arm himself with a gun and venture out to resist ICE, nor the other one who sped her car at an ICE agent while fleeing arrest, nor do I care about the little kid who was detained with his illegal alien father.
And neither do you, because all you care about are turning people-- whose deaths never would have happened if you people didn't have a psychopathic opposition to lawful immigration enforcement-- into martyrs who can be used to justify ending deportations, which you want because it's the biggest threat to Democratic political power.
What I do care about is the fact that there are millions of illegal aliens that have invaded my country. Your party are the ones who spent the previous 4 years importing as many of them into America as possible-- allowing millions of foreign military-aged men to cross the southern border and resettling them all around the country with our tax dollars.
You didn't give a crap about the thousands of unaccompanied children that smugglers dropped off at the border-- nor the thousands that went missing-- in one of the biggest child trafficking operations in the world that happened because of your party.
You didn't care about real victims like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Rachel Morin-- not agitators trying to obstruct law enforcement-- but innocent people who were minding their own business when they were brutally murdered by criminal illegal aliens that Biden released into the country.
But you people have decided that it's imperative that these illegals be able to stay. That somebody fresh over the border from Honduras is just as American as the rest of us. That somebody with such disrespect for our country that their first contribution to it was breaking our immigration laws should be given the same rights as every American. That they should be allowed to continue stealing jobs, driving up housing costs, and mooching off American taxpayers.
And you want this for one reason and one reason only: Because it's the only way you can continue winning elections. You don't actually care about any of these people. You just want to give them citizenship so they can vote for Democrats and count them in the census so that blue states have more electoral votes than they deserve.
All you want is to import as many foreigners as possible and give them a stake in the political future of our country so that Democrats can rule forever without the consent from actual Americans who you couldn't give two craps about.
And you of course don't actually want to deal with the consequences of mass immigration. The places you live are not the ones where massive demographic changes have happened almost overnight. You'll continue living in your majority-white affluent communities while working class Americans deal with the influx of your new class of voters.
And now, you are have decided that burning down the entire country is worth it if it means your precious illegal aliens get to stay. Your politicians are the ones have actively encouraged the riots in places like Minneapolis and radicalized people into thinking they have a right to obstruct lawful immigration enforcement. Renee good and Alex Pretti are dead because of you.
I, along with 77 million other Americans, voted for a government that promised mass deportations. And that doesn't mean just gang members and criminals. It means every single person who crossed the border illegally or has overstayed their visa. It doesn't matter if they're a murderer or uber eats driver. We voted to get rid of them all because America is a sovereign nation that has the right to deport people with no right to be here in the first place.
So no, I simply do not care about any of the sob stories that you manufacture on a daily basis to emotionally manipulate people against lawful enforcement of our immigration laws. I don't care if federal agents wearing masks triggers you, I don't care about your tug-at-the-heartstrings propaganda, and I especially don't care that your illegal alien "neighbors" feel scared.
We're sick of being told we're bad people for objecting to the hordes of third-world illegals that you brought here without our consent. The moment you decide that Americans matter more to you than protecting illegals is the moment the chaos and death comes to an end. But you won't because all you are useful idiots for a machine that seeks to make Americans poor and miserable in the country their ancestors built.
@amuse That is a disturbing video because she had to be actively trained out of any sense of self-preservation.
This is not natural. This is evil conditioning.
Did you know the now famous 'Gimball' and 'Gofast' FLIR videos were leaked on the internet years before the Pentagon publicly admitted they're real?
The videos had been 'conclusively debunked' for almost a decade until the military admitted they were actually legit.
These videos will be proven to be authentic, classified surveillance systems recording MH370 during a covert operation.
The lesson I want the world to learn is that it shouldn't have required these videos to reveal the United States' role and physics should never again be allowed to be suppressed in this way.
Dear Lord,
Today, some days I don’t feel blessed—but I know You’re still my Helper. I know You’re moving pieces I can’t see. Your Word says You’ll never leave me nor forsake me, so I’m standing on that even when my strength feels thin. Touch my finances, my business, my career, my relationships—everything that’s trying to drain my faith. Breathe on it again. Flip what the enemy meant to drain me into something that defines me. And when You do it, don’t let it look familiar—make it undeniable. In Jesus’ name.
Amen🙏🏾
As a Black man, and as someone who has been a victim of violence myself, shot while trying to protect my son in the South Shore area of Chicago, I can no longer stay silent about what’s happening in our city. I have seen firsthand the pain, fear, and trauma that come when crime goes unchecked while doing security assignments in and around Chicago including CHA complexes like Stateway Gardens.
I fully support the National Guard being deployed in and around Chicago. Too many families are suffering, too many children are growing up surrounded by chaos, and too many innocent people are being caught in the crossfire while our leaders continue to fail us.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s refusal to let the men and women of the Chicago Police Department actually do their jobs has made things worse. The constant coddling of criminals by both the Mayor #ChicagosMayor and many on the City Council, along with the anti-police rhetoric and policies like cashless bail coming out of Springfield being led by #GovPritzker has created a city where accountability no longer exists and lawlessness has become the norm.
I stand with the officers who still choose to serve despite being handcuffed by politics. I stand with the families who just want to feel safe in their own neighborhoods. And I stand for the truth—because until we face it, nothing will change.
Chicago deserves better. Our people deserve peace. And our city deserves real leadership that puts safety before politics. The same people that oppose law and order are the same ones with huge security officer details paid for with Tax payers dollars, while everyone else continues to fend for themselves, especially on the @cta .
I probably will lose friends over this post. People will consider me an enemy and traitor. But in life, we take risks everyday...this is one of them Chicago. #Chicago #GregAbbott_TX #Texas #NationalGuard #News #Chicago_Police