Audio File
Transcript
My name is Chi Ma’at. I live in the Hill, and I moved back to the Hill about 3 years ago, but I left the Hill in 1999, the very end of 1999 and early 2000 to finish up my career, had a career in travel. So I went to North Carolina for three years and then I moved to Atlanta. I lived in Atlanta for about 20 years, and then I moved back to the Hill about 3 years ago. And when I lived in the Hill, I raised two children in the Hill. My daughter, who actually was born in 1981, and she’s actually a teacher over at Obama now. Maybe some of you might know her. And my son, also, I raised him in the Hill, and he’s actually an attorney, so we did pretty well by living in the Hill District. I grew up mostly in Homewood and Wilkinsburg area, and then I moved to the Hill when I got married. But the Homewood and Wilkinsburg area, I lived in, and I went to Westinghouse high school. My childhood was very interesting because during that time, it was a time when we played outside. It was a time not like these times when you have a lot of videos and things to keep you indoors, electronics and things. But when we played outside, it was very neighborhood-ish, where the neighbors and all of the children knew each other, looked out for each other. My family was very interesting as well because I actually grew up in a two parent household, which is very rare, and I realize that, and I feel very blessed to have grown up in a 2 family household although. I must say that although you have two parents in the home, you still have problems and you have issues, and there were always elements outside of the home that were challenging. So, you know, but it was very, very interesting that I grew up in a two parent house. When I first moved to the Hill, it was a time when I almost didn’t want to come. Actually, I was getting married to someone at the time who was from the Hill, and this was before they started the redevelopment in the Hill area. And I thought because, you know, being from Homewood and Wilkinsburg area, you know, it was a rivalry of some sort, and I thought “I don’t really know if I want to move to the Hill,” and he was from the Hill, and he was, you know, like, “No, it’s going to be fine. It’s going to be fine.” And he was actually a professional boxer. I didn’t meet him as a professional boxer, but I met him in college, and he was boxing, and he was very, very good. He won the Golden Gloves five times, went to the Pan American Olympics and he said “We’re gonna be fine. We’re gonna move to the Hill. We’re gonna buy a new house.” And I said, “Well, OK.” The Hill District has changed a lot and like I said, I was living in the Hill, and this was like in the 80s, and now we’re talking about 2024. In the 80s when I was raising my children in the Hill, we had a very neighborhoodly type of situation there as well, whereby if my children were outside, I was outside. If my children were involved in something I was involved in it as well. Whatever they did, and all the different activities that they were involved in, I promoted to have them do that, and I supported them to have them do that and other neighbors also had their children outside. Their parents were outside as well. So we had a very connected relationship with the parents and the children. We all knew each other. Because of the closeness of all of the parents that I was around at that time that had that safety element, although there were still some crime, if you will, that happened. But I think that the community, when community sticks together, that you’re very, very much better off. In my generation, the advice was always to say no to drugs, you know? But I think that the youth today have many challenges and, you know, I really feel for y’all for the youth that you know, you’ve got so many things bombarded and coming at you with the TV and society and stuff in general and just, you know. So I just think that part of what you could do is, you know, get with some of the senior people, you know, sit down and talk to us. Like the song goes, you know, we need the young people’s energy and old people’s wisdom. You get with some wiser. It’s just because somebody’s old doesn’t mean they’re wise, OK? But you get to some older and wiser people, and before you make certain decisions, especially major decisions. That you talk with some older, wiser people that have gone through certain things so that you don’t make the same mistakes and that you will be able to thrive better and not just survive but thrive.