Surrender by K. Denise Holmberg
Thirty-five years ago, air traffic controllers walked off the job and halted air traffic in the United States. President Ronald Reagan called the striking of federal employees illegal and fired eleven thousand controllers. The ripple effect almost crippled the industry. Thousands more lost their jobs with the airlines. I happened to be one of them. I had been a flight attendant for American Airlines for a year when this happened. Within weeks, I was among the countless numbers of flight attendants, pilots, caterers, baggage handlers, reservationists, gate agents, etc. who were furloughed. I lived in Chicago IL, and had several friends that worked at the Board of Trade. So, I got my license to trade futures and went to work. For a while, everything was rosy. Until I started praying for more money. Just enough to help offset the tremendous cost of living downtown Chicago. I wasn’t being greedy or asking to be rich. I just needed a little more. So what