Report of Glenn Beck and the American Revival in Orlando 3/27/10
I told many friends we had signed up to attend this event and they asked me to tell them how it went, some lamented they wished they could go but had conflicts etc. I like to put together these type of summary reports because it helps me crystallize in my mind what I gleaned from the day. It was an extraordinary day, great learning experience, very motivational, and I suspect will give all 9,000 or so and even greater desire to do what they can to educate and be on the offensive politically.
My problem is I did not write down the list of those who had commented so if this is of no interest to you I suggest you either delete this now or stop reading and move on to something else.
Here is a basic overview. The theme of the event was Faith, Hope and Charity. To my wife and I that sounded kinda hokie at first. Glenn has drawn three of our founding fathers into a poster similar to the hope sign that was used in the Obama campaign one standing for faith, second hope and finally charity. That is not my thing so I was kind of skeptical as I went through the front door of the maximum security facility to attend.
The day was indeed broken into those sections. The first portion was Glenn in a quick overview and the first speaker was David Barton to discuss faith. I braced myself for fear this was going to turn into a prayer breakfast or something. Did not take me but a couple minutes to realize just how wrong I was. David Barton has written many books about the founding fathers and the role of God in the developing of our constitution and bill of rights. He gave us a lesson that we all wished we had is school. Who actually published the first bible in the US? I did not know, it was the US government. The king had forbidden that bibles be published so it was not until after the Constitution was written, and the war being won that bibles were published. Many of the founding fathers were instrumental in doing so.
The most amazing thing to me was this. The framers of our constitution had worked to try to put something together for weeks and had nothing to show for their efforts but frustration. David said that they had begun the constitutional convention with a call for prayer and one of the founding fathers objected. It seemed that each of our thirteen colonies had their own religion, one predominately Methodist, another Catholic, you get the picture. The father that stopped the prayer basically said no, we have different religious views, we cannot prey together.
Finally after weeks of frustration, I believe it was John Adams or George Washington that had a call to prayer. The message was I will pray with anyone who wishes to pray to God. They got on their knees and preyed, then took a couple days off literally to prey for guidance. It was a turning point, and not too many weeks later our Constitution and bill of Rights was born.
David did not make this analogy, but I immediately thought of Iraq. It is a country made up of religious tribes or sects that have been warring with one another for centuries. Our thirteen colonies were much like that at the time. Had they not prayed together and realized they were all good and decent men, would our country be as fractured as Europe and Iran today?
It became quite clear that our modern day school system in America would want to eliminate that part of our nation's history, it has to do with religion. On a personal note, I have already made inquiries to see if I can purchase a DVD of that 30 minute talk, it was one of the most educating and enlightening lessons I have ever attended. I have family members who teach in parochial schools, friend who are clergymen, and some contacts with my home town church and the confirmation classes. At the very least, that 30 minute DVD should be required in every confirmation class in America. It is not a democrat/republican thing at all; but rather the role of religion in the birth of our country.
While most countries in the world have revolutions on average every 40 years, our Constitution has stood, as has our form of government for 235 years.
The next lesson came from David Buckner, the professor from Cornell who is the economist. He reiterated the lesson that our nation is so far in debt that it is beyond the point of no return. Just like in our home life or any business, you have two choices. You can either cut expenses or raise revenue; which is something modern day politicians are not prone to do. The government has a third option which individuals do not have. They can print up dollars on a printing press. Oh how we all may have wished many times that money did grow on trees, and we had the only tree. Well the government owns the tree. By having hyperinflation, then the government can pay off debt with worthless dollars. He then talked about each and every one of us getting our own house in order financially because it is going to get worse before it gets better.
A few highlights from his message. Moody's still have given the US a AAA bond rating which is a farce. China has stopped buying our T-bills as has Japan for the most part. If the government, who currently has interest rates close to zero has to raise interest rates just 1-2% to raise capital, within a matter of just a few years, 100% of our tax revenue as a nation will go to pay just the interest on the debt. An analogy would be a working family takes 100% of their income to just pay the interest on their Visa card, without ever paying down the principal, nor do they have money for food, clothing or any other current household expenses. That is unsustainable.
So what is a government to do? Likely they will inflate the currency and try to tax and confiscate as much wealth from the citizens as they possibly can. His last slide was one that hit me and I will link it up later with something else. The line was that many Americans must have the Courage not to Capitulate!
Somewhere in this process I realized that Glenn was doing a fine job as coordinator, and with his closing remarks, motivator, but he had assembled a team of real experts and we sure as heck were really learning something.
The next talk came from Judge Napolitano about charity and the Constitution. I had two HUGE take aways from his message.
First was the fact that the founding fathers understood very clearly how power corrupts and indeed wrote the Constitution with the goal of restricting the federal government. He gave one interesting example. In the presidency of John Adams, following Washington, a law was passed making it illegal to criticize the president and the government. How could these folks who have written the Constitution, who included an amendment about free speech do such a thing? This was the same generation of men. Thomas Jefferson, who finished second in the balloting became the vice president and he was not in favor of the law at all and when he became the third president it got reversed. His point is how easily power corrupts and how the government wants to take away the human rights granted by God, not the government. While God may well give us those right, corrupt and power seeking men and governments may try to take them away as we all know.
Second item was one we all understand clearly. The federal government has ignored the Constitution for years and how important it is to get back to some semblance of order in that regards. Our government has stood for over 200 years with that framework, something the world has not seen before. Other dictators throughout the world are encouraging our politicians to destroy it because the freedom of our citizens, our success and life style is the envy of the world and sure makes them look bad.
The judges solution was simple, throw the bums out and elect representatives who will uphold the constitution. To me his entire talk was the best case for congressional term limits I have ever seen, career politicians are a curse.
A personal highlight for me was ironic. They were having a question and answer session at the end of the day before Glenn gave the final talk. I had to sneak out to the men's room and under the stands was a small lounge which is used by the super duper big time boosters of the college basketball program. It was open so I hustle into the men's room. When I come out, who is standing there but the man himself, Glenn Beck. I observed for a few minutes as some folks were having their pictures taken and he was signing some notebooks and other things. As he walked right past me I said, "Glenn can I give you a one liner you might appreciate?" He said, "sure" as he walked slowly and kept signing stuff. I said, "If Obamacare had been passed during the Truman administration we would still have iron lungs and be looking for a cure for polio." He flat stopped, turn, smiled and looked me in the eye and said, "Wow, you know that is really true." and he thanked me. Be interesting to see if we hear that on the air.
His final talk was excellent, some I had seen before and knew about. Following is some notes, just sentences and observations I wrote down which may be of interest.
Glenn said we are Americans not Europeans. He went on to explain Europeans have had monarchies, dictators and top down governments for thousands of years. They are used to being ordered around by their governments. Americans he said are quite different, we don't like to be pushed around and are tired of it. I immediately thought of the line I mentioned earlier from David Buckner, "the courage not to capitulate." I think our government who wants to make us more like Europe has totally underestimated that fact and we will find out fairly quickly in the next two election cycles. On a personal note, I can easily see some states trying to secede from the union, some folks just do not like the government intrusion in their lives.
"When their side can't give away free stuff their people eat them!"
"History is no longer a spectator sport, it is for those who are in the game." as he talked about how they are trying to rewrite history.
"It is our struggles, and overcoming them, that makes life worth living." I know many folks who have hit rock bottom in many ways and the fact they had to struggle to right their ship, and did it, is what made them who they are today. No one can do it for them.
He talked about California legalizing marijuana and compared it to Nazi Germany. They did something similar I guess and wanted the tax revenue and to sedate the population.
He then went on to discuss the process and used MLK and Ghandi as references. He said the hippies of the 60's learned that violence does not work, it turns the public against you. He also made the point that the left understands that well and is trying to provoke the tea party movement into doing something stupid because they know it will have a major impact on public opinion. He used some examples about Pelosi and she indeed is a master agitator. We cannot allow that to happen, We can educate and vote and get the job done.
And finally, he said, "We need to become our grandparents!" Now I suspect he is not talking about my generation; but rather those from WWII. While there are always exceptions they understood right and wrong, had some common sense about them we all knew when "enough was enough" Go to a PTA meeting and when they talk about "trophies for participation", stand up and say "What???, that is not real life." I am sure you all get the picture. He gave a couple examples of things where folks say things that are just flat not true. Speak out and say so, just like grandpa would have done.
He gave one hilarious example. One young boy woke up in the morning to find his grandmother has sewed up all the holes in his blue jeans. At the breakfast table, instead of being grateful he was trying to explain to his grandparents how he had paid extra for the blue jeans with the holes in them. Grandpa listened for a bit, then finally looked over the top of his glasses and then had a loving talk with the young man.
Folks, hope I have not bored you. It was a wonderful day my wife and I came away with several action items. If any of you have the chance to attend the next one, which I believe will be in AZ, I would highly recommend it. Spend the money and get good seats you will be glad you did.
Best personal regards,
5412
