BLOGAugust 29, 2017

Who We Really Are: 'America Has Been Given a Great Gift, a Reprieve from the Hatred'

A woman threatening to jump from a beam on a New York subway platform was stopped by a kind stranger who was brave enough to walk to her while 20 feet up in the air.

“He actually cared enough, whoever he was, to help her,” witness Michal Klein told CBS2 outside the Broadway-Lafayette subway station, where the incident occurred. “A lot of people seemed to be like, ‘Oh, it’s New York,’ and kept walking.”

On radio Tuesday, Glenn contrasted that incredible story of kindness and courage with incidents involving hatred and violence from Nazi and Antifa rioters. He also detailed some of the strange exhibitions at this year’s Burning Man festival; Planned Parenthood has contributed a bizarre funhouse that celebrates abortion, featuring an obstacle course with “a sperm-shaped tether ball, “a leaky condom,” “a big freakin’ bible” and a coat hanger.

“Now let me ask you this: Which one of these are we?” Glenn asked.

At a time when people are struggling to survive record flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey, we need to consider what kind of people we are and what courage we have.

“America has been given a great gift, a reprieve from the hatred, and a chance to see who we really are,” Glenn said. “There’s too much real pain going on in the world.”

GLENN: I believe that we are being given an opportunity to actually see the truth of who we are as a country. Antifa, Nazis, Berkeley -- all of that, everything you're seeing on television in the media, that's all a lie about who we are.

We can talk all you want, you know, about the Confederate states and the Confederate flag and the statues and whether they need to go and whether they need to be pulled down. None of that makes any difference when Americans are in trouble. And one of those Confederate slave states, the evil state of Texas, is, again, leading the way, showing America who Americans really are. A great opportunity for us to look and say, "You want to be one of those guys, or you want to be with these people?" One is good and lifting up, and one is tearing down. I don't know about you, but to me, the choice is really clear. And we begin there, right now.

(music)

GLENN: I want to talk to you briefly -- because I don't want to dwell on this. I just want to give you a couple of stories that I saw yesterday, that I think are important. Because I want to put -- I want to put Martin Luther King's words to the test, that America, when they see the difference between good and evil, black and white -- when they are put side by side, Americans will always pick good.

And I've wondered, "Is that true?"

Because everything we see on television is bad. Everything about us is bad. And I've wondered, "Will we be able to choose good anymore?"

Let me just give you a couple of examples, and you tell me.

Leftist group, Antifa, Occupy Trump, they now say they are going to do a month's long resistance against Donald Trump, beginning November 4th.

Resistance protesters will begin a multi-year Occupy Wall Street-style demonstration in major cities across America. They are calling themselves resist fascism.

When you look into this group and these people, you see what they really want. And what they really want is not a resistance of fascism, but their own style of fascism.

You then have Antifa and the violence that is going on in Berkeley. And then Burning Man is right around the corner. Burning Man, which seemed to be like, you know, kind of a fun thing when it first started. Kind of a cool thing. Fun.

Now has turned into into hate the rich. People are throwing raw sewage on the tents of the rich people that are there, calling them parasites. And here are some of the things that are happening at Burning Man: Slutty Mini Golf. Hosted by Camp Slut Putt. Burners are invited to come play around in Slutty Mini Gulf. May the biggest slut win. Polegasm, get yours. The event page doesn't define exactly what that means. But I think you can figure out.

There's another one that I don't need to say the name, listed under adult-oriented activities. Offers various ways for women to find intense physical pleasure.

Then there is Camp Beaverton's Lesbian-ish Lending Library. Pick up a good book, share one of your favorites. Trashy lesbian romance novels.

Man-to-man play. Adult 18, gay, bicurious men 24/7. To Down-Low Club's discreet air-cooled tent for erotic man play.

There's the Spank Bank. Have you been naughty, or would you like to be?

The Sex Cult. Spanky's University. And a day spa that I can't tell you. And here's one that I think is interesting, sponsored by Planned Parenthood: Rebirth your burn. The birth canal. Planned Parenthood is proud to present a new birth canal for you to shed the sins of yesterday and be reborn into the dust. Spend a meditative moment in our womb of a dome, and then climb into the canal and be delivered. Squeeze your way through the start, and start the rest of your new life. It won't hurt, or much.

Nearby bar opened from noon to midnight. Bring your own sins. You have to navigate an obstacle course of contraceptive devices through an interior orifice. Twisty turns of the birth canal, reproducing something that we all have in common: The moment we entered into this self-reliant, dusty life. You have to jump over a big freaking Bible, through a coat hanger, and climb a set of stairs to nowhere, and you can chill in the room.

Okay. That's what they're doing. Now, let me tell you another Story: Rockport, HEP Texas, Saturday. The residents affected by Hurricane Harvey, they went to a storm shelter in Rockport. It was in disarray. Nobody knew what to do.

The guy who was in charge was a 29-year-old guy. He had no medical expertise at all. He was actually a screenwriter. He had moved to Rockport from Lexington, Kentucky, three months ago, where he was living with his father, a cancer survivor.

He went to a shelter to find out how he could help ahead of the storm on Friday. After realizing there were no supplies or management at the shelter, he stepped up.

Texas emergency medical task force, when they arrived, they asked who was running the shelter, and everyone pointed to him. He was the only one able to update on the situation.

The shelter had 126 people at last head count. Six were medically fragile. Four needed oxygen. Two needed hospice care. He was able to recruit 15 people, most of them under the age of 21. He assigned them to 30-minute shifts. They got people together into the shelter. The pooled food and water. They plugged leaks from the incoming rain.

He without any experience, without anybody asking, he just stepped up and got it done. But it's not just here over and over and over again stories of heroism, instead of the situation like it was in New Orleans, three days into it, where people were looting and shooting at the helicopters. Instead, Houston, Texas, one of the most diverse cities in the nation, is pulling together.

But also in New York City. Michael Klein. He was on WCBS. Said: She was walking up the stairs of the Broadway Lafitte HEP Subway Station, Saturday. She saw two people sitting in a dangerous place above the trains. There were beams about 20 feet high, 5 feet apart. She said, I really couldn't tell if they were laughing or if one person was crying. I thought they were friends. I wasn't sure. My first thought was: How did you get up there? Why are you goofing off? This is so dangerous." She asked another passenger what was going on.

The girl said, "See that girl? She just climbed over the railing. She went across the beam. She was saying suicidal things." And that guy who apparently doesn't know her climbed over the fence with her, walked out on to this beam, put his arm around her, and was comforting her.

Now, let me ask you: Are you going to climb over a fence? You going to walk a tightrope across a beam, 25 feet above the deadly subway trains in New York City, to go try to rescue a girl that you don't know?

Now, let me ask you this: Which one of these are we? And I guess I know, we are both. We have in our society both. But which one do you want to be a part of?

Do you want to be a part of something that is so shallow, that your -- that your accomplishment in life, with all of the things that are going on, your accomplishment in life is to come up with a birth canal where you're challenging people who are going to a bar to try to navigate over the big freaking Bible and a coat hanger.

With all the things in the world, do you want to stand with the people -- be them Nazis or Antifa, do you want to be the one that is standing with them, that is talking about why that statue, of the guy who started the Klan, should be up or shouldn't be up? But not just discussing it in a logical way and using, you know, the usual American ways of solving problems, instead, you want to be the ones shouting at each other?

I don't think so. None of us do. We all want to be the person on the beam. But not all of us can be.

Not all of us have the courage. I don't have the courage to be the 9/11 fire firefighters. I don't have the courage to be a regular firefighter. I don't have the courage to be a cop. But we all want to support the people who do walk out on the beam.

We want to be there and cheer them on and be inspired by the ones who do run up the stairs into a burning building. The ones who do stand in front of the bad guys, quite honestly. And protect their right.

America has been given a great gift, a reprieve from the hatred, and a chance to see who we really are. If your media source is not giving you the opportunity to see those things and to not make this about politics, to not make this about party and partisan and policy, I don't know about you, but I'm done with all that. There's too much real pain going on in the world to spend our time and our day just worried about that.

My daughter and I were having a conversation. She said, "Dad, I just want to make a difference. That's all I want to do. I want to know that when I get up in the morning and do, that it matters."

It's so funny, I told her, I said, "Honey, I want you to come back to work, and I want you to read what I wrote on my glass window." I use it as kind of a white board. I said, "I just wrote something on there, just today." This was last week.

I want to do something that matters. We're all like that. Here's an opportunity.

I'll tell you what we have going on on the ground. We're going to take you to Houston here in a second. But if you want to get involved, please, go to mercuryone.org. That's mercuryone.org. I'm going to tell you the things that Mercury One is doing. One hundred percent of all of the proceeds, going right directly to the people I'm going to tell you about, the people who are already out on the ground, who were in semi-trucks on Friday, staging water and blankets and everything else.

You have helped us develop one incredible network of good people that can help. You want to make a difference and you have five bucks to donate, you can: Mercuryone.org. Do that now. Mercuryone.org.

RADIO

Could passengers have SAVED Iryna Zarutska?

Surveillance footage of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC, reveals that the other passengers on the train took a long time to help her. Glenn, Stu, and Jason debate whether they were right or wrong to do so.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm -- I'm torn on how I feel about the people on the train.

Because my first instinct is, they did nothing! They did nothing! Then my -- well, sit down and, you know -- you know, you're going to be judged. So be careful on judging others.

What would I have done? What would I want my wife to do in that situation?

STU: Yeah. Are those two different questions, by the way.

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

STU: I think they go far apart from each other. What would I want myself to do. I mean, it's tough to put yourself in a situation. It's very easy to watch a video on the internet and talk about your heroism. Everybody can do that very easily on Twitter. And everybody is.

You know, when you're in a vehicle that doesn't have an exit with a guy who just murdered somebody in front of you, and has a dripping blood off of a knife that's standing 10 feet away from you, 15 feet away from you.

There's probably a different standard there, that we should all kind of consider. And maybe give a little grace to what I saw at least was a woman, sitting across the -- the -- the aisle.

I think there is a difference there. But when you talk about that question. Those two questions are definitive.

You know, I know what I would want myself to do. I would hope I would act in a way that didn't completely embarrass myself afterward.

But I also think, when I'm thinking of my wife. My advice to my wife would not be to jump into the middle of that situation at all costs. She might do that anyway. She actually is a heck of a lot stronger than I am.

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

STU: Yes. But that would not be my advice to her.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Now, maybe once the guy has certainly -- is out of the area. And you don't think the moment you step into that situation. He will turn around and kill you too. Then, of course, obviously. Anything you can do to step in.

Not that there was much anyone on the train could do.

I mean, I don't think there was an outcome change, no matter what anyone on that train did.

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

Of course. If she felt she was safe, yes.

Think about, you said, your wife. Think about your daughter. Your daughter is on that train, just watching someone else getting murdered like that. Would you advise your daughter to jump into a situation like that?

That girl sitting across the aisle was somebody's daughter. I don't know, man.

JASON: I would. You know, as a dad, would I advise.

Hmm. No.

As a human being, would I hope that my daughter or my wife or that I would get up and at least comfort that woman while she's dying on the floor of a train?

Yeah.

I would hope that my daughter, my son, that I would -- and, you know, I have more confidence in my son or daughter or my wife doing something courageous more than I would.

But, you know, I think I have a more realistic picture of myself than anybody else.

And I'm not sure that -- I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. I know what I would hope I would do. But I also know what I fear I would do. But I would have hoped that I would have gotten up and at least tried to help her. You know, help her up off the floor. At least be there with her, as she's seeing her life, you know, spill out in under a minute.

And that's it other thing we have to keep in mind. This all happened so rapidly.

A minute is -- will seem like a very long period of time in that situation. But it's a very short period of time in real life.

STU: Yeah. You watch the video, Glenn. You know, I don't need the video to -- to change my -- my position on this.

But at his seem like there was a -- someone who did get there, eventually, to help, right? I saw someone seemingly trying to put pressure on her neck.

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

STU: You know, no hope at that point. How long of a time period would you say that was?

Do you know off the top of your head?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know. I know that we watched the video that I saw. I haven't seen past 30 seconds after she --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- is down. And, you know, for 30 seconds nothing is happening. You know, that is -- that is not a very long period of time.

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

STU: And especially, I saw the pace he was walking. He certainly can't be -- you know, he may have left the actual train car by 30 seconds to a minute. But he wasn't that far away. Like he was still in visual.

He could still turn around and look and see what's going on at that point. So certainly still a threat is my point. He has not, like, left the area. This is not that type of situation.

You know, I -- look, as you point out, I think if I could be super duper sexist for a moment here, sort of my dividing line might just be men and women.

You know, I don't know if it's that a -- you're not supposed to say that, I suppose these days. But, like, there is a difference there. If I'm a man, you know, I would be -- I would want my son to jump in on that, I suppose. I don't know if he could do anything about it. But you would expect at least a grown man to be able to go in there and do something about it. A woman, you know, I don't know.

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

GLENN: Here's the thing I -- here's the thing that I -- that causes me to say, no. You should have jumped in.

And that is, you know, you've already killed one person on the train. So you've proven that you're a killer. And anybody who would have screamed and got up and was with her, she's dying. She's dying. Get him. Get him.

Then the whole train is responsible for stopping that guy. You know. And if you don't stop him, after he's killed one person, if you're not all as members of that train, if you're not stopping him, you know, the person at the side of that girl would be the least likely to be killed. It would be the ones that are standing you up and trying to stop him from getting back to your daughter or your wife or you.

JASON: There was a -- speaking of men and women and their roles in this. There was a video circling social media yesterday. In Sweden. There was a group of officials up on a stage. And one of the main. I think it was health official woman collapses on stage. Completely passes out.

All the men kind of look away. Or I don't know if they're looking away. Or pretending that they didn't know what was going on. There was another woman standing directly behind the woman passed out.

Immediately springs into action. Jumps on top. Grabs her pant leg. Grabs her shoulder. Spins her over and starts providing care.

What did she have that the other guys did not? Or women?

She was a sheepdog. There is a -- this is my issue. And I completely agree with Stu. I completely agree with you. There's some people that do not respond this way. My issue is the proportion of sheepdogs versus people that don't really know how to act. That is diminishing in western society. And American society.

We see it all the time in these critical actions. I mean, circumstances.

There are men and women, and it's actually a meme. That fantasize about hoards of people coming to attack their home and family. And they sit there and say, I've got it. You guys go. I'm staying behind, while I smoke my cigarette and wait for the hoards to come, because I will sacrifice myself. There are men and women that fantasize of block my highway. Go ahead. Block my highway. I'm going to do something about it. They fantasize about someone holding up -- not a liquor store. A convenience store or something. Because they will step in and do something. My issue now is that proportion of sheepdogs in society is disappearing. Just on statistical fact, there should be one within that train car, and there were none.

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

STU: We see what happens when they do, with Daniel Penny. Our society tries to vilify them and crush their existence. Now, there weren't that many people on that train. Right?

At least on that car. At least it's limited. I only saw three or four people there, there may have been more. I agree with you, though. Like, you see what happens when we actually do have a really recent example of someone doing exactly what Jason wants and what I would want a guy to do. Especially a marine to step up and stop this from happening. And the man was dragged by our legal system to a position where he nearly had to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I mean, I -- it's insanity. Thankfully, they came to their senses on that one.

GLENN: Well, the difference between that one and this one though is that the guy was threatening. This one, he killed somebody.

STU: Yeah. Right. Well, but -- I think -- but it's the opposite way. The debate with Penny, was should he have recognize that had this person might have just been crazy and not done anything?

Maybe. He hadn't actually acted yet. He was just saying things.

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

STU: He didn't wind up stabbing someone. This is a situation where these people have already seen what this man will do to you, even when you don't do anything to try to stop him. So if this woman, who is, again, looks to be an average American woman.

Across the aisle. Steps in and tries to do something. This guy could easily turn around and just make another pile of dead bodies next to the one that already exists.

And, you know, whether that is an optimal solution for our society, I don't know that that's helpful.

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.

Glenn's Show Prep

Who We Really Are: 'America Has Been Given a Great Gift, a Reprieve from the Hatred'

Could passengers have SAVED Iryna Zarutska?

Transcript

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

Here’s what we know about the suspected Charlie Kirk assassin