Ep 4 ｜ The Christian Case for American Patriotism (+ Cat Facts)
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
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Summary
In this episode, Allie talks about being unpatriotic in the church and why she thinks it's a huge problem. She also talks about whether or not your cat is allergic to essential oils and how to know if you should keep your house from smelling like cat litter.
Transcript
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Hey guys, welcome to the podcast. I'm Allie. I am the host of this podcast, obviously,
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but I'm also a host at CRTV.com. I hope that everyone is having the best week of their entire
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lives. And if not, I hope that you are at least having a good week or even an adequate week.
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And even if you're having the worst week ever, I hope that this podcast right here
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makes your week better. Today, we are going to talk about something very serious. We are going
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to talk about cats and how to know whether or not your cat is allergic to the essential oils that
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you are diffusing in your home. I'm totally kidding. If this is your first time to this
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podcast, like you probably already turned it off by now. I'm kidding. I just made that up. I just
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wanted to say that because I've actually been thinking about that subject recently. I did just
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find out that cats are allergic to essential oils and I became really distressed about this
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because we have these air wick plugins that are supposedly essential oils. And I was worrying
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that we're poisoning Rachel McAdams and sweatpants, AKA Cat Damon. And the ending to this story that I'm
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telling you for absolutely no reason is not that I found out that they will be fine. I didn't actually
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find that out. I just found out something worse. I learned that these things are probably bad for me
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too. Like, did you know that these air freshener companies do not have to tell you at all anywhere,
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not online, not on the back of the packages, what the ingredients in air freshener is like,
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that's weird. I feel like it's not okay. So I just don't know what to do. Here's my dilemma.
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I don't want my cat or I don't want my house to smell like cat litter. I actually don't want my cat
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to smell like cat litter either. So that works. The question is, do I allow my house to smell like cat
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do-do and avoid being intoxicated by possibly deadly essential oil air fresheners? Or do I
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keep my house smelling like lavender and just say, you know what, Jeremiah 29, 11, God knows the plans
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he has for me. And if I die from air freshener, then so be it, you know, to live is Christ and to
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die is gain. I don't know. I don't know. I'll let you guys weigh in. Message me on Instagram. Let me
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know. Okay. That is enough of that. I'm really sorry. Again, if this is your first time,
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that doesn't always happen. Sometimes it does. I just felt like I needed to share that with you,
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but that rant was way too off base and long has nothing to do with what we're talking about.
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What we're actually going to talk about today is this trend of being unpatriotic,
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especially in the church and why that is incredibly stupid. So here we go.
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So there's this really ignorant myth floating around in the church in particular that basically
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says we cannot be patriotic and proud of America and be a Christian. The people who say things like
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this also usually say things like, oh, Jesus was a socialist. They have this attitude that America
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is bad because of slavery and stuff. So there's really no reason to be proud of it. And Jesus is
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coming back anyway. So why should we even care about our country? Wouldn't it be more loving to
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just have a government that like gives people stuff? These people tend to want us to be more like
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Europe. They love Bernie Sanders. These happen to usually be the same people who believe that
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unconditional tolerance is more important than preaching the actual gospel. These are what I
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call social justice warrior Christians and they are ignorant. Now, to be fair, some Christians who
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lack patriotism are not full on Bernie Sanders SJWs. They just look at our past and even our present
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and they say rightfully so, hey, we are not perfect. We have done and still do some messed up stuff.
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Our politicians are all corrupt and these people don't want to get on their
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high horse about America because they know we have our own set of problems. So they just kind of
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detach themselves from politics, learning about our history and talking about America because they
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kind of feel guilty about it. This is an understandable view. I know a lot of very smart people like this,
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but the problem is it still does not line up with reality. And then, of course, you have people who
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are not religious at all who feel unpatriotic as well. But I always want to address the Christian
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view because this is a Christian conservative millennial podcast. So first, to kind of give you
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my perspective, let me back up a little bit and tell you about my relationship with patriotism.
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I can't really call myself anything other than patriotic, not just like a little bit, but like
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really patriotic. I love America. My husband can tell you that when we're seeing the Star Spangled
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Banner, which it's not like in our living room, like if we're at a game or something, or even
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when I say pledge allegiance to the flag, I almost always get tears in my eyes. Courtesy of the Red,
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White, and Blue by Toby Keith is seriously one of my all-time favorite songs. I know some people
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have qualms with the Hamilton musical, but I seriously cry when I listen to the first two songs
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because it is such a beautiful depiction of the resolve of the American spirit. My parents really
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instilled in me a love for our country and the knowledge that America is unique. I always knew
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that it was an incredible privilege to be born in and grow up in a free country, although I may not
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have always known what that really meant. Now, we hear the word privilege a lot nowadays. I said it was
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a privilege to live in this country. When we hear the word privilege, it's typically used in a bad way.
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If someone has privilege, they must be spoiled and totally blind to reality, but privilege isn't a
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negative unless, because of your privilege, you're unable or unwilling to see the needs of those who
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are worse off than you are. Privileges are gifts. They are blessings that we do not deserve. They can
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be used to insulate us from the plight of other people, which is bad, or they can be used to actually
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do something good and impactful. When my parents taught me that it's a privilege to live in America,
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I knew that didn't just mean that I was lucky. It meant that I had a responsibility. I understood
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from a really young age that I needed to do something with what I was given, because the
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only thing worse than allowing your privilege to blind you to reality is to deny its existence
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altogether, to take it for granted. That is what those who ignore America's greatness do. They fail to
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appreciate the immense blessing that they have been given, and so they fail to use it in a way that
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actually matters. A big reason I think my parents so naturally instilled patriotism into me was
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because of their own story. It's part of who they are. It is who they are. So I'm going to give you a
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brief rundown of where my parents came from and the journey that I think really, really well depicts
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the American dream and the reason for the patriotism that I have. So my dad's mom, my grandma,
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with whom I have always had a really close relationship with, was the second oldest of 13
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kids. She grew up on a cotton farm in Louisiana. They made all of their own food, their own clothes.
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As you can imagine, they were extremely, extremely poor. I once asked my grandmother a while ago if
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they ever had any hired help, you know, around the house with the kids, cleaning, picking the cotton,
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and she said we were the hired help. Neither of her parents were educated at all. Maybe the eighth
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grade. My grandma was the first one in her family to graduate from high school. She was the first one
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to go to college. She finished college. She went on to get her master's. She supported herself through
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all of that. She became a teacher and she taught for 30 years. Really, her story alone is a testament to
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what hard work gets you in America. But that's just kind of the preface to my parents' story.
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She married my grandfather, who was a church band director his entire life. They had four kids
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together, including my dad, of course. So they had a church salary and a teacher's salary. They got by.
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They weren't destitute, but they certainly didn't have a lot, especially for a family of six.
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Uh, my grandfather, as it turns out, unfortunately ended up being a really bad dad and husband.
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And from what I hear, the kids didn't have a great childhood. Uh, my grandparents ended up getting a
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divorce when my dad was a teenager. Switch over to my mom. My mom's mom got pregnant with her when she
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was 18 and then she married my granddad. Uh, neither of them went to college. According to my mom,
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her dad had lots of different jobs when she was growing up. Sometimes they would have money.
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Sometimes they wouldn't. And, uh, when I say have money, I mean like enough to get by. Uh,
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both of her parents drank heavily. She might not say that they were alcoholics, but they were
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probably close. My mom talks about having to drive to the liquor store for her dad when she was 13 to
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get him beer and cigarettes. Um, but unlike my dad's parents, my mom's parents actually loved each
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other. And even though their marriage was volatile at times, apparently, uh, they did at the end of
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the day, love each other and want to be together. Uh, my mom says that growing up around all of this,
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one of her only goals in life, uh, was to not get married or pregnant as a teenager, not her only goal,
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but one of her main goals in life. And she did it a month after she turned 20. She married my dad,
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who was still 19 at the time they met in college in, uh, the small town in Arkansas, close to where
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both of them lived. They dated for six months. I think they were also engaged for six months.
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And then, uh, they got married in 1980, just a year after my dad's parents got divorced. They had
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absolutely no money. They had no long-term plans. Really. They had very few, if any solid examples of
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what a good, godly, committed marriage look like. Uh, my dad never had someone teach him what it was
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like to lead a family in a Christlike way, or even in a practical way. And my mom didn't really have
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that kind of example either. Um, but got married, they did. Uh, my mom continued to go to school
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while working. My dad went to school at night and worked at an oil company during the day.
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They had my oldest brother about a year and a half after they got married. Uh, my mom graduated from
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college. The first person in her family to actually do that when she was 21, only three months after she
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gave birth to my brother, it took my dad 10 years, 10 years of taking night classes and working full
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time, uh, to finish college. But he did just before his 10 year high school reunion. Um, early in their
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marriage, my parents lived in what they tell me was a cockroach infested trailer. My mom still to this
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day has a fear of these cockroach type bugs called water bugs. She, if she's listening to this, she is
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probably cringing, but that's what they had to do. They couldn't afford really anything else. Um, my mom
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tells me about my dad's first boss, whom she hated at the time because he would make fun of my dad for
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wearing the same suit to work every single day. Uh, one time my dad called my mom from work and told her
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to go out and buy him new shoes because his boss told him he had to, she was panicked. She was
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freaking out because she was like, Oh my gosh, where am I going to find the money to buy shoes? So she
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literally scrounged up whatever change they had lying around and went to the discount store to buy my dad
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new dress shoes. To make a long story shorter, both of my parents continued to work their butts off
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because they were determined that they weren't going to stay in poverty right after they had my
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other brother in 1985, still young and still poor. They moved to Dallas where my dad took a job at a
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bank and it was that job that launched him into other career opportunities that after many years and
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after many late nights and weekends working eventually led to him owning his own investment
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firm really for as long as I can remember. So probably for the past like 21 years, my parents
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have been entrepreneurs. I've only ever known my dad to be extremely hardworking, wise, and generous.
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He has been very successful in all of his business and even political endeavors. My mom was able to stay
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home with us, which I know is something not every child gets to benefit from growing up. And they were
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able to provide for me and for my brothers, a life that was so vastly different from the lives
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they had when they were growing up. We never had to worry about clothes or food or shoes. We never
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had to worry about college. And it was, it wasn't just monetarily that my brothers and I were better
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off than our parents. They also set a much better example for us than their parents probably did. They
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raised us in church with good values. They've been married 38 years now. They just celebrated their
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anniversary last month and they still love each other and even like each other. Both my parents
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grew up in unsteady homes, but I never did. They made sure of that. It wasn't perfect growing up. I mean,
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no home is perfect, but I never had to worry about whether or not I was going to be provided for or
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cared for or loved. And I never wondered whether or not my parents loved each other and wanted to be
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together. And because of that, because of all of that, I was able to go to college, the college that
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I wanted to. Because of that, I was able to get a good job out of college. And because of both of
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those things, I'm doing what I am doing now, which is what I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted
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to write and speak. That's it. I've never wanted to do anything else. And because of my parents'
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incredible hard work, I was placed in a position to be able to chase after that. And I did,
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and I am. I'm doing it. I'm doing more now than I ever thought that I would be doing at 26.
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A lot of that is, of course, because of my own hard work. Yes, but I'd be fooling myself if I
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didn't acknowledge that my parents' sacrifices positioned me to get here. And here's the thing.
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I'm not ashamed of that. When I talk about those things, it's not bragging. My parents worked really,
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really hard to help me be in a position to do what I want to do. People who use the word privilege as
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some kind of bad word want me to be ashamed of the fact that I use my parents' hard work as a
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springboard for my life and my career. No, I'm not. I'm not ashamed of that. I'm proud.
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You ask me if I'm privileged, and I say, yes, I am privileged. And my parents worked hard to make
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sure I had privileges that they never did. They came from almost nothing, pulled themselves up by the
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bootstraps at 19 with no help, no money, with all odds stacked against them, and they made it.
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And by the time I was old enough to listen, they were able to look me in the eye and honestly say,
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Allie, you can do anything you want to do in life. And because they are living proof, I believed them.
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Yes, their lives are, of course, a testament to the grace of God, but they are also evidence of the
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benefits of making good, even biblical choices. My parents made good choices when they were young
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that distinguished them from their friends and their other family members that didn't. They got
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married. Then they had kids. They lived within or below their means. They finished college despite
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how long it took or how hard it was. My dad took jobs he knew would propel him forward and would
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provide for a family. They both worked incredibly hard. They built a life for us that they never had.
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Like I said, my grandma, growing up on a Louisiana cotton farm, was the first in her family to go to
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and finish college. My mom was the first in her family to go to and finish college. My dad was the
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first person in his family to make any money. They broke cycles in their families that could have just
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as easily been perpetuated. I could have been the first in my family to finish high school and college.
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I could be living in a trailer with my two kids, but I'm not. And most of it has to do with, yes,
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number one, God's providence and also my parents' wise decisions in life.
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And what makes me privileged isn't just that my parents worked hard for me, but that I live in a
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country where this is not only possible, but it's actually the norm. That is why it is called the
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American dream, not the Canadian dream, not the British dream, not the Chinese dream, the American
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dream. America is the only place on earth where stories like my parents are typical, where people
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are expected to and do rise up from poverty, from abuse, from destitution, from the worst adverse
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circumstances possible and become something. And to have this typify what it is to be an American is
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an incredible thing. No other country is defined that way. This kind of determination is literally
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in the American DNA. Think about our founding and how we fought for independence from Britain.
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We were tired of being taxed by an island miles away, so we freaking destroyed an entire shipment of
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tea by throwing it into the ocean. We knew it was going to start a conflict with the British people
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and we did it anyway. I mean, think about the Revolutionary War. It's all you need to look at
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to see just how badass America is. We were fighting against Britain, a global superpower. We were a poor,
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good for nothing, underfed, underarm group of men who had no business going up against the British.
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We had no chance of winning, but we did. Why? Because we are awesome. Because
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liberty means that much to us, George Washington did a surprise attack on Christmas crossing the
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Delaware and defeated British troops. Totally relentless. And in case you didn't know, we won
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the Revolutionary War, just in case you forgot about that, and we did gain our independence.
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And speaking of the Revolutionary War, think about Alexander Hamilton, one of our founding fathers,
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born in poverty in the Caribbean, orphaned at a young age, became a self-made genius by the time
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he was 14. His community took up a collection just to send him to the States, where he became one of
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the key players in the Revolution and in our founding. The right-hand man of George Washington
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during the war, he also wrote the majority of the Federalist Papers that defended the Constitution.
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His handiwork literally laid so much of the foundation of our country, and he came from
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absolutely nothing. Our beginnings as an entire country are ragtag. The odds were stacked against us
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so much for so long, but the American spirit has this unprecedented grit. And so far, we've proved
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everyone wrong. That is the spark that is placed inside us as Americans, that there is nothing too
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great or too far off for us to accomplish. I mean, we did win two world wars. We put a man on the moon.
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We are the leaders in technology and innovation. Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter,
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these countries used by billions around the world were made on our soil. We are the capital of
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creativity and entertainment. We are the mecca of TV, movies, music. There are some other really
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great countries out there, but no country comes even close to having what we have. Hundreds of people,
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if not thousands of people, risk their lives every day just to come here. America is the last and the
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only shining beacon of freedom left in the world. We are the greatest last hope for liberty. We are
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the only country willing to stand against tyranny. Despite all of our flaws, despite the horrors that
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we've had in our past, horrors of slavery, Jim Crow, despite our history of inequality. Yes, I'm a
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conservative and I said that. Despite our imperfections, the American experiment is the
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greatest and most successful experiment this world has ever seen. But all of these things have become
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dramatically less true in the last 10 years. People don't believe these things anymore.
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They want to make us more like Canada, more like Europe. They think socialism is the way.
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More gun control, single payer health care, free college. They would rather exchange freedom for
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comfort like every other country in the world has always done. They want to even the global playing
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field. They think it's mean and wrong to say that America is the best. It's all of a sudden just a
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conservative thing to be patriotic. It's not an American thing. It's a conservative thing. The cool
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liberal thing to do is to, sorry, but shit on our country. And I will tell you why. Okay, so what I'm
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about to say, I don't say as a Republican, honestly and truly, I say it as an American. But hear me,
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Barack Obama had a lot of good qualities. From what I could tell, he was a good father. He was a good
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husband. He was eloquent. He seemed down to earth, probably really nice, probably fun to talk to. He
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seems like someone you just want to grab a beer with. Fine. But the reality is he did serious damage
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to our country. He was the first president to make being unpatriotic cool. He apologized to countries
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constantly for our strength. He worked to even the global playing field rather than have America lead.
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He exacerbated racial tension. He focused on America's flaws and perceived oppression rather
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than our inherent goodness. He popularized social justice, warriorism, and words that we hear today
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constantly, like bigotry, sexism, misogyny, yada, yada, yada. He was an ideologue who made it his goal
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to show America how bad it was and attempt to change America to look more like the rest of the world.
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There's this really interesting statistic by Pew that I think shows just how much Obama changed
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people's perspectives on America. The overall study shows just how far left liberals have gone since
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1990, while conservatives have stayed about the same. But this particular stat in the study I found
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so interesting. Democrats and Republicans had to say if they agreed or disagreed with the following
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statement, and that is racial discrimination is the main reason black people cannot get ahead these
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days. The commentary says that this means that racial discrimination rather than individual choices
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is the thing holding black people back. In 1990, 39% of Democrats agreed with that statement as opposed to 26%
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of Republicans. 39%. So a minority. Today, today, the number of Democrats who believe that racial
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discrimination rather than personal choices is holding black people back in America is 68%. An all-time high.
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29 percentage points, that number has gone up. And if you look at the graph, it's really so
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interesting. That percentage hit an all-time low in 2010 at 28%. So lower than 1990, 28% of Democrats
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believe that it was racial discrimination rather than personal choices that were holding black people
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back in America. 2010, 28%, the year Obama took office, lowest it's been in 30 years. That means
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from 2010 to 2017, the year Obama was in office. Democrats went from 28% thinking racism was the main thing
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holding people back, black people back, to 68% believing that. Highest number we've seen. That number jumped
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40 percentage points when Obama, our first black president, was in office. Now, is it even remotely
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logical or possible that during the eight years Obama was in office or in the past 28 years since 1990 that
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America has actually become more racist? That racism is actually holding black people back more than it
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used to? No, of course not. Absolutely not. That's just not reality. But it doesn't matter because the
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perception has changed. And as we know, perception is reality. That is what Obama did, both in his
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apologetic foreign policy and in his divisive race-baiting domestic policy. He instilled in
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Americans what really no president that I know of before has done, and that is the idea that America
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is bad and that we still need to pay for our sins. So you can imagine why when we have a presidential
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candidate come along with a slogan that's literally a direct slap in the face to everything Obama tried
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to do in his presidency, make America great again, people are going to be really upset.
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The idea of American greatness is offensive to people who have been conditioned for the past
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eight years to believe that America is bad. I mean, we probably talk more about colonialism,
00:25:23.620
our mistreatment of Native American slavery in the Civil War than we ever have before. People are
00:25:28.440
all of a sudden upset about Confederate statues. People all of a sudden care about the so-called
00:25:34.760
racism of the Star-Spangled Banner. Why? Because we're more racist than we've ever been before? No,
00:25:41.660
because Obama validated that attitude that we need to rehash all of our old sins and pay penance for them
00:25:48.520
still. He fundamentally changed how people view America. It used to be that the people who disagree
00:25:55.720
politically did so because they both cared about and loved the country. It is now a battle between
00:26:01.460
those who love America and those who in general, not everyone, but those who in general don't.
00:26:08.720
They don't agree anymore in what America fundamentally is. They don't like the Constitution.
00:26:13.920
They think the founding fathers were a bunch of bigots. They think America is inherently flawed.
00:26:19.140
Whereas the other side, I'm included in this, believe that, yes, of course, America has flaws.
00:26:24.100
We've made mistakes. We have stumbled, but we are foundationally good. That the idea,
00:26:30.160
the American idea, is the best idea any created human has ever had. And because of that, we are
00:26:37.320
still the best country in the world. And the closer we stay to what this country was intended to be,
00:26:43.760
a beacon of liberty and free enterprise, the better off we'll be. I mean, even Martin Luther King Jr.,
00:26:50.520
a true and good and actual and productive social justice warrior, not the superficial kind we have
00:26:56.260
today, believed that what the founders set up was good. Even though Americans strayed from it and the
00:27:02.540
founders themselves didn't act it out very well, that all are created equal and are endowed by their
00:27:08.980
creator with certain unalienable rights, among them being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
00:27:14.000
That and scripture were his constant foundation in all of his rhetoric and his push for civil rights.
00:27:20.820
But today, the people who claim to care about social justice and civil rights don't refer to
00:27:25.700
the constitution of what our founders set up. They actually don't believe in unalienable rights at
00:27:31.240
all, because if they did, they would have to admit that the government, an institution made by man,
00:27:35.980
can't take away rights that are unalienable. Unalienable. I have a really hard time saying that word.
00:27:42.000
Sorry. They would have to acknowledge that our rights are inherent and God-given,
00:27:47.960
which completely messes up their ideology, which says that the government should be able to give
00:27:53.120
and take away rights as they see fit. They don't believe in rights and inequality outlined in the
00:27:58.900
constitution and is constantly referenced by MLK Jr. They believe in government-mandated moral
00:28:04.300
relativism. They want the government to drive forth their progressive Marxist ideology,
00:28:09.780
no questions asked. They want open-bordered socialism and nothing less, which couldn't
00:28:15.460
be any further from what America was set up to be. It's no longer Republican versus Democrat.
00:28:22.400
It is those who love America and those who don't. In no other country is my grandmother's and parent's
00:28:30.180
story possible. In no other country can a poor mom or dad look at their kid and say with absolute
00:28:36.900
certainty, you can do anything you want to do. No other country values merit and strength and
00:28:43.340
determination and bravery the way ours has. No other country was set up to give its government
00:28:48.660
less power than the people they govern. Did you hear that? America is the only country in the world
00:28:54.900
designed to empower its people. We have the Second Amendment literally to defend ourselves
00:29:00.980
against a tyrannical government. That's amazing. Every other government is set up to keep the people
00:29:06.400
in line, to rein in the government. Our government isn't. And for Christians specifically, who seem to
00:29:13.520
think that being patriotic is a bad thing, how do you think religious liberty goes in a socialistic
00:29:18.860
country? You think Christians in socialist China are thriving? North Korea, the Middle East, you think
00:29:23.700
they're doing well there? Even in the UK and other parts of Europe, does the church seem thriving there
00:29:28.960
to you? No, because it's not. You go to those countries, the church is literally mostly dead. I would know
00:29:35.420
I have been there. In countries where the government is the caretaker, godlessness always ensues. More
00:29:42.320
government always, always, always, always, always, always leads to godlessness. You think we're going to be
00:29:50.660
seeing pro-life policies in a socialistic America? You think we're going to value the unborn, the sick,
00:29:57.560
the disabled? No. Think about Charlie Gard. Think about the epidemic of assisted suicide throughout
00:30:02.800
Europe. Now, listen, I do think it's important that we don't raise our patriotism to the same level
00:30:09.880
as our allegiance to God's kingdom. Absolutely not. All earthly allegiances are secondary to our
00:30:15.020
citizenship in heaven. How we treat others and how we conduct our lives should be subject first and
00:30:19.980
foremost to God. He is our purpose and our ultimate hope. The gospel is the banner we wave far
00:30:26.760
above the American flag. I do think it's important to say that God is not an American and that even
00:30:34.620
though, yes, I believe he ordained America to be special, we are not exempt from his wrath. At the end
00:30:41.180
of it all, every knee will bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and there will be a new
00:30:46.400
heaven and new earth and America and all other countries will be obsolete. Okay? So I just needed
00:30:52.180
to say that because I could feel some of you getting a little bit antsy there, so I just needed to put
00:30:56.500
that out there. But we as Christians also have an earthly and moral obligation to push for good policies
00:31:04.460
in a form of government in which people can best succeed. And as much as people want to tell you that
00:31:09.780
Jesus himself was a socialist, socialism ain't gonna cut it. And that's really our only other option
00:31:14.760
besides what we have. You think a healthy government is one where they force you to give all of your work,
00:31:19.820
energy, and money to them? Socialism has claimed the lives of over 100 million people throughout
00:31:25.160
history. You think that's a good thing? You think God rejoices in that? Hitler was a socialist. Nazi
00:31:30.560
stands for national socialist. You think that worked out well? That maybe we should try it here? You think
00:31:35.560
that's a biblical thing to do? Now, I'm not saying that God's a capitalist. I'm not saying that capitalism
00:31:40.560
is perfect, but it's lifted a heck of a lot more people out of poverty than socialism has. It's
00:31:47.100
encouraged a lot more charity and generosity than communism has. It's allowed for human flourishing
00:31:52.540
more than any other economic system. There is a reason we are the most successful nation in history,
00:31:59.940
and it is not because of socialism. And so many people take that for granted. I hate to say this
00:32:06.500
because I know it's rude, but please, if you don't like our country, go somewhere else and see how it
00:32:12.860
works out for you. I mean, I would love for you to move to another country and try out their
00:32:17.080
governments. You might honestly like it better. I don't know. You might. I'm not trying to be mean.
00:32:22.500
You might actually like Europe better than America, and if so, so be it. But don't take away other
00:32:27.900
people's shot at the American dream by making America more like Europe. Every time we grow the
00:32:34.000
government, increase taxes, chip away at our sovereignty by allowing undeterred illegal immigration,
00:32:39.360
advocate for socialism, we get closer and closer to an America in which stories like my parents just
00:32:45.080
can't happen. And not just theirs, but countless others, Oprah, Steve Jobs, Ben Carson, Frederick
00:32:50.320
Douglas, the thousands of others who came from nothing and then became something and changed history.
00:32:57.900
Yes, as Americans, we are privileged. White, black, man, woman, gay, straight, trans, Christian,
00:33:04.680
Muslim, whatever you are, we are privileged. We are the most privileged people in the entire world.
00:33:10.380
And rather than be ashamed of that, we need to use it for good to perpetuate liberty to the next
00:33:15.700
generation. We are the last hope of freedom. We are the last final refuge for those fleeing tyranny.
00:33:22.880
It would be immoral. It would be a sin to take that for granted. We should be on our knees thanking
00:33:30.640
God every day for the gift of common grace of living in the United States of America.
00:33:36.500
What an incredible blessing that so many have died to obtain and others have fought,
00:33:42.060
bled, and died to defend. It is our responsibility to hold on to America as long as we can.
00:33:48.840
We hear the really popular quote by Ronald Reagan a lot, but it's hardly ever read in context.
00:33:57.420
So this is the quote that was spoken at his gubernatorial inaugural address in 1967.
00:34:02.980
Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction.
00:34:08.680
It is not ours by inheritance. It must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation,
00:34:15.120
for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known
00:34:22.120
it again. Knowing this, it is hard to explain those who even today would question the people's
00:34:27.920
capacity for self-rule. Will they answer this? If no one among us is capable of governing himself,
00:34:34.840
then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? Using the temporary authority granted
00:34:41.040
by the people, an increasing number lately have sought to control the means of production as if
00:34:46.020
this could be done without eventually controlling those who produce. Always this is explained as
00:34:52.080
necessary to the people's welfare. But the deterioration of every government begins with
00:34:58.460
the decay of the principle upon which it was founded. This is true today as it was when it was
00:35:04.320
written in 1748. And then there's the story of Benjamin Franklin who was asked by a woman when
00:35:10.920
he was leaving the Constitutional Convention what kind of government they decided upon and he said to
00:35:16.180
her, a republic, ma'am, if you can keep it. So the principle of these two quotes is liberty is always
00:35:24.140
conditional to our willingness to defend it. So that's it. I mean, I get really pumped up about this.
00:35:31.620
I just, I don't know. I just really hate when people and especially wimpy Christians talk about
00:35:36.580
how bad this country is. Like if you think it's so bad, either leave or make it better. It's that
00:35:41.840
simple. And the way to make it better is by promoting more freedom, not less. Okay. So are we
00:35:49.360
done with that? Yes, I think we are. So at the end of the podcast, we've been doing random segments.
00:35:54.360
Um, last week I did, I think confessions and I talked about how I'm guilty of unbiblical sass,
00:36:02.820
which I am. And I talked about unbiblical versus biblical sass. And before that, I think I did
00:36:07.720
things I just don't get. And I talked about lifestyle bloggers and how I just could never be
00:36:13.020
one. And today is cat facts. I'm just going to make these up every time. Cat facts. So as y'all know,
00:36:20.960
I have two cats, Rachel McAdams and Sweatpants, and they're just two stupidly awesome cats that I
00:36:27.440
love so much. Uh, today's cat fact is the very empirical and well-studied and documented fact
00:36:36.160
that cats would kill you if they were just big enough. So dogs don't kill you because they're
00:36:42.780
good doggos. They love you. They're good boys and good girls. Cats are not. They feel no
00:36:50.940
such affection. They're not good. They tolerate you because you feed them. They even will allow
00:36:57.440
you to be their napping place every now and then if you are lucky. But if you even think about
00:37:02.760
touching them one too many times, they will attack you. Cats have no moral compass, no guilt. They have
00:37:08.900
no remorse whatsoever. If you have ever seen that look that a cat gets right before it's about to
00:37:14.320
attack your face, like they get really still, they pin their ears back and they narrow their eyes.
00:37:19.040
And then all of a sudden it's like their full body weight is on your face. They don't know they're
00:37:23.480
not about to kill you. They're like perfectly fine with whatever the outcome is of this attack. Like
00:37:29.800
if they slice your jugular, fine. If they gouge your eyes out, so be it. The only reason you are not
00:37:36.560
dead is because your cat is not big enough to kill you. Not because she loves you. So that is my cat
00:37:43.440
fact for today. It is very well studied. Like I said, I have two cats and a dog. I've been studying
00:37:49.800
their behavior and that is a fact that your cat actually wants to kill you. So just watch out for
00:37:56.280
that. Okay, that's it. I hope that you enjoyed this. Please follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook