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Glenn remembers his good friend, author Vince Flynn

June 19, 2013
Wilson

Writer

This morning we learned that bestselling author Vince Flynn died at age 47 after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. Glenn and Vince had been friends for many years, and this morning on radio, Glenn shared a heartfelt tribute to the man who was taken from this world far too soon.

Read Glenn’s remarks below:

It seems like it was just yesterday, the you'll pardon me for a personal note here for a second, it seems like just yesterday I moved into an apartment in New York City and a very good friend of mine, Vince Flynn, was in town with his wife and his daughter. And we hadn't even had the time yet to put our food in our kitchen yet. And they were coming over and I said, let's go downstairs. We lived in the Bloomberg building, unfortunately, and we went downstairs to a restaurant and there we sat. And we sat for hours. And his daughter, God bless her, just wanted to hang herself. Her dad and his friend were scaring the living daylights out of her. And my wife and his wife were talking about children and trying to keep life normal when you have anything but a normal life.

We all went up to the apartment afterwards. It was late at night and we had these gigantic floor‑to‑ceiling windows that overlook the skyline of New York, and both of us who grew up simple kids stood there like a couple of 12‑year‑old boys, and we talked about how amazing, how amazing life can turn out to be, how you just never know the twists and turns that will come and how blessed we are to have lived in this country and the responsibility that we had. He joked with me in the elevator about living in the Bloomberg building, living in the floor above what's‑his‑face, the guy who runs GE, Jeffrey Immelt. He joked to me about surveillance. He said, "Glenn, I do this for a living. You wouldn't believe the intelligence people can gather on people, especially someone like you."

He then asked to see another part of the apartment that was away from our wives and his daughter. I thought he was curious about the apartment, but he wasn't, and he took me into the other room and he closed the door and he said, "Listen. I write this stuff for a living. We've got to keep you healthy, my friend." He said, "You've got to watch your back. We need you alive."

I found it interesting that my friend Vince was giving me this advice when he had just found out that he had prostate cancer. And I looked at him and I said, "Vince, you do more to tell the American story and give people courage than I do. We've got to keep you alive."

Vince Flynn is a true American hero. Just a minute ago I just got an e‑mail from a friend who said, "I don't know if you're going to say anything this morning, but sorry to hear the news about Vince." I only know two Vinces in my life.

Vince never would talk to me about his problems. He was always getting better and stronger. This is the third friend I have lost to cancer in... 60 days? My good friend Jon Huntsman said to me six years ago, "Do you know anybody with cancer, Glenn? Have you been affected with cancer at all in your life?" And I said, "No, I'm fortunate, Jon." And he said, that won't remain that way. He said, "It's an awful, ravaging disease."

He showed me his hospital, the Huntsman Cancer Institute out in Salt Lake City. He built it right next to a genetics laboratory that was funded and built by Howard Hughes. Howard Hughes said the way to help heal people is to figure out genes and genetics. And he knew the Mormons knew their family heritage, so the best place to study genes and study it over a long period of time in families would be in Utah. And so he poured millions and millions and millions of dollars into a genetics laboratory and research center.

When Jon Huntsman became the wildly successful industrialist that he became, he wanted to do good with his money as well and so he poured his hundreds of millions of dollars into the Huntsman Cancer Institute and built it right next door to where the other philanthropist did. Jon said to me, I'll never forget as we were walking out of his hotel, he said, "Glenn, we're going to cure cancer." I believed him. I still do. We're very close.

I promised Jon then, I said, "Jon, I will do everything I can to help my wife and I give a large donation to not only Huntsman but also MD Anderson and other researchers." And we have given our time and lent our name because we believe that we are close.

This summer we're asking people to go on a walk to raise awareness on the Huntsman Cancer Institute this July 4th. When you come out for the Man in the Moon that Saturday morning, we have asked you to come and walk with me and my family. Take a stand against cancer. I think it's 10 bucks to register your children and register you, and we have everybody coming. Another good writer friend of mine, Brad Thor, is coming.

If you're coming out to the Salt Lake City area or if you're in Salt Lake on the morning of July 6th, the day we have Man in the Moon at 8:00 in the morning, we're going to take a stand. And we have things set up for your family and your kids to do that morning to have fun, and we'll all be together. I'd ask you to... in honor of my dear friend Vince Flynn I would personally invite you to come out on Saturday, July 6th and help us change the world. We're very close to curing cancer. It would change everything. You want to get down to it, it would wipe out our national debt. It would wipe out misery, so much misery. Sign up now at MercuryOne.org. Come walk. And come with me and today remember friend number 3, Vince Flynn.

U.K. forces digital IDs on workers—Is the U.S. next in line?

OLI SCARFF / Contributor | Getty Images

From banking to health care, digital IDs touch every aspect of citizens’ lives, giving the government unprecedented control over everyday actions.

On Friday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stood at the podium at the Global Progressive Action Conference in London and made an announcement that should send a chill down the spine of anyone who loves liberty. By the end of this Parliament, he promised, every worker in the U.K. will be required to hold a “free-of-charge” digital ID. Without it, Britons will not be able to work.

No digital ID, no job.

The government is introducing a system that punishes law-abiding citizens by tying their right to work to a government-issued pass.

Starmer framed this as a commonsense response to poverty, climate change, and illegal immigration. He claimed Britain cannot solve these problems without “looking upstream” and tackling root causes. But behind the rhetoric lies a policy that shifts power away from individuals and places it squarely in the hands of government.

Solving the problem they created

This is progressivism in action. Leaders open their borders, invite in mass illegal immigration, and refuse to enforce their own laws. Then, when public frustration boils over, they unveil a prepackaged “solution” — in this case, digital identity — that entrenches government control.

Britain isn’t the first to embrace this system. Switzerland recently approved a digital ID system. Australia already has one. The World Economic Forum has openly pitched digital IDs as the key to accessing everything from health care to bank accounts to travel. And once the infrastructure is in place, digital currency will follow soon after, giving governments the power to track every purchase, approve or block transactions, and dictate where and how you spend your money.

All of your data — your medical history, insurance, banking, food purchases, travel, social media engagement, tax information — would be funneled into a centralized database under government oversight.

The fiction of enforcement

Starmer says this is about cracking down on illegal work. The BBC even pressed him on the point, asking why a mandatory digital ID would stop human traffickers and rogue employers who already ignore national insurance cards. He had no answer.

Bad actors will still break the law. Bosses who pay sweatshop wages under the table will not suddenly check digital IDs. Criminals will not line up to comply. This isn’t about stopping illegal immigration. If it were, the U.K. would simply enforce existing laws, close the loopholes, and deport those working illegally.

Instead, the government is introducing a system that punishes law-abiding citizens by tying their right to work to a government-issued pass.

Control masked as compassion

This is part of an old playbook. Politicians claim their hands are tied and promise that only sweeping new powers will solve the crisis. They selectively enforce laws to maintain the problem, then use the problem to justify expanding control.

If Britain truly wanted to curb illegal immigration, it could. It is an island. The Channel Tunnel has clear entry points. Enforcement is not impossible. But a digital ID allows for something far more valuable to bureaucrats than border security: total oversight of their own citizens.

The American warning

Think digital ID can’t happen here? Think again. The same arguments are already echoing in Washington, D.C. Illegal immigration is out of control. Progressives know voters are angry. When the digital ID pitch arrives, it will be wrapped in patriotic language about fairness, security, and compassion.

But the goal isn’t compassion. It’s control of your movement, your money, your speech, your future.

We don’t need digital IDs to enforce immigration law. We need leaders with the courage to enforce existing law. Until then, digital ID schemes will keep spreading, sold as a cure for the very problems they helped create.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The West is dying—Will we let enemies write our ending?

Harvey Meston / Staff | Getty Images

The blood of martyrs, prophets, poets, and soldiers built our civilization. Their sacrifice demands courage in the present to preserve it.

Lamentations asks, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?”

That question has been weighing on me heavily. Not just as a broadcaster, but as a citizen, a father, a husband, a believer. It is a question that every person who cares about this nation, this culture, and this civilization must confront: Is all of this worth saving?

We have squandered this inheritance. We forgot who we were — and our enemies are eager to write our ending.

Western civilization — a project born in Judea, refined in Athens, tested in Rome, reawakened in Wittenberg, and baptized again on the shores of Plymouth Rock — is a gift. We didn’t earn it. We didn’t purchase it. We were handed it. And now, we must ask ourselves: Do we even want it?

Across Europe, streets are restless. Not merely with protests, but with ancient, festering hatred — the kind that once marched under swastikas and fueled ovens. Today, it marches under banners of peace while chanting calls for genocide. Violence and division crack societies open. Here in America, it’s left against right, flesh against spirit, neighbor against neighbor.

Truth struggles to find a home. Even the church is slumbering — or worse, collaborating.

Our society tells us that everything must be reset: tradition, marriage, gender, faith, even love. The only sin left is believing in absolute truth. Screens replace Scripture. Entertainment replaces education. Pleasure replaces purpose. Our children are confused, medicated, addicted, fatherless, suicidal. Universities mock virtue. Congress is indifferent. Media programs rather than informs. Schools recondition rather than educate.

Is this worth saving? If not, we should stop fighting and throw up our hands. But if it is, then we must act — and we must act now.

The West: An idea worth saving

What is the West? It’s not a location, race, flag, or a particular constitution. The West is an idea — an idea that man is made in the image of God, that liberty comes from responsibility, not government; that truth exists; that evil exists; and that courage is required every day. The West teaches that education, reason, and revelation walk hand in hand. Beauty matters. Kindness matters. Empathy matters. Sacrifice is holy. Justice is blind. Mercy is near.

We have squandered this inheritance. We forgot who we were — and our enemies are eager to write our ending.

If not now, when? If not us, who? If this is worth saving, we must know why. Western civilization is worth dying for, worth living for, worth defending. It was built on the blood of martyrs, prophets, poets, pilgrims, moms, dads, and soldiers. They did not die for markets, pronouns, surveillance, or currency. They died for something higher, something bigger.

MATTHIEU RONDEL/AFP via Getty Images | Getty Images

Yet hope remains. Resurrection is real — not only in the tomb outside Jerusalem, but in the bones of any individual or group that returns to truth, honor, and God. It is never too late to return to family, community, accountability, and responsibility.

Pick up your torch

We were chosen for this time. We were made for a moment like this. The events unfolding in Europe and South Korea, the unrest and moral collapse, will all come down to us. Somewhere inside, we know we were called to carry this fire.

We are not called to win. We are called to stand. To hold the torch. To ask ourselves, every day: Is it worth standing? Is it worth saving?

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Pick up your torch. If you choose to carry it, buckle up. The work is only beginning.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Stop coasting: How self-education can save America’s future

Joe Raedle / Staff | Getty Images

Coasting through life is no longer an option. Charlie Kirk’s pursuit of knowledge challenges all of us to learn, act, and grow every day.

Last year, my wife and I made a commitment: to stop coasting, to learn something new every day, and to grow — not just spiritually, but intellectually. Charlie Kirk’s tragic death crystallized that resolve. It forced a hard look in the mirror, revealing how much I had coasted in both my spiritual and educational life. Coasting implies going downhill. You can’t coast uphill.

Last night, my wife and I re-engaged. We enrolled in Hillsdale College’s free online courses, inspired by the fact that Charlie had done the same. He had quietly completed around 30 courses before I even knew, mastering the classics, civics, and the foundations of liberty. Watching his relentless pursuit of knowledge reminded me that growth never stops, no matter your age.

The path forward must be reclaiming education, agency, and the power to shape our minds and futures.

This lesson is particularly urgent for two groups: young adults stepping into the world and those who may have settled into complacency. Learning is life. Stop learning, and you start dying. To young adults, especially, the college promise has become a trap. Twelve years of K-12 education now leave graduates unprepared for life. Only 35% of seniors are proficient in reading, and just 22% in math. They are asked to bet $100,000 or more for four years of college that will often leave them underemployed and deeply indebted.

Degrees in many “new” fields now carry negative returns. Parents who have already sacrificed for public education find themselves on the hook again, paying for a system that often fails to deliver.

This is one of the reasons why Charlie often described college as a “scam.” Debt accumulates, wages are not what students were promised, doors remain closed, and many are tempted to throw more time and money after a system that won’t yield results. Graduate school, in many cases, compounds the problem. The education system has become a factory of despair, teaching cynicism rather than knowledge and virtue.

Reclaiming educational agency

Yet the solution is not radical revolt against education — it is empowerment to reclaim agency over one’s education. Independent learning, self-guided study, and disciplined curiosity are the modern “Napster moment.” Just as Napster broke the old record industry by digitizing music, the internet has placed knowledge directly in the hands of the individual. Artists like Taylor Swift now thrive outside traditional gatekeepers. Likewise, students and lifelong learners can reclaim intellectual freedom outside of the ivory towers.

Each individual possesses the ability to think, create, and act. This is the power God grants to every human being. Knowledge, faith, and personal responsibility are inseparable. Learning is not a commodity to buy with tuition; it is a birthright to claim with effort.

David Butow / Contributor | Getty Images

Charlie Kirk’s life reminds us that self-education is an act of defiance and empowerment. In his pursuit of knowledge, in his engagement with civics and philosophy, he exemplified the principle that liberty depends on informed, capable citizens. We honor him best by taking up that mantle — by learning relentlessly, thinking critically, and refusing to surrender our minds to a system that profits from ignorance.

The path forward must be reclaiming education, agency, and the power to shape our minds and futures. Every day, seek to grow, create, and act. Charlie showed the way. It is now our responsibility to follow.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins TPUSA tour to honor Charlie Kirk

Joe Raedle / Staff | Getty Images

If they thought the murder of Charlie Kirk would scare us into silence, they were wrong!

If anything, Turning Point will hit the road louder than ever. On Monday, September 22, less than two weeks after the assassination, Charlie's friends united under the Turning Point USA banner to carry his torch and honor his legacy by doing what he did best: bringing honest and truthful debate to Universities across the nation.

Naturally, Glenn has rallied to the cause and has accepted an invitation to join the TPUSA tour at the University of North Dakota on October 9th.

Want to join Glenn at the University of North Dakota to honor Charlie Kirk and keep his mission alive? Click HERE to sign up or find more information.