On Thursday, Glenn will present an evening of programming to commemorate the 5-year anniversary of the 9/12 Project. At 5pm ET, Glenn will sit down with an audience of 9/12 members to discuss the evolution the movement has undergone these last 5 years. Then at 8PM ET, Glenn will narrate a special presentation of Meet John Doe starring the legendary Gary Cooper. On radio Wednesday, Glenn spoke about the plans for the evening and the importance of the 9/12 Project.
"Five years ago we were all afraid. Five years ago we could feel our country being lost. And we didn't know what to do about it," Glenn explained.
On March 13, 2009, Glenn asked people to tune in for a special episode of his FOX News show where he laid out the 9 principles and 12 values that showed the real power to change America laid with the people.
"We had no idea if anyone would watch. We had no idea if anyone would listen. We had no idea if people would actually gather together. And they gathered together unlike Americans had ever gathered together before," Glenn explained.
So where are we now five years later? How has not only the country changed, but all of the individuals involved? That's what Glenn wants to find out on Thursday's show.
And then with Meet John Doe, Glenn hopes to show people the parallels between the fictional John Doe Clubs and the 9/12 Project, and how politicians and the media tried to co-opt both movements and use them to propel partisan agendas, when they were really all about principles and values.
"The ending is critical, because what happens in the end (of the film) needs to happen to us. There's a lot of people that got frustrated with politics and everything else. The point was never about politics. And the point was never about one individual. Watch it tomorrow night only on TheBlaze. Watch it with your family and join me all the way through it as I kind of take you through this movie and tell you exactly what it means." Glenn said.
The Beginning of the 9/12 Project
When the 9/12 Project was first announced, Glenn called for people to return to the people they were on 9/12/2001 and wrote on GlennBeck.com:
Do you watch the direction that America is being taken in and feel powerless to stop it?Do you believe that your voice isn’t loud enough to be heard above the noise anymore?
Do you read the headlines everyday and feel an empty pit in your stomach…as if you’re completely alone?
If so, then you’ve fallen for the Wizard of Oz lie. While the voices you hear in the distance may sound intimidating, as if they surround us from all sides—the reality is very different. Once you pull the curtain away you realize that there are only a few people pressing the buttons, and their voices are weak. The truth is that they don’t surround us at all.
We surround them.
What were the 9 Principles and 12 Values Glenn asked people to untie around?
The Nine Principles
1. America is good.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.
12 Values
- Honesty
- Reverence
- Hope
- Thrift
- Humility
- Charity
- Sincerity
- Moderation
- Hard Work
- Courage
- Personal Responsibility
- Gratitude
After announcing the 9.12 Project on FOX News, Glenn went into detail on the origins the next day on radio (including the crying in the earlier video):
The following is from the transcripts of the 3/17/2009 radio show:
GLENN: 9/10 we were burying our heads in the sand or we were playing politics. It was about Republicans or Democrats. On 9/11 we were freaking out and no one knew who attacked us, where did this come from, what is this. On 9/12 no one in the government had to tell us what to do. We just did it. We went and we found a place to give blood. We went and we gave money. We gathered together. We gathered our family around. We prayed. We were the people that our grandparents were and nobody had to tell us. But then again the parties got involved and George Bush told us to do our patriotic duty and go shopping. That’s offensive. That’s not our patriotic duty. That’s part of the reason we’re here now today because our patriotic duty was to go shopping. That’s not it. And I remember saying on the air, "Please, Mr. President, give us something to do. Let us be involved in the solution." It’s not just, oh, we’re going to go and bomb them. We’ve got to fundamentally change. We’ve got to be involved. Give us something to do. And they didn’t — well, no, I take that back. The two parties, what they did is they gave us something to do, argue with each other and hate each other. And I was part of it. I didn’t see it. I didn’t see. Well, now I do. And I started seeing it, what, 2006, 2004 and said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, guys, we’re on the wrong track here; wait a minute; see what’s going on? And others have woken up. And it’s both the Republicans and the Democrats. It’s both of them. And we just need to be those 9/12 people.Let me tell you this: Those values I had been working on for a long time, the values and the principles. And I had been reading and we really did a lot of research and et cetera, et cetera, but I just scribbled them down, the 9 and the 12. I just scribbled them down right before I went on the air. I hadn’t even counted the number of them. And I went on the air and I gave them to you and then I got into a break and I said to Stu, I said, gee, I wish I — how many do I even have here? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. I wish I could have come up with another one but I ran out of time. And then I came up with the other ones and there were twelve. And I said, what a wild coincidence: 9/12.
You know, in Iran if you’re looking for the twelfth Imam, they call you a Twelver. The Twelvers over in Iran are evil. They are so bad that the Ayatollah Khomeini back after the Islamic revolution banned them, wanted them all killed. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a Twelver. But you know what? I’m not looking for the twelfth Imam, but I’m a Twelver, too. I’m a 9/12er. And that’s what I announced on Friday. Commit yourself to live the principles that you knew were true and the values that you knew were true on 9/12. Become a 9/12er and don’t be afraid of it. Don’t be ashamed. Try to understand all of what’s going on in your world through those values and those principles and don’t — you know what, I notice that the website is — has been — I mean, it’s remarkable what’s happening. It’sthe912project.com, the912project.com. And it’s a meeting place to look at the different news and then try to find solution and what principles are we violating. It’s a place where you can find some of the quotes from the founding fathers that might help you solve. There’s going to be so much more on this. But really hope this is a meeting place where you can find solutions and you can present solutions and you can meet together and you can say, look, we’re going to do this project, we’re going to do a march on Washington and it’s going to be on this day, and you can try to put it all together as long as it’s all framed with those principles and values, then I’d be with you. I’d be for you. The minute it gets out of — the minute it becomes a movement for power and a movement for political clout or a movement for anything else other than those principles and those values, I’m in. The minute it — or I’m out the minute it becomes about that. I’m in as long as it becomes about those.
You know, everybody says we don’t have a special interest group for us, we don’t have a lot. You are going to be the special interest group, but it is important that — and I’m going to let this happen organically. I’m not going to steer it. Whatever it is you decide to put together. Now look, this is a very libertarian idea and, you know, libertarian is like trying to round up a bunch of cats. It’s almost impossible. You are going to disagree with people. You are going to have a hard time getting through, but forget about arguing about the parties. Forget about arguing, "Oh, well, you guys did this and you guys did that." Forget about it. It is a waste of time, and I really believe time is running out. So focus on what you are, who you believe, what you think we need to do as a country and stop tearing the other side apart because we — at least I do. I know who the Republicans are. They sold their soul to the devil, for power and money.
Now, that’s not all of them, but the ones, the ones who have been in control, they are that. And a lot of them have decided they would become progressive Republicans. The Democrats who’s running the party right now is the same thing except they are an extreme to the left. There are good people in both parties, but they’re alone. And here’s what I believe can happen. It may not but it will be up to you. What can happen. If you decide to keep this as a grassroots, if you use the meetup.com, you use the912project.com and you heard these cats together and you put together some real principles and you live by those principles, I’m telling you that I can bring my camera from state to state, I can bring my television and radio show from state to state and there will be politicians that will beg you for your support. They will beg you because they will fear you because you will be in such great number. But that will only happen if you don’t make it about politics, if you only make it about principles and values. Once it becomes about politics, it’s done. You must stand for principles, and the number one principle you just stand for is to reestablish the Constitution. It has been so perverted by man, this country has been so perverted, it needs to be reestablished. And if you will stand on the founding principles and you know what you’re talking about, that’s why I said in the show — and people I know blow this off but, gang, unless you know what you’re supposed to know, unless you know who our founders are, you won’t be able to do this. They will win. They will win. You must know who the founders are.
You know, I read a great quote. I’m reading a book about Harry Truman right now and I was reading a part of his childhood and he was a mousey little kid. He had glasses. So he couldn’t go out and play and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. But all of the kids when they would be playing, you know, cowboys and Indians, they would ask him, "No, no, no, wait a minute, what happened with Marshal Dillon, what happened?" And he would explain it because he knew history. And he said all readers are not leaders but every leader must be a reader. You must know history. You must know ours. And it hasn’t been taught. Develop and we’ll help you on this on the 9/12 project. We’ll help you develop book clubs. We’ll help you with developing things where you can grab your neighbors together. I had notes stuffed in my mailbox in my neighborhood. I thought I was alone in my neighborhood. I had notes stuffed into my mailbox: Please, Glenn, will you join us at our table, will you join us in our… yes, I will, because you’re my neighbor and this is going to happen in the neighborhoods. It’s going to happen in your house. That’s the only way it will work, if it’s done on a small scale and yet everybody is doing it across the country. This is true grassroots.
STU: I still don’t see how any of this explains the crying.
GLENN: I was going to explain that, wasn’t I?
STU: That was the thought at one point.
GLENN: I’m a chick.
STU: That explains the crying.
GLENN: I just believe in my country. I just believe in my country.
STU: A lot of people believe in their country without crying on national television every three minutes.
GLENN: I believe that it has been so perverted and on Friday I had so much hope that it could be saved because there are so many people that feel the way I do, and it was amazing to see them and to feel them and to know that they were all across the country.
STU: There was a lot of people there, most of them not crying. Just pointing out.