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Not a Cincinnati Bengals fan? You will be after reading this

September 30, 2014
Wilson

Writer

When Devon Still didn’t make the Bengals 53 man roster, he wasn’t as devastated as one might expect. His 4 year old daughter had just been diagnosed with cancer, so his first reaction was relief because he’d be able to spend more time with her. What the Bengals did next and what has happened since is nothing short of awesome. Devon joined Glenn on radio today to tell his story and give an update on his daugther.

Listen to the interview at 38minutes below:

GLENN: Welcome to the program, Devon Still. He is a defensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals. If you don't know the story, which isn't a sports story, it's just a story of human beings being good to one another.

In June, Devon learned his 4-year-old daughter has Stage 4 cancer. Given a 50 percent survival rate. At the same time, he is being cut from the roster of the Bengals. I'm going to let him tell the rest of the story. Devon, how are you, sir?

STILL: I'm doing good. And yourself?

GLENN: I'm doing very good. First of all, tell me how your daughter is doing.

STILL: She's doing good. She's actually bounced back from the surgery pretty well. She's up moving around, talking and eating, so she's been a trooper through this whole process.

GLENN: And when will you know how effective this surgery was?

STILL: Well, we know for a fact it was already effective because they was able to get out all of the tumor and lymph nodes in her adrenal gland where the tumor first started. Now, we just wait and see how long it takes her body to completely bounce back from the surgery, and she's going to have another round of chemo and radiation to take out the cancer cells that is in her bone, her bone marrow.

GLENN: How are her adrenal glands, are they still intact?

STILL: She only has one. They took out the other one.

GLENN: You find this out, as devastating as this is, you also find out that you're being cut from the roster. Tell me what's going through your mind when this is all happening.

STILL: Well, I had a discussion about being cut -- obviously wasn't something I wanted to happen, but also it wasn't the hardest conversation I had. Whereas before, me being sat down and told I would no longer play football, it would have been hard for me because I love football a lot.

But being as I just had the worst sit-down conversation that I probably ever will on June 2nd, when I found out my daughter had cancer, it didn't hit me as hard because my daughter was still on my mind. And when I was actually told that, I thought I was going to be able to have more time to go back and be with my daughter. But I was given an opportunity to be on the practice squad by the Bengals, so I still have insurance to afford my daughter's cancer treatments.

PAT: So, Devon, they brought you back, was it specifically -- you know, obviously partly for skill, but it was partly just so you could have insurance for your daughter so you could take care of her?

STILL: No, that's the main thing that I considered it to be. I believe it was for skill. To give me time to bounce back from my injuries that I had the previous season and to also get over that hump of me still being in disbelief of my daughter having cancer and being away from her. But I took it as an opportunity for me and my daughter to still have insurance to pay for her cancer treatment because that's what's most important to me.

GLENN: So now the Bengals went a step further and made a deal with your jersey. You want to tell me how this came about?

STILL: Actually it was something they did on their own. I didn't know nothing about. I actually went on Twitter and saw that they had begun to sell my jerseys and was going to donate 100 percent of the proceeds to Children's of Pediatric Cancer, which wasn't a surprise move from the Bengals by me because since day one when I told them about my daughter, they stood behind me and tried to help out any way possible.

PAT: Pretty amazing. Also, you have since gone from the practice team to the regular 53-man roster, and have actually been playing the last few weeks and doing really well?

STILL: Yeah. I mean, just the outpouring I have had from everybody -- family members, my fiancé -- it allows me to focus on football a lot more than I was able to in the beginning because I was still trying to cope with what was going on with my daughter. If you think about it, I'm only 25 years old. I'm still a young man. I'm still trying to be the best father I can be. Trying to juggle that and my daughter being ill --

GLENN: I have to tell you, there's a lot of people that are much older that don't handle it like you're handling it. I mean, we're in a society now that just is not -- we're not holding up great fathers. And you really seem to really be a good dad and trying to be a good dad.

STILL: Right. I mean, it's hard for me not to be because every time I see that smile on my daughter's face, it makes me want to be the best man possible and best father possible to her. So hopefully we can change the trend, change the image of fathers in America and move forward.

GLENN: How has this changed you?

STILL: It changed me a lot. It changed my whole perspective on life. It showed me what's most important, and that's just to cherish the time that you have with your loved ones.

And I don't complain about stuff as much as I did before. I have a lot of football injuries that I thought was just the worse thing in the world. When I see my daughter fighting for her life and she's able to stay with a smile on her face, that lets me know to know that what I'm going to do is nothing compared to what she's going through.

GLENN: When you see that 10,000 people bought your jersey and really it's out of support for you and your daughter, and then who was it the New Orleans Saints that came in and bought 100 jerseys themselves, and you see what the Bengals have done, what does that tell you about people?

STILL: Well, it's changed my perspective on people and this world because I don't know about y'all, but when I look at TV and I look at the news, all you hear is about bad things, about the bad things people are doing, so that was my thought about people in this world. But seeing people step up to the plate and stick up for people who are fighting pediatric cancer by donating money and also buying my jersey so that the proceeds go to cancer research, it really shows me how much amazing people there is in this world.

GLENN: By the way, if you'd like to continue that demonstration of being amazing, you can go to proshop.Bengals.com, and the Devon Still jersey, all the proceeds still go to pediatric cancer research.

PAT: So, Devon, where do you go from here? What does the future look like for you and your daughter from now on?

STILL: Hopefully bright. It definitely is going down a positive direction right now. Hopefully my daughter is able to bounce 100 percent back from surgery and then she goes in to have chemo and radiation to take out the rest of the cancer cells there in her bones. Then she has the stem cell transplant to give her back her good stem cells that were frozen when the process started to build back the bone marrow.

PAT: I've never been a Cincinnati Bengals fan, but this has really made me one.

GLENN: Honestly, with all the things -- and with all the things that are happening in the NFL and, I mean, last night, who was the guy -- the Kansas City Chiefs, that was given unsportsmanlike conduct for going down in the end zone and kneeling down and praying and thanking God? He was given unsportsmanlike conduct. How is that unsportsmanlike?

STILL: I don't know. They came up with a rule that we can't go to the ground for celebration. But I thought they would make an exception.

STU: Yeah, the NFL did come out and say that that was the incorrect call. The penalty was incorrect.

GLENN: Well, that's good. I'm glad to hear that. Devon, thank you so much. And we wish you and your daughter all the best. And know that there are millions around the country that are praying for her and praying for people that are just like you in your situation, and I'm so glad to hear you're coming around, kind of where we're coming around. You see a lot of crap on TV and you star to lose faith, and then a story like this makes you think, that's just not the way it is.

God bless you, man. Thank you.

STILL: All right. Thanks, man.

Front page image courtesy of the AP.

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking: Chart-topping ‘singer’ has no soul at all

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Is Socialism seducing a lost generation?

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.