This interview will leave you speechless: The Lost Boys of Sudan

Glenn had the opportunity to interview Ger Duany and Emmanuel Jal on radio today, two of the stars (and real life lost boys of Sudan) featured in ‘The Good Lie’ from Warner Bros. The movie is getting rave reviews and Glenn calls it a ‘perspective game changer’ that every American needs to see. Ger and Emmanuel tell Glenn of the horrors they escaped as child soldiers in the Sudanese civil war. Unbelievable stuff.

Watch a trailer for the film below:

GLENN: About a week and a half ago, I saw a movie I've been telling you to see. It opens up Friday. And I've been telling you you need to bring everybody you know. You need to bring your family, your friends, your kids. I'm coming back to my house in Dallas in weekend assuming we're not under some Ebola quarantine. I'm bringing my family to the movie theater on Friday night to see this movie. It is tremendous. And probably I think the most important movie at the right time for America.

You will be amazed at this story, uplifted by the story. Horrified by the story, but I think most importantly at least I was shamed by this story. Because it puts our American problems into perspective and it puts our Christianity into perspective. Really. What are we doing with our life? And you see us with the eyes of an outsider. It's called The Good Lie. Stars Reese Witherspoon, but quite honestly when I left the theater a couple of weeks ago, I said to the guys from Warner Brothers, as much as I like to talk to Reese, we can talk to her any time. I want to talk to the Lost Boys. I want to talk to the guys who were in it, especially if they had led a life similar to that. They have, and they're here with us.

Ger Duany is here. He plays Jeremiah in the movie, and Emmanuel Jal, he plays Paul. You guys both, first of all. Hello, welcome, and how are you.

VOICE: Hi, thank you.

GER: Thanks for having us.

GLENN: You guys both grew up kind of similar to the movie. You were in the Sudan, and you were taken and forced to fight as child soldiers. Right?

GER: Yes.

GLENN: What is that like?

GER: Thanks for having us, first of all.

And this film is set in the backdrop of the civil war between the north and south Sudan. In the center of it is our life experiences as a Lost Boy of Sudan who escaped the war in 1987 by foot to Ethiopia. When we reach Ethiopia and the refugee camp which was controlled by the military, we were trained instantly at the age of eight and then stayed in Ethiopia for four, five years. And not only that, in 1991, we encountered the Ethiopian civil war that make us scared everywhere again in Africa. Many of us ran to Kenya and any country that surrounded our country. So I went back to South Sedan and Emanuel the same goes for him. And now we here, we talking about the movie.

GLENN: Did you guys lose all your family as the characters in the movie did?

EMMANUEL: When -- we all have experienced differently because the war reached my family. All my aunts died in the war, including my mom and later to learn my uncles only two that I know that are alive, and so the way you look at it, it's like Hell. So we have experienced Hell on Earth. Sometimes you ask yourself questions if, when we're kids, if this is not Hell, where is the other Hell? Because my mother would tell me that one day the world would end and bad people are going to go to Hell. And so when the bombs dropped -- rained in my village and seeing everything being taken away from me, and I thought that was Hell. And all through our lives, you see six, seven years old, burying their own dead.

GLENN: I saw the scenes in the movie, you know, where I want to live, and so you're drinking your own urine, and a leader is I don't even know, what, eight or ten years old, of this small little group that goes out. He's now the chief.

And the things that these kids are having to deal with. Nobody in America thinks of things like this.

GER: Yeah, our war was very brutal. Especially the previous one was very brutal. Not as much as the current one that's going on now. And you're watching that movie, you see those kids drinking their own urine, it's real. Because in our area, it's dry. To find water, you just have to bet your entire life. Those kind of events they really happen, in this movie, because we're just in a surviving mode.

GLENN: Okay. I want to make sure that you as a listener, please don't think this is a depressing movie. Because I hear this stuff, and I say I don't want to see a movie about the Sudan and the civil war because that sounds depressing. It's really shocking.

EMMANUEL: It's a testimony.

GLENN: I don't know how you guys did it, but it's so uplifting.

EMMANUEL: It's a testimonial movie. Anyone who come there will see how life is. And also for people who have faith, you will see what faith can do. Because faith is the substance of the things hoped for and evidence of the unseen.

Myself, I would put an experience at one point. When you talk about the urine place, we all have an experience. But one of the lowest point I ever had was when I was tempted to eat my friend when we ran out of food. So my friend was dying. And I told him, 'I'm going to eat you tomorrow.' But I remember what my mother used to do. So she come from the church. So she used to pray. So I prayed to my mother's God, and I say, God, if you can give me something to eat today, one day when I survive, I'm going to give the testimony and give the credit to you.

So if you look at the movie, the Bible is a star in its own right.

GLENN: It is. And yet it's not jammed down anybody's throat. I mean, it's very subtly done and beautifully done, but it is the rock that you tie yourself to. Can I ask what happened, you found food the next day?

EMMANUEL: What happened is when I prayed -- because cannibalism started. We're eating snails, vultures. We ran out of food, and we're a group of 2- to 400 young people. We plan an escape. In the end, only 16 people survived in the end.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

EMMANUEL: And a crow was the one that answered my prayer that became the block to prevent me from eating my friend.

GER: You know, to add something to that, you know it's true. We have experienced a lot of famine in our area during the civil war, especially 1991 famines has killed thousands of us, let alone the disease. You know, like, we're sitting here. I know like what it is like to be hungry while you're healthy and you really needed it and you can't find it. It's crazy. If you attempted to eat your comrade, that's something -- I'm scared of this guy now.

EMMANUEL: I mean, I've never been in a situation like that where your senses change. My senses changed where, because we haven't showered for days. We haven't eaten, and then my fellow human being smell like dry meat. That's how people smell, those that die. They don't smell rotten. They smell like dry meat. And one time I went under the tree hoping I could find any pieces to eat when nobody is able to see me.

GER: That's like the dry season. I remember like '92 probably like it was a rainy season. There's nothing because nobody cultivated nothing. So how we used to just eat grass and leaves? Then when you go and take a load, and then it come out as greenness. It went through your mouth.

GLENN: So when you guys got here after everything that you saw, this is the part of the movie that really was exceptionally hard for me because you love your characters by the time you get to America. You just love all of you. You're just really -- you two in particular are just exceptional on screen. And then you come here, and Reese Witherspoon shows up and you immediately dislike her because she has no concept and she doesn't care.

No one can relate in our arrogance. No one in our arrogance can relate. So what -- when you really came over as Lost Boys, did you -- what was your experience like?

Jeremiah, the character Jeremiah you played, when he's out in the back of the store and he's like, wait a minute. All this food and you want to help that homeless person. Did you have those kinds of experiences?

GER: We have. Yes, I have those kinds of experiences, but not exactly as Jeremiah encountered those. But to talk about his character, I think he found himself captivated in a society where it's not moving a lot. And you see him in a grocery store where there's so much food, but it has to be thrown away. So things was not adding up to him.

GLENN: You're thinking about I'm going to eat my dude over here. You got to throw away all this perfectly good food. This is nuts.

GER: Yeah. I viewed the boss as a lion. So lion when they speak, metaphorically, it doesn't really mean a lion that ate Paul. This really is a lion in terms of human being that is smart to you and being cruel at the same time. I think that's what Isaiah was referring to.

So in my personal life, when I came here in 1994, we came here to the Lutheran church. And we were like the first group of guys before everybody knew about the Lost Boys of Sudan. They just knew we were a refugee who came to this part of the world. So we didn't know anything. Everything was learning from the very beginning. And that's when I can admit that we are really a lost generation from war.

And later on, we decided to turn to each other and find a strength for what this guy did in the movie. And things came in society where we were welcomed.

GLENN: You guys are both highly successful now. You've done very famous modeling. You've done albums or CDs, and all kinds of stuff, the two of you. Successful.

How have you not lost -- or have you -- how have you not lost that -- how have you not become part of the problem? How do you not become part of yeah, I got all this and it's disposable it's great. It's never going to end.

EMMANUEL: I think that's not the case.

GLENN: The one you play, your character, he does lose his way.

EMMANUEL: He lost his way in so many way because he wasn't focused, and he had so many hopes and dreams, and it wasn't the life that he was hoping.

But in terms of where you're asking about experiences when you come into a new world. If I try to compare the experiences in the movie and actually what I experienced, because in the movie, it's Paul, just to try to see how this shock and how Jeremiah's situation was. The first time I was brought into an organized place, a complex society, where there's toilet in a room, you know, what fascinated me was a toilet. You know, when you go to that toilet. I was wondering when somebody download a file, how that machine takes everything away in front of you. And then clean water comes, and then what I used to do. It's imagination.

So I used to think probably a snake would come out. So when I'm using it. I have to stand hoping when I download the file, probably a snake wouldn't bite me. I just hold it. And so that's one experience.

And if I try to connect it back to Ger's experience coming here, I was in Kenya. I see the TV. I watch the movies about aliens, and I'm reading the Bible. And when I was shock about the cathedrals, the big buildings, the bridges, the train system, and everything, and in my head, I kind of like concluded and said, probably white people are the fallen angels or maybe they're aliens. It took me a while to actually know that these people are normal human beings.

So, I mean, I could go on and on. The life we are living now we've been transformed. I mean, we come from a situation where we're starving at one point. Now, we have plenty to eat. At one time, I was trying to tell kids that I am in a place where I choose to eat one meal a day. And the kids what do you mean, we eat one meal a day? I told them, in this place, people die of fatness. And one kid said, wow, that's the coolest death ever.

And so -- and now you see me like I have music out there. So the truth is this movie we just did, I happened to an album called the Keys. There were two songs are now in the movie. One song is featuring Nelly Furtado.

And so the transformation of our life, we're in a dream. We can't actually believe it. We don't even know how to thank God. Because we've been transformed. The way you look at it, we came from the bottom like lobsters, and now we're rolling at the top like rock stars, you know.

GLENN: It is a pleasure to have you two, and I can't thank you enough for your work and please let everybody know in the movie just how grateful I am that you made it and you made it with such care and such heart. It is truly a masterpiece. Just fantastic movie.

GER: Thank you so much. The sad thing, the thing is we're promoting -- I just came from refugee camp like three weeks ago and the same people we doing the movie about them they are in the refugee camp right now because no country to stand as new state plunged back into civil war. We have dictators. We have a lot of corruption in the country and a lot of famine is killing a lot of children. So this movie right here, not that it's a lost boy story it's a story for humanity and our message to the world is that come support the children of Sudan. Help us find the help that we need that we got from you guys which is American. Because our country --

GLENN: Are you guy on TV with me tomorrow? Do you know?

GER: I'm not sure.

GLENN: I would like to pursue that with you and talk about that.

GER: Please. We enjoy your moment now, though.

GLENN: Thank you so much. The name of the movie is The Good Lie. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Please go see this movie. It opens this weekend in theaters everywhere. It's from the same people that brought us The Blind Side. It's really, really high quality. Really well-done and one of the best stories I've seen in a long time. The Good Lie in movie theaters beginning Friday.

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

Tasos Katopodis / Stringer | Getty Images

The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

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If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Could China OWN our National Parks?

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The left’s idea of stewardship involves bulldozing bison and barring access. Lee’s vision puts conservation back in the hands of the people.

The media wants you to believe that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to bulldoze Yellowstone and turn national parks into strip malls — that he’s calling for a reckless fire sale of America’s natural beauty to line developers’ pockets. That narrative is dishonest. It’s fearmongering, and, by the way, it’s wrong.

Here’s what’s really happening.

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized.

The federal government currently owns 640 million acres of land — nearly 28% of all land in the United States. To put that into perspective, that’s more territory than France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom combined.

Most of this land is west of the Mississippi River. That’s not a coincidence. In the American West, federal ownership isn’t just a bureaucratic technicality — it’s a stranglehold. States are suffocated. Locals are treated as tenants. Opportunities are choked off.

Meanwhile, people living east of the Mississippi — in places like Kentucky, Georgia, or Pennsylvania — might not even realize how little land their own states truly control. But the same policies that are plaguing the West could come for them next.

Lee isn’t proposing to auction off Yellowstone or pave over Yosemite. He’s talking about 3 million acres — that’s less than half of 1% of the federal estate. And this land isn’t your family’s favorite hiking trail. It’s remote, hard to access, and often mismanaged.

Failed management

Why was it mismanaged in the first place? Because the federal government is a terrible landlord.

Consider Yellowstone again. It’s home to the last remaining herd of genetically pure American bison — animals that haven’t been crossbred with cattle. Ranchers, myself included, would love the chance to help restore these majestic creatures on private land. But the federal government won’t allow it.

So what do they do when the herd gets too big?

They kill them. Bulldoze them into mass graves. That’s not conservation. That’s bureaucratic malpractice.

And don’t even get me started on bald eagles — majestic symbols of American freedom and a federally protected endangered species, now regularly slaughtered by wind turbines. I have pictures of piles of dead bald eagles. Where’s the outrage?

Biden’s federal land-grab

Some argue that states can’t afford to manage this land themselves. But if the states can’t afford it, how can Washington? We’re $35 trillion in debt. Entitlements are strained, infrastructure is crumbling, and the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service are billions of dollars behind in basic maintenance. Roads, firebreaks, and trails are falling apart.

The Biden administration quietly embraced something called the “30 by 30” initiative, a plan to lock up 30% of all U.S. land and water under federal “conservation” by 2030. The real goal is 50% by 2050.

That entails half of the country being taken away from you, controlled not by the people who live there but by technocrats in D.C.

You think that won’t affect your ability to hunt, fish, graze cattle, or cut timber? Think again. It won’t be conservatives who stop you from building a cabin, raising cattle, or teaching your grandkids how to shoot a rifle. It’ll be the same radical environmentalists who treat land as sacred — unless it’s your truck, your deer stand, or your back yard.

Land as collateral

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury is considering putting federally owned land on the national balance sheet, listing your parks, forests, and hunting grounds as collateral.

What happens if America defaults on its debt?

David McNew / Stringer | Getty Images

Do you think our creditors won’t come calling? Imagine explaining to your kids that the lake you used to fish in is now under foreign ownership, that the forest you hunted in belongs to China.

This is not hypothetical. This is the logical conclusion of treating land like a piggy bank.

The American way

There’s a better way — and it’s the American way.

Let the people who live near the land steward it. Let ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and local conservationists do what they’ve done for generations.

Did you know that 75% of America’s wetlands are on private land? Or that the most successful wildlife recoveries — whitetail deer, ducks, wild turkeys — didn’t come from Washington but from partnerships between private landowners and groups like Ducks Unlimited?

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized. When you break it, you fix it. When you profit from the land, you protect it.

This is not about selling out. It’s about buying in — to freedom, to responsibility, to the principle of constitutional self-governance.

So when you hear the pundits cry foul over 3 million acres of federal land, remember: We don’t need Washington to protect our land. We need Washington to get out of the way.

Because this isn’t just about land. It’s about liberty. And once liberty is lost, it doesn’t come back easily.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.