A story of hope in a hopeless world

This morning on radio Darryl and Tracy Strawberry called in to discuss their new book The Imperfect Marriage: Help for those who think it's over.

Some of you may remember Darryl and Tracey were guests of the Glenn Beck Program, covering their own personal addiction and struggles in life. This morning, Glenn asked Darryl and Tracy how do people take that first step towards going to church. Glenn said, "There's a lot of people I'm sure listening to you and they're like — and are struggling, that are like, I don't know if I believe in God and this whole Jesus things drives me out of my mind and how am I ever going to get to church because church people are going to look down on me anyway."

Darryl Strawberry provided some amazing advice concerning that subject, saying:

People have to understand. The church is like a hospital. You come there to get well. You come there to hear the word of God. Don't look at man, don't look at woman. You got to listen to the word. It's the word that changes people. And I think people need to get really that clarification in their mind, Glenn, that it's not the people who ought to change. It's the word of God that's going to change you. It's the word that changed Tracy. It wasn't the people. If I sat and worried about the people, I'm never going to get well. They talked about me when I was rich. They talked me when I was famous. Now they talk about me because I love Jesus. They're going to always talk about you.

Watch some of this amazing interview below:

GLENN: I want to introduce you to a man and wife, Darryl and Tracy. You know — you know Darryl Strawberry. Darryl Strawberry played for the Mets, the Yankees, the Dodgers, probably would have been one of the greatest ballplayers of all time had it not been for massive drug abuse. He turned his life around 12 years ago, married his now wife Tracy eight years ago. And together they have found a way through alcoholism and addiction and really bad, bad places. Before I bring them on, I want to tell you a story. They were on the TV with me. And we have an employee that — their family is struggling. Somebody in their family is struggling with a member who is addicted to heroin. Not only did I talk to Darryl and Tracy about this and said, look, I don't know what advice has come to me. I don't know what advice to give. I was never addicted to heroin and the family is at wit's end. Not only did they immediately ask to meet with us — with this employee, but they met with him for about 20 minutes, talked to him, comforted him. Darryl then reaches into his pocket and says, look, I run a treatment center and if we can get your family member in, don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. Which I thought was amazing. Then I find out later that they had called the mother of this employee who is really struggling and happened to call her on the worst day of her life. She had given up. And she didn't know what to do and the phone rings and it's Darryl and Tracy Strawberry. And they spent I don't know how much time with her on the phone just counseling. This is who these people have become. They are the real deal. And I'm really impressed with them and I wanted to bring them on the program. They have a new book called "The Imperfect Marriage, Help For Those Who Think It's Over."

Darryl and Tracy, welcome to the program. How are you guys?

TRACY: Good morning, thanks for having us.

DARRYL: We're doing great, Glenn. Thanks for having us.

GLENN: Let me start with you real quick. You don't have any memorabilia in your house at all. Where you were a great baseball player. You've gotten rid of all of that stuff. Do you ever think to yourself what could I have done had I been clean?

DARRYL: Oh, not at all. The journey of each person life is the journey they will go through and I think a lot of times too many people try to revisit the past and you can't. You can't look at the past because you can't — Glenn, you'll never walk into the anew. I think that's where most people struggle in their life and not just in addiction but in life period. They look in the past, what the past used to be like. That's old. That's not who you are anymore. It was — at that time who I was. That's who I was. I had a lot of issues inside. I mean, I was famous, I was rich, I was successful. I had everything you could want but I had nothing inside. Inside I was empty and I think a lot of times I prefer where I'm at today not to be empty. When I was back there having everything and to be whole where I'm at today and being imperfect. So I'm grateful for all the things that have happened because it brought new character and it made me a true man. I think sometimes we think success makes you a man and that's not the case. Success doesn't make you a man. Success makes you successful doing what you're doing. But becoming a man and moving in purpose and doing God's will is the most incredible gift I've ever received, in a trophy, in a championship, and millions of dollars. To be in the know — the principles that I live by, the biblical principles. Not worldly principles, but biblical principles, that I'm stronger than ever and I'm in purpose and leading them to salvation.

GLENN: Tracy, were you a wreck yourself? We all know Darryl. He was — he was — I mean, what I would dare to call times in his life a waste of skin where he was the worst of the worst. You were in bad shape yourself. You two get together at some point. First of all, I mean, what does that say about you in some ways that you were seeing him at his low point? You had to be just kind of in that same kind of cesspool. What were you like when you first met and why did you guys get together?

TRACY: Well, Darryl and I hit it immediately and right away because we were the same person dysfunctionally. We could understand each other right out of the gate. There wasn't any judgment there. We couldn't judge each other because we were in the same people. He was just the male, I was a female participating in the same defeated lifestyle. So this was this sick safety, of you will, created there. We felt safe with one another. We understood one another. The problem is, dysfunction, when it gets together, operates dysfunctionally and produced more dysfunction. And many people in this world today just so desperately want to be loved, desire to be loved and really want to be loved. And I truly believe want to be well. But we are not equipped to love. We have to become well and become a whole person in Christ before we can even think about becoming whole as one with another person. And Darryl and I, we came together relationally. But that quickly deteriorated and fell apart and it just became another struggle, another problem, another issue, because we could not get along. We couldn't —

GLENN: You were knocking down doors of like crackhouses to find him and try to pull him out at one point.

TRACY: I was. I was trying to be his savior. I was working harder at his life than he was. I was working harder at his faith than he was. You're going to believe and you're going get well whether you want to or not. It's called codependency in the world. Living a life without God, I was his savior. So he had no reason to look to a savior and no reason to look for help because I was his help and his hope.

GLENN: Darryl, you told me at one point when she said "no" to you, and sell this story, this is the first time ever in your life anyone had ever said no.

DARRYL: Yes, it was a defining moment in my life. We were together. We had came to St. Louis together and we were living in her parents' home. And Tracy started studying the Bible and we were — said we was going to go to church and get on with her life.

First, we're not married. So this is the people who are not married. We were just shacking up. There's nothing great that's going to come out of that and I think a lot of times people think this can work. And we thought it could, too. And she woke up one morning and she had be studying the Bible and said I can't do it anymore. And I said what do you mean, she said we're not having sex anymore. I said what. No, I'm not doing it anymore. I'm not compromising anymore. And I think that's it. And I said I think I need to get out of here. And she said I think that's what you need to do.

That was a defining moment in my life when she came to me, that's it. Right there, Tracy took a stand. Not only for her but it was a stand that changed me because it sent me off running to California to stay with my sister Regina. And her three kids. And in her two-bedroom apartment and I went there and I got my life together. I stopped sex, I stopped drugs. I stopped everything. I went back to church and got myself right with God.

GLENN: Hang on just a second. What happened, because there's a lot of times that people will say, what? That's fine. And then you go out and you trash her, you know. She becomes the bad person. And you just go deeper. What was the — why was that your bottom?

DARRYL: Well, because I had never been told "no."

And I think — you know, I think most people never tell the other person "no."

This is not going on anymore. They just continue to do it. You know. And for me that was — that was a defining moment. I had to look at me. There was something wrong with me. I needed to look at myself. You know, after Tracy had cut me off and said she's not doing this no more, I'm not living this way. And the thing about it, Glenn, we didn't even know if we were going to get back together. I know most people think, maybe we'll come back together and we'll make it work, but we didn't even know we were going to get back together. The thing was there was a breakoff and there was a pivotal point in my life that I realized, you know, I needed to do something different in my life. I need to go and rededicate my life to God like Tracy is doing and get myself together. And when we broke off, it was a six-month period that I — we broke off for. And I went and got myself together, got it back in church and she went and got herself together and then we decided, you know, well, maybe we're doing the right thing now. And maybe we can come back together and make this work. And that's how it turned out for us. You know, we went our separate ways and got our own self together. And I think a lot of times people don't want to look at themselves and they want to point the finger. When you point the finger, three are pointing right back at you.

GLENN: Tracy, you guys are — you guys write the book and I've heard people say, yeah, like I'm going to listen to these guys who are both addicts. Yeah. I am going to listen to two people who have taken and been at the absolute bottom of the barrel and then changed their life and really truly changed their life and are happy and successful now. And successful in a — in the happiness quotient more importantly. What is it that you think is unique that you guys have to offer here?

TRACY: Well, number one, I truly believe that this book is — we keep it very real in here. We keep it very real. We don't paint a picture of a fairy tale story that's not attainable, number one. We really get to the core issue. And I believe instead of blaming your partner or working on outside things, to expect an inward healing, we don't address those things. We talk about those things in the book. But the book really leads you to look within yourself and take responsibility for yourself and your own life. And how you do that with practical application. And understanding that you know, God has to be in the center, but how do you make that happen? I was one of these people going where I was like, look, I know God is important. I know all this stuff is important. Can you help me with that? I'm angry with God. I don't understand Him. I don't what you understand my problem is. I know I'm powerless over alcohol and drug addiction, but boom, now another powerless thing has popped up. I'm powerless over my marriage, my kids, my mind, my thinking, my entire life. And it leads people — my prayer is into the understanding, we're born with this thing called a sinful nature that we're powerless over. We're born with original sin. This character that cannot mold to God. It separates us from God. I'm completely separated from God. I'm not — I didn't do anything to earn this sinful nature. I was born with it. So I don't do anything to earn God's love. And that's the power of the cross right there. And having an understanding of what the true gospel is and understanding what of what is wrong with you and why we need Jesus Christ to make it right, how you put God in the center and then how you live that out in an everyday life, overcome adulteries, addictions, everything that is birthed out of the sinful nature. We want to get a real understanding of that.

GLENN: Can you ask you guys a question? There's a lot of people I'm sure listening to you and they're like — and are struggling, that are like, I don't know if I believe in God and this whole Jesus things drives me out of my mind and how am I ever going to get to church because church people are going to look down on me anyway.

TRACY: Uh-huh.

DARRYL: You go to church because everybody is screwed up anyway. No one there is perfect. That's why we go there.

GLENN: Unfortunately a lot of people who are in the pews think they are.

DARRYL: They're not. That's the whole point.

GLENN: I know.

DARRYL: People have to understand. The church is like a hospital. You come there to get well. You come there to hear the word of God. Don't look at man, don't look at woman. You got to listen to the word. It's the word that changes people. And I think people need to get really that clarification in their mind, Glenn, that it's not the people who ought to change. It's the word of God that's going to change you. It's the word that changed Tracy. It wasn't the people. If I sat and worried about the people, I'm never going to get well. They talked about me when I was rich. They talked me when I was famous. Now they talk about me because I love Jesus. They're going to always talk about you. But what has happened in our life is we allowed the word to change us and bring us to a greater understanding, a greater place of why we were created. I think a lot of people don't even know why they exist. You know, I think a lot of times husbands are supposed to be the head but they're a knuckle head because they think I'm successful, I don't need this God and my family is falling apart. My wife and kids are falling apart. Because I don't know this God to lead my wife and family. Because the man is supposed to lead his family in the biblical principle ways. I lead my family. And that's what this is all about. And I think we're ought off order. We got it all backwards. Most of the women in church. They're loving God. The husbands are out running around chasing football games, basketball games and all kind of other stuff to be successful. And they're missing the point because they don't know the — they don't know the biblical principles of living.

TRACY: And Glenn, I believe, too, it's the goodness of God that leads people to repentance. And sometimes it's easy to get a wrong introduction to God. Some people were raised with harshness and why harmed by what we call a church and they put a label on the church and Jesus said, my God, my God, you're pushing my people away. I love them. I know what's wrong with you. I know what's in you. You are no surprise to me. I'm not trying to get you to fall in love with the church, a place. I'm not trying to get you fall in love with a preacher. I'm not banging you over the head with my word. I'm trying to get you to fall in love with me. I know everything that's wrong with you. You're no surprise to me. I am the solution and I'm leading you in love and I'm leading you with solution. I already know. I just want you to come to me. And we give this misrepresentation and it pushes people away from God.

GLENN: Darryl and Tracy Strawberry, I want to thank you for being on the program and thank you for your book, "The Imperfect Marriage." I have to tell you. I've lived this. I don't care how you get there. What they're saying is right. I've lived exactly the same thing and it is true. If you happen to be in need for you know somebody in need, please, consider the "Imperfect Marriage, Help For Those Who Think It's Over. Darryl and Tracy Strawberry. Thanks.

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

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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

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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?

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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.