RADIONovember 06, 2023

Leftists go after BIRD NAMES for being ... RACIST?!

To the Left, EVERYTHING is racist ... including bird names, apparently. Glenn and Stu review an announcement from the American Ornithological Society that it's changing the names of around 80 bird species that are either named after people or have somehow been deemed offensive. Then, they break down why this is utterly ridiculous in every way possible.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Oh, man.

Is everything racist?

STU: It's time for another episode of everything is racist!
(music)

GLENN: We're going to pantoverse now. As we are looking at ornithology.

STU: Yes! It's very important, Glenn. I hope you know that a lot of the familiar names you know, from birding. I know you're a big birder. Big birder. People don't know that.

GLENN: I'm not a big birder. I don't know anyone who is a big birder.

STU: Oh, huge birder.

GLENN: I eat birds.

STU: That's why you're looking for them. It's a little bit differently than the typical birder. You do it a little bit differently.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: But you will have to say goodbye to some very familiar bird names. Like, I mean, say it with me. Anna's hummingbird.

GLENN: Anna's hummingbird. Anna's hummingbird.

STU: Gambel's quail.

GLENN: Gambel's quail.

STU: Lewis's woodpecker.

GLENN: Lewis's woodpecker. That one sounds like we shouldn't talk about it.
(laughter)
What is that? That's Lewis's woodpecker. Stop playing with that.

STU: Just leave him alone.

Bullock's oriole. How many times have you been like, oh, look. It's Bullock's oriole right over there?

GLENN: I usually just say it's an Oriole. But when it's Bullock's oriole, it rubs me wrong. It rubs me wrong.

STU: It does.

Well, apparently this will go away. Because of the American Ornithological Society, how they viewed to change the English names of all bird species, currently named after people.

Along with any other bird names deemed offensive or exclusionary. Now --

GLENN: Okay. Okay. Hang on just a second. To whom? The birds? The watchers?

STU: No, the birds don't care. It's apparently about human beings, as they discuss in the article.

GLENN: Okay. So is this happening all over the world, in every language? Any other society that has named a bird?

STU: There's only one society that matters.

And it's the American Ornithological Society, which is a word I've said many, many times. Not just starting yesterday.

GLENN: You remember.

STU: Yes.

Now, there have also been bird names named after Native American tribes. Because that's also offensive, like the Washington Redskins. That was offensive, had to get rid of it.

Even though about 90 percent of the people in the tribe approved of it. That didn't matter. This move comes as a part of a broader effort to diversify birding, and make it more welcoming to people of all races and backgrounds.

GLENN: You know what, I have to tell you, because you know me.

I'm one with the hood.

And I'm down with my peeps in the hood.

And we're listening to --

STU: Lizzo?

GLENN: Lizzo.

And she's like, where is --

STU: Where my phone?

GLENN: Where my phone in and I say to myself, Lizzo, have you thought of perhaps bird watching?

STU: Birding. Let's call it the appropriate term.

GLENN: I'm in the hood.

STU: This is a slang term for birding. I got it.

GLENN: And she says, where the hell my phone. And I said, you don't need one. You just go out with all the stuff you might get from the ornithology society. And you just go watch them birds.

And she said to me, and this is a quote. Birding is too racist. And I said, I'm with you. I'm with you on that.

But can you explain?

And she said, huh. I don't think I have to, you to, Glenn. And I said, damn right.

STU: That's right. I remember, you told me about that conversation. With contemporaneous notes backing that up, if anyone wants to see it. So this is very common actually. There's a lot of people just sitting around and saying, you know, I would love to get into birding. But I find the name Louis' woodpecker to be a little offensive.

GLENN: Can we use something else besides?

STU: No. Because there's never been an African-American.

GLENN: A hole in the side of a barn. And now I have to replace that whole --

STU: With Louis' woodpecker?

GLENN: No. Because Louis put a hole in the barn.

STU: It's a large bird.

GLENN: Is it?

Let's stop.

STU: Louis had a big bird.

And a lot of people talk about it.

GLENN: Let's move on.

STU: But, you know, are there a lot of people that go through this process?

Because there's never been an African-American name with the last name Louis. That's never occurred. Certainly throughout history.

GLENN: Well, Joe.

STU: Carroll. You know, I don't know. There's been some.

But you would think --

GLENN: The one who wrote Alice in Wonderland.

STU: That one. Yeah, whoever that one was.

So biologist Erica Nole says, she was recently visiting some salt marshes. Now, I know you have a time share near a salt marsh that you visit often.

GLENN: Oh, yeah. I get all my salt there.

STU: She saw a common bird there called Wilson's snipe. As you know, there's never been an African-American with the last name Wilson. They don't -- that never occurred.

GLENN: Flip.

STU: Russell. So which -- this bird has a long bill and engages in dramatic displays such as flying in high circles, which produces a whistling sound as air flows over specialized feathers. Very good execution. You are a birder. I can tell.

GLENN: That's the Wilson snipe.

STU: Which I actually this is a pretty cool name.

GLENN: Snipe! Snipe!

STU: But it doesn't say Wilson. It just says snipe.

GLENN: Snipe.

STU: And this biologist says, quote, and I thought, what a terrible name. I mean, Wilson was the father of modern ornithology.

GLENN: But.

STU: But this bird has so many other evocative characteristics. I mean, all --

GLENN: You know, when I think of the guy who founded modern ornithology. When I think of him, I think, that damn Wilson.

That damn Wilson. His name is everywhere. Everywhere.

STU: What color was Wilson with Tom Hanks?

White. The ball was white. Remember that.

GLENN: I got it.

STU: Okay. So that's the typical craziness.

Number one, they're calling the bird names racist. And acting like some Hispanic person is like, I can't. I would never go into birding now.

I've always wanted to bird. But the name Louis!

I may not bird now.

GLENN: Snipe!

STU: Beautiful bird. A little annoying if it's around your house. But a beautiful bird.

So you have that part.

GLENN: I have a whole nest of them.

STU: Yeah. Secondary part of this, which is ridiculous. They're not just targeting. I guess there are people who have named birds. Who also were in the 1980s. And made racial remarks. Or did something terrible.

I don't know. But they're not just targeting those people.

GLENN: I mean, if it's like Sherman's N-word. I get it. I get it.

STU: You would understand that. You would understand the name change with that one.

And like, it's hard. We understand how this process works. We might think it's stupid. Erasing history.

But like, this has happened all across the country, at this point. They're tearing down statues of freaking Ben Franklin.

GLENN: These guys are not. They're not necessarily bad guys. Wilson is not a bad guy.

STU: Right. They're not targeting only people who have done things that could be deemed offensive by modern sensibilities.

GLENN: Does Tom -- Tom's blue jay.

STU: Tom's blue jay.

GLENN: Tom was a badass guy. He knocked over a few of the Southland corporation's best 7-Elevens back in the '40s.

STU: There you go. That's a whole 'nother story. But they're targeting anyone, any name. If you're named after a person, they're getting rid of it. Even if you're the best person in the world.

GLENN: Not all around the world. Just American.

STU: Just the American ornithology society.

GLENN: And that's crazy.

That's baseline crazy. There's another level of crazy with this story.

And here it comes. The president Colleen Handle says, that was the first I ever really recognized or heard a name was offensive.

She says, at that point in time, concerns about injustice, weren't an acceptable reason for changing bird names. But it really started to change, in 2020.

GLENN: Snipe!

STU: When police officer killed George Floyd in Minneapolis.

GLENN: Wait. That's when the birders said enough of this.

STU: Enough the Wilson snipe.

And the Louis' woodpecker. Because George Floyd has been killed in Minneapolis.

Now, you might say, well, what the hell does that have to do with anything.

This is a totally different story.

GLENN: No. I might say, produce one birder that said that.

Produce just one that said that.

STU: But the issue was that it was not really George Floyd's murder.

GLENN: Oh, it wasn't?

STU: Because on that same day. You may remember. You may forget. This was the exact same day as George Floyd's murder.

GLENN: Same day. Same day. Remember this.

STU: A white woman, in Central Park.

GLENN: In Central Park.

STU: Called the police on a black birder.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

STU: Named Christian Cooper.

GLENN: So he was a birder.

He was a guy who was in the bushes watching, maybe looking for Louis' woodpecker.

STU: She called the police, claiming he was threatening her. Less than a month later, the group called...

GLENN: The group called.

STU: The name is so good. Less than a month later, a group called Bird Names for Birds.
(laughter)
Bird Names for Birds. I've got to join this organization.

GLENN: Wow! I want -- can you look it up, Sara, real quick. Just look up for their mission statement.

What is their mission statement?

Imagine going door to door, trying to get people to go into -- we represent the Bird Names for Birds Club. Okay.

STU: Yeah. Okay. So Bird Names For Birds. They come through. They write to the American Orinthological Society and say, hey! George Floyd was killed.

This birder was -- the police were called by a white woman on this black birder. Therefore, we should get rid of Wilson's name from Wilson's Snipe. That's basically how this conversation went.

Now, the problem with this story, if you remember, it was called the Central Park Karen story. This was the story.

And the main issue with this part of it is the story has been utterly and completely debunked.

At the --

GLENN: There was no blackbirder.

STU: Not utterly and completely.

But the blackbirder did exist. Is a human being. But there's a lot of details you haven't heard about it.

Should we go into those?

GLENN: Yeah. I would like to go into the detail.

Give me a minute to just get over. Snipe!

Let me get past that.

STU: Majestic.

GLENN: That was actually the bird. That wasn't me doing that. That's how close my --

STU: You did the call. That's how --

GLENN: I know. Shut up.

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STU: So if you remember how this story went down, here's -- here's a couple of headlines. A black man bird watching in Central Park, asked a white woman to leash her dog. She called the police.

Amy Cooper was her name.

She was charged in Central Park false report against a blackbird watcher.

GLENN: Is that an actual crime? Is that the crime she was charged with?

STU: A false police report, yeah.

GLENN: Oh. But not against a blackbird watcher.

STU: Well, that's a separate crime.

It's like a hate crime.

There's false reports. Against blackbirders.

GLENN: And that's bad.

STU: So let me give you the -- the footage of this incident.

Because you'll remember it, when you hear it.

This is Amy Cooper.

Being very frantic. And, I mean, she's hysterical this clip.

Of course, the blackbirder was in the right.

Here is Amy Cooper. This is from the day George Floyd died.
(music)

VOICE: Please don't come close to me.

VOICE: Sir, I'm asking you to stop.

VOICE: Please don't come close to me. Please call the cops. Please call the cops.

VOICE: I'm going to tell them you're threatening my life.

VOICE: Please tell them whatever you like.

VOICE: I'm sorry. There's a man. I'm looking at him. He's recording me, threatening me and my dog.

There is an African-American man, I'm in Central Park. He is recording me and threatening myself and my dog. I'm being threatened by a man. Please send the cops immediately.

I'm in Central Park. I don't know.

VOICE: Thank you.

STU: Okay. Now, she's very concerned.

GLENN: She's very hysterical. He seems like he's under control, and a nice guy.

STU: Calm guy.

GLENN: It's two New Yorkers that are just probably a little nuts.

STU: There are -- to take you back to this moment in all seriousness. New York City around May 2020, were pretty freaking nuts. People were afraid to go outside. This is like the very beginning of COVID. And we can all look back at some of the hysteria then, with the -- certainly noticing how ridiculous that was.

GLENN: Oh, that's probably why she, in her twisted New York way. Said, he's threatening my life. Because she said, don't come closer to me.

And he's wearing a mask.

STU: Well, that could be that.

Remember too, she also had health problems. She was predisposed to being more effective to COVID. She had barely had gone outside. She was a terrified person.

And A lot of people in New York at that point were very terrified.

Some of them remain to this day.

GLENN: They still are.

STU: But what happened to her afterward?

She was a white woman called police on blackbird watcher has been fired.

They took her dog from her.

GLENN: They took her dog?

STU: They took her dog.

And she actually went into hiding.

Left the country. And went into hiding after this.

So let's just say for a minute, she is a racist, and she did this.

You wouldn't necessarily think you would have to leave the country.

She was being threatened by people. She was terrified by everybody.

It was very, very bad for her.

When we come back on the other side. I want to give you the actual perspective of what occurred in this incidence.

Because nobody knows. Everybody watched it that way. The media covered it the way I just described.

Racist white Karen, going after this black guy for absolutely no reason.

And she -- she -- good. She got fired. Good, they took her dog. Good, she's out of the country. She's a terrible human being in every way.

GLENN: Yeah. I don't agree with that. I'm glad maybe she's out of the country. But for entirely different reasons.

STU: Really?

GLENN: Yeah. Gee, we lost another New Yorker, who was walking their dog in the park. And was all freaked out about going inside. Oh.

But I would like her to move away in happy terms. Like, I really don't like it here. People make too much. Sense.

STU: Well, that's true. As far as I know, she's not even a member of bird names for birds.

GLENN: Oh, no. I have it pulled up here. I'll look.

STU: Oh, you do? Can I join?

GLENN: Well, I was just looking at the background. Concerns about the honorific common bird names is not new. But this movement seeks to change those names.

STU: Oh, yeah.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Thank God. Thank God these names are going away.

GLENN: So they're very upset about Bachman's sparrow, was the first one they bring. Yeah, Bachman.

STU: Really? What did Bachman do?

GLENN: Bachman was bad. Just, well, Bachman, I believe that's probably Jewish.

STU: Oh.

GLENN: And the Jewish Zionists, they control all of the bird names.

STU: I've been hearing that a lot on college campuses.

That's interesting you bring that up.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

The ONE “forever war” Glenn Beck supports

This Fourth of July, Glenn Beck reveals the only “forever war” he supports. It’s the war Americans have been fighting since our nation’s founding, and we must continue the fight…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Two hundred forty-nine years ago, I think it is tomorrow. Right? Is tomorrow the second, or is it the first?

What day is it today?

So it was 200 -- 249 years ago, tomorrow, that somebody sat alone, in a -- in a one-room hotel room.

And scratched out the words, when in the course of human events. Those are the first six words of a document that is so dangerous!

Still today, so revolutionary.

It was whispered in those candle lit rooms by men who knew. Knew. That if I signed this document, that's a death warrant.

I'm dead!

I'm dead.

But in the course of human events, shh.

Jefferson wrote them!

33 years old. Adams would later say, you do well to revere Jefferson. But he didn't write alone. Basically, I was there too.

And so was Ben Franklin. The ideas were forged in the minds of men like Franklin, who is old enough to know better. And Adams, who was stubborn enough, not to care. And they weren't perfect men. But I love this about the left. They try to make you think.

That you think are perfect. I don't think they were perfect! I mean, Ben Franklin used to walk around naked in his house a lot. That shows, I mean, for as smart as that guy was. It shows, maybe he had a lack of mirrors. But they weren't perfect!

They owned slaves. They argued. They compromised.

How does that make them different than us?
I mean, we should be able to relate to them!

What is it that we tolerate right now?
What is it that we compromise on?

What is it -- what are our failures that future generations are going to go, these people just didn't get it? Perhaps what we should notice is that they, unlike most of us. They were willing to gamble their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

For something that had never, ever been done before. Something entirely new!

The idea that rights don't come from a government, or from a king, or from a parliament.

They don't come from the majority voting. Everyone has certain rights.

You know, for all these people who are, you know -- going in Macy's, and burning down towns. And then stealing clothing. And they're like, because I've been oppressed!

And you can't -- I've got rights, you know.
Yeah. Yeah.

You know who the first people were, to articulate those rights?

You know the only country that actually has stood for those rights?

And we're imperfect!

That idea came from the Founders, that you say you hate.

But the actual rights come from God, which you dismiss!

Think of this. Just ponder this for a second.

That all men are created equal! That their rights are given to them, by a creator.

It's not a political assertion. It's a genius. That's eternal truth!

That's theological dynamite, lobbed straight in to the thrones of Europe.

All over the world, it's still dynamite.

They knew what they were doing.

And I don't mean like, they knew what they were doing.

They had it. No. They knew that the British crown had the largest military force in the world. And these guys, they were farmers. They were printers. They were lawyers. They were a ragtag collection of intellectual and idealists, facing down an empire, where they said, the sun never set on the British empire. Meaning, the colonialism was everywhere!

You could not escape England. And yet, they declared it. We're leaving, without apology!

And they said that when a government becomes destructive of the ends of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness, it's not only the right of the people, it's their duty to throw it off!

Wow. And you know what is amazing? That's not rebellion.

That's -- that's not revolution. That's -- that's responsibility.

That -- that kind of language today, that would have you flagged, shadow banned. Labeled an extremist. In most countries, disappeared!

But that is the foundation of what we call America. The American experiment. And it's that. The American experiment.

And it's just that, an experiment. We didn't know if we could get it right. And we haven't gotten it right. But isn't it worth experimenting?

Isn't it worth trying to get that concept right?

When you fail on that concept, you're like, eh. That's a stupid idea.

That's not a stupid idea. That's the greatest idea of all time.

Why are so many people willing to just quit?

The experiment is self-rule. It's not perfect.

Never has been. Slavery. Jim Crow. Internment camps. Assassinations.

My God! Forgive us, for what we have done.

But at the same time, what nation has done more to correct its own errors?

What people have shed more blood, not for conquest, but for freedom.

Twice in the last century, we crossed oceans. Not to claim territory. But to liberate that territory!

Our sons and daughters fought and bled on foreign soil to push the darkness back, to fight against Naziism and fascism and Communism. And here we are. Here we are today.

After 249 years tomorrow of that experiment, standing at the lip of the very abyss, those men feared.

A godless chaos, rising in the east and a cold atheistic utopia, clawing at the foundations of the Western world. Islamism and Communism, two ideologies that have killed tens of millions of people. Now dressed all in new robes, selling old lies.

And we can't even teach a child where their rights come from. We have replaced Jefferson and Adams with TikTok influencers and bureaucratic groupthink.

We're raising generations to not even know the truth about their own identity.

But to question their identity. And they could be, oh, you're a funny, funny colored unicorn today. What do you want to be tomorrow?

We don't teach them anything about truth, or their inheritance, most importantly. Their inheritance. What good are hot dogs and fireworks, if the soul of the nation is up for auction? What is the meaning in Fourth of July, if we have forgotten the why? If we don't even call it Independence Day anymore. Most people don't even know who we fought against for independence.

They think we fought for its independence! Most people think we fought the South!

And yet, we'll light the sparklers, or blow our fingers off, because we're just that stupid.

This Independence Day weekend, would you do me and yourself and your country a favor, and read the words out loud. Speak the words out loud.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with one another.

And to assume among the powers of earth, the separate, but equal station, to which the laws of nature.

And nature's God entitle them.

A decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes, which impair them to the separation.

What are they saying?

Look, we want to be decent people.

We want to be decent people.

And we have to separate them.

But we believe it's only right that we tell you why we have to separate. And it's not because of all the bad things you've done. We'll get to those later. It's because we're different. And you don't understand. You have been telling us all of these things, we no longer believe in. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, and they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable. Unchangeable rights.

And just among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, government are his instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

My gosh. Read those words. And let your children hear what thinking and courage sounds like.

That to secure these rights, I'm telling you, the king, who thinks that your government was given to you, by God.

And you are the ruler.

And you will tell everybody what to think, what to do. What to buy. What to sell. What to tax. What not to tax. Who gets land. Who doesn't get land.

No, no, no. Government are his instituted among men, deriving their powers, their just powers, from the people. And that government is only there, established by those men to protect the rights that God has given each of those men.

Let them feel the chill, that runs down the spine, when Jefferson writes, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government, or from the governed. Let them hear the words, of -- of responsibility. What responsibility sounds like, with courage and freedom. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.

And to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their a lot of and happiness.

In other words, you have the right, you have the responsibility to stop tyrants. And if the government has gone bad, to throw that government off.

But reconstitute a government, that will do a better job at protecting those rights. Not to form a communist government.

Not to do anything else. But you want a new government?

Fine! Let's find the way to make men more free. This is not a metaphor. This is a declaration of war on tyranny in all of its forms.

I mean, I said, yesterday, freedom isn't free.

It was paid for by somebody's blood. But you have to remember, they paid for their freedom, not for our freedom, necessarily.

We -- there comes a time, we have to pay for our freedom. And God forbid, that it comes down to blood.

But at least shake off the apathy. We -- we must renew this promise of this experiment of America.

We need to fight for it as well. An out-of-control government that seeks to rope us into forever wars, over and over again. We're all against forever wars. I'm against it.

I hate them.

But there is one forever war, that is required in a free society. A different kind of forever war.

A war against ourselves, a war against human nature in each of us. Because of human nature, we get fat. We get lazy.

We get tolerant of abuses. Let your children hear you speak these words. And when you speak them, ponder them yourself.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils are sufferable than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms in which they're accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a sign to reduce them under absolute despotism.

It's their right. It's their duty. To throw off such government. And provide new guards for such future security.

In one paragraph, we make the point twice. And they tell us, look, we've studied people.

We know you're going to get fat and lazy and apathetic. And you won't want to do stuff for transient causes. Because this is really not good.

But when push comes to shove. And everything is moving towards absolute despotism. Absolute tyranny. Then you must stand up.

I ask you to ponder this. This particular part, when a long train of abuses and usurpations. Prudence will indeed dictate that governments long established should not be exchanged for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils suffer, than to right themselves.

Aren't we exactly the same people, that their experience was talking about?

Aren't we the people that are more disposed to suffer, than to right ourselves? Because we're too comfortable. Or we're too afraid, just to stand up and simply say no to lies.

No!

There is a difference between men and women.

No! Communism is to be feared. It's killed over 100 million people, in the last 100 years.

No!

Muslims aren't bad. Islamism is!

It's evil. No!

You can peacefully protest, any time, any place. And I will fight to the death for your right to do that.

But when you start burn cities down to the ground, no!

We're just a few days away. And we have marked our 249th birthday. Maybe. Just maybe, this year, can we stop asking what America was, and start deciding what America will be?

Where it just slips quietly into history. In the dark of apathy and ignorance.

Because the only thing more dangerous than tyranny is the people who have forgotten what it took to break its chains.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

We need REAL jobs in America — Trump should do THIS now!

It is clear we need to create more productive, high-paying jobs for American citizens. But that doesn't mean bringing back the same exact jobs of the past in massive numbers. It means creating and supporting jobs of the present and future that will better the lives of Americans. Glenn Beck and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts break down exactly what this entails and how President Trump can make it a reality.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts HERE

The most INCREDIBLE World War II story you’ve NEVER HEARD

One of the biggest American World War II cemeteries in Europe is in a small town in the Netherlands, where thousands of Dutch people continue the tradition to this day of “adopting” a fallen US soldier and checking in on his family. “The Monuments Man” author Robert Edsel joins Glenn Beck to tell this incredible story, which he documents in his new book, “Remember Us.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Robert, welcome back to the program. How are you, sir?

ROBERT: Great to talk to you!

GLENN: It's great to talk to you.

Can you remind me? You were on with us, after Monuments Men. And you talked about this great service that is still going on, where people that -- they were still looking for paintings and pieces of art, that had been taken by the Nazis.

And if I remember right, didn't somebody in our -- our own audience reach out to you, and say, I think we found one of those paintings?

ROBERT: Yes, sir. Absolutely.

The Glenn Beck audience. And Glenn Beck, you yourself deserve a lot of credit.

Because I hadn't walked out of your studio last time. You know, in Dallas at Las Colinas.

Headed back to our office at Monuments Men and Women Foundation office, before someone in my office contacted me and said, we've already had a lead, as a result of your interview with Glenn. And it turned out someone whose aunt had been given two paintings during World War II.

She had worked for the government overseeing Germany, and these two paintings were missing.

We were able to identify who the rightful owner was, and get them back.

So it's a great thing that you performed. And, you know, it's a magnificent conclusion, though obviously a very difficult part of history.

GLENN: What was it like to give that back to the family?

ROBERT: It was a deeply moving experience. We -- the foundation found and returned more than 30 works of art, from paintings to documents, ancient books. Tapestries, to museums. Individual collectors, and so on.

And, you know, when we see, oftentimes, the people just stand there, and they cry.

They don't even know what to say. Because they may have worked 50 or 60 years, trying to find some work of art that's been missing. And they haven't had leads. And to -- to see us standing there, with something that belongs to them.

Not asking for anything in return. Don't charge anybody for doing it. Because we feel like everybody who went through World War II already paid enough.

Words -- words just fail. It's just pure gratitude.

GLENN: I can't wait for you to tell this new story.

Tell me the story of the care takers. The care takers of --

ROBERT: Well, it's a story that found me, just as Monuments did.

I have written about -- in the Monuments Men, I told the story of two Monuments Officers who were killed in combat, one British soldier and one American, Walter Huchthausen. And Huchthausen was killed. He once did a last casualty at war. He was killed in the last month of World War II, and is buried in the American benevolence, American cemetery, in Margraten in the Netherlands. I knew that story, and I had made mention of a young girl who was harbored in September '45, asking for the address of his mother, wanting to write her and tell her, that she walked 5 miles, several times a week, from her house to the American military cemetery. It was called then. To put flowers on his grave. Because her family knew them. And they were grief-stricken to know that they were killed.

And I knew that story too. I mentioned that. And then in 2015, the nephew of Huchthausen wrote me and included a photograph of this elderly lady with this crown of white hair. And he said, here's a photo with Frida, and I couldn't place who this was.

I had no idea who it was. And I realized, my God, this is that 19-year-old girl that is still alive. So I flew to England. She married a British soldier after the war. And I went to meet with her. She started showing me photographs of when the American -- Americans liberated her area of the Netherlands.

And all these American soldiers that they knew.

And she said, you know about the American military cemetery.

She said, have you been there?

And I said yes. And she said, so you know about the great adoption program?

And I said, what? She said, the great adoption program.

I said, I have no idea what you're talking about. So I started doing some research on this. And learned, at the end of World War II, our largest World War II cemetery in Europe, was not Normandy. It was the Netherlands American cemetery, where 17,800 boys and a few women buried at this cemetery by May 1946.

And by that time, every single grave had a Dutch person, a local person, who volunteered to be an adaptor of that brave.

Go out there on the first death date of the soldier, Veterans Day, Memorial Day.

And if they had the contact information for the next of kin, send them a photograph of the grave.
And a letter.

Because they realized, it was okay to adopt the bodies of dead boys.

But where the real need was, was to reach across the ocean, into the American homes and try to assuage the grief of the families.

And they knew some of these boys. And I found it the most heartwarming, uplifting, and certainly unique conclusion to a World War II story that I think has been written.

GLENN: So are they still some of them still doing this?

ROBERT: Not some. In fact, there were about -- in 1940, 748.

American families were given the choice to have their loved ones sent home, or to be left overseas in a military cemetery.

The Army had no idea, how many -- how many families would want their boys sent home, and as a consequence, they couldn't tell how many cemeteries they would need.

We thought almost everybody would want to have the families sent home. But it turned out not to be the case. So about 61 percent came home. About 39 percent stayed in Europe, which was about the numbers from World War I.

Although, the numbers in this area, in the Netherlands were higher.

The -- the graves that are there now.

There are 10,000 boys there. And four women.

8300 graves. 1700 names on the walls of the missing.

Every one of them has an adaptor for 80 years.

All those graves have been adopted, without interruption.

There's a waiting list of almost a thousand people in the Netherlands, to become a doctor. This is a -- not just a --

GLENN: This is --

JASON: A privilege. Because they take their kids out to the cemetery. They turn the cemetery into a classroom. And you go out there. And, yes, there's a somber element. They're instilling in their kids, you're able to think, and say what you want to. Because of the freedom that was given to you, by this American girl or boy. And we don't do that in our country anymore.

GLENN: So this is one of the most incredible stories that I've -- I've ever heard.

And I'm shocked that the world doesn't know this!

Is -- have you -- is there anything like this, anywhere else in the world?

JASON: No. We couldn't even find a comp of any nature.

There are -- that is not to say, the people in Normandy area, don't care about Normandy and other cemeteries. They do, of course. As do the Belgians in other cemeteries.

But there's no place that created an organic great adoption program, during the war, in January 1945!

These people in this area of the Netherlands were so grateful, having been neutral in World War I.

And having not lost their freedom for 100 years!

And they didn't like it!

And when the Americans liberated them in September 44. I'll never forget this woman Freda. This elderly woman I met, looked at me, the first time I interviewed her. I knew her for eight years. The last eight years of her life.

I delivered a eulogy two summers ago. She looked at me, there were the eyes of the 19-year-old. And she said, when I saw that first tank over the hill and I realized, we were saved.

I looked at my dad, and I said, Papi, these American boys come all the way across the ocean to say this. And there were tears in her eyes.

Because they didn't -- they couldn't imagine how we could have moved that equipment across -- across the ocean.

And why we would have cared so much.

So there isn't anything like it.

But January 45, these people in this little town of Margraten.

A mile from the cemetery, organized a meeting of the town leaders. The town who got 1200 people.

And they were trying to find an answer to the question: How do you thank your liberators, when they're no longer alive to thank? And they came up with this idea of this great adoption program, and it's a story that I tell, following the lives of about 12 different American combat soldiers.

Bomber recipients.

Tankers.

Because we don't know that story.

We don't what knows to an American story, when they're killed on the field of battle.

Because it's depressing.

We move on to the next scene in a movie.

Well, I want people to know, you started your program with freedom is not free.

It's ugly.

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about what the cost is.

Let's talk about the stripping line that the body goes through, and the removal of dog tags, one being put in the mouth, if there's still a head. And the other being nailed to the cross, because they don't have time to stencil the names on yet.

Let's talk about that, and let people know, it's not just a Marvel movie. Or a gang war.

This is real. This is painful. And, of course, at the end of the war, when we Americans declare victory, and move on with our lives, there's millions of family members in the United States, whose lives will never be the same.

So it is -- it's still happening today. It's still happening today.

GLENN: The name -- the name of the book is Remember Us.

And take us -- I mean, because that's really kind of the -- the -- the beauty of it.

Take us through the rest of the book, just briefly.

It starts with what?

ROBERT: Well, I follow -- I began what a nice life was in the Netherlands. Until May 10, 1940.

And the Netherlands does not get much attention from World War II, and yet everybody has heard of Battle of the Bulge. And Battle -- those are all within 50 miles of what we're talking about.

They happened around there. Of course, World War II, in western Europe, begins right here in this area. Because the German tanks roll across the border.

So I cover the life of these 12 different Americans. I interviewed all their family members. Some make it through the war. Some don't.

You read the book, you realize who makes it, who doesn't. But their lives converge around this area of the Netherlands. And when post-world War II stories end, with the war being over, remember us kicks into a transcendent moment when the Dutch come up with this idea of this great adoption program. The Americans refuse to provide the names and addresses of the next of kin.

So they're foiled with trying to achieve their ultimate objective. Which is to try to contact all the American families.

And frustrated, there was -- one of the key figures of the book.

A woman who is the mother of 12 children.

Who takes it upon herself. She's a woman of action.

She writes president Truman. And pleads for him to get involved.

When that doesn't work. She gets on the first airplane, she's ever flown on. She leaves her kids behind.

She flies to New York. Lands in LaGuardia Field.

She goes to Washington, and meets the members of Congress. Including a young guy from Texas, named Lyndon Johnson.

Who says, young lady, you need to go to Texas. Because there are so many military bases there.

She flies to our hometown. And lands in Lovefield.

In June of 1946. And is met by two family members. And for five weeks, she lives with American families, that lost somebody during a war.

And to each of them she says, leave your boys with us. When the election comes.

We will watch over them, like our own forever.

And they have done that. Now, today, these 10,000 Dutch doctors only have contact information for 20 percent of the American families.

They couldn't ever get the others.

GLENN: You're kidding me. Where is the list? Do you have a list?

ROBERT: Yeah. The Monuments Men and Women Foundation entered into a joint venture with the Dutch Foundation for Adopting Graves.

Not charging anybody for this. And we have created a website called foreverpromise.org.

And on that website is a list of all 10,000 men and women, more women that are buried at the cemetery, or whose names are on the walls missing.

And it's a searchable database. We're asking people to go and see. Do you have someone you know, or a relative, who is buried there.

And if so, we have a short questionnaire. What's your relationship? Are you aware of this great adoption program? Are you in contact with your adopter? Would you like to be? Would you allow us to share your contact information?

I connected a lady from Richmond, Texas. Saturday night. To her -- to this young Tammy, that's the adopter of her brother.

She's 93 years old.

She was in tears. At the thought when she leaves this world, there will be someone there to watch over her brother.

And that's what we're all about is this connecting.

GLENN: Rob, I have to tell you.

You've really done something with your life. I mean, I know you don't need me to say it.
But what a great job you have. And what a great service you have done for so many years.

Thank you so much.

Please, look this up.

The forever promise project.

You can find it at foreverpromise.org. Foreverpromise.org. Robert Edsel is the author's name. The book is Remember Us. It's a perfect read for this week.