David, a listener from Maryland, calls the show with the same question many Americans are wondering today: Should I risk it all to take a stand against tyranny, mandates, and our loss of freedom? David is the perfect caller for this time, Glenn says, because he asks this question not with bravado but with heart and truth. As Canadian truckers face serious consequences for their peaceful protest up north, the reality is setting in for millions of Americans. Everybody must make the right decision for themselves, Glenn says, but one statement remains true: not to stand IS to stand. You are making a commitment if you just stay silent.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Let me go to David, in Maryland.
Hello, David.
CALLER: Hello, Glenn. Thank you for taking my call.
GLENN: You go to.
CALLER: Hey, I'm a trucker down here in the states.
I've been driving here for 30 years. And I'm not real sure, what -- I've been trying to work through what I'm going to do, if called upon to stand up.
I actually have friends, business owners.
Even people from my church saying, hey, we will financially support you, if you choose to go.
And I'm looking at them, and saying, do you see what's going on?
500 miles north of us here?
And you're -- I don't know that I want to put them in that position. You know, we have a -- my wife has this small business. Home-based business. She's a tutor out of our home.
And like we could really risk losing everything, if I go. But on the other hand, I'm really feeling called to go.
I never thought, Glenn. That I would face a Founders moment. But it very well may be my life, my fortune, as small as it is, and my sacred honor of being labeled as a insurrectionist or terrorist. I mean, I have to consider all of it. And what is it literally going to cost me to go down, and say, you know, freedom.
And like your caller said. Yeah. They've got a blueprint now.
They've got something that they can implement, to counter what the convoy can do. So I'm walking into this thing. Or driving into this thing.
The teeth of this thing. Knowing exactly what's calling. But I'm still feeling somewhat compelled to go and take a stand.
GLENN: I will tell you, this is -- David, we are all going to have to go through this dilemma.
All of us. We -- you're just one of the first to have to do it. And I think this is a really good thing.
That you're -- you're going through.
I mean, I'm really sorry. Whichever way you decide. You will choose a side.
And everybody is going to have to. And as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, not to stand. Is to stand.
You are making a commitment if you just stay silent. And I'm not telling you which decision you should make. Everybody has to make that on their own.
But I think -- I will pray for you. And I would ask our audience to pray for David and anybody like David.
Which way are you leaning right now, David?
DAVID: Going. I can't look at this point in time, in American history, and shrink back, and think somebody else is going to do it.
I really listen to the words of your intro song. You know, to stand up. To hold the line. It's time to do something.
And, you know, Glenn. Here's the thing that really has me -- I'm wrestling with.
I'm a Christian. My wife and I are believers. This isn't -- we don't have a let's go Brandon sign or sticker or flag or anything like that.
We literally do not make our politics known, at all.
And we're not doing this as a political statement.
This freedom that we're fighting for, is something that's guaranteed in the Constitution. That gives freedom to every American citizen.
We don't care if they're gay, straight, black, purple. Whatever.
It's freedom.
We're asking the government to give us back our freedom.
When all this happened with covid, Glenn. My first question was, how do the American people get the power back that the government seized during all of this?
How do they get the power back to open their businesses? How do they get the power back to freely associate? How do they get the power back to go back out and live their lives?
They don't. So if we don't stand now, there's no going backwards from here. It's only going to go forward. So somebody has to stand.
And at first, Glenn. It was the first responders. It was the nurses, the doctors.
Yeah, the truckers. We truck all the time and just hall freight. But those were the people that were in front. And now look what they're doing to them, if they don't get the shots. Well, now if it's the truckers turn to stand up, Glenn. I've got to stand.
I know I have to stand. I can't -- I'm just about ready to burst into tears. I can't sit here, and watch this go by. Knowing I have three adult daughters. Twenty-five, 23, and 21. That are just starting their lives. And saying, ladies, I'm sorry.
You're going to have to put up with whatever is coming.
I can't do that.
GLENN: David.
DAVID: I'm sorry, man.
GLENN: Maybe three or four times in the history of this show. And it's always a pivot. Someone will call in and speak the words that so many are feeling. And it's never -- and it's never with bravado. It's always with deep reflection and sorrow, that they speak those words.
You are that caller for this time. Hold on, David. Because I want to give you a bit -- something to chew on, over the next few days and weeks. And months.
(music)
GLENN: David, the reason why I say there's always -- there's always a caller. And there's been maybe three, in the last 20 years. Twenty-two years of my broadcast.
That speak from the heart, and speak the truth.
There are a lot of callers, that have a lot of bravado. And I will even have bravado, from time to time.
But those are the things, that led us to the Declaration of Independence. And that's good.
But that -- that is the summer soldier.
That is the summer soldier. Somebody who is there, when it's nice and warm. And everything is great. And we're having these -- we think we're on top of the world. And, yeah, let's break away.
Let's break away from England, and then the reality sets in. And I think that's what's happened here. That's what's happening at least in my house. The reality of where, and when we are, is beginning to set in.
And now it's not necessarily -- there can be no hyperbole.
Because you're going to have to do one or the other. And now we're all thinking.
Well, what does this mean, for me?
Because it's just up at the border. And we're seeing the same kinds of things, being done with the January 6th investigation.
And we see how they're trying to go after people's bank accounts.
When we went into the -- into the war. It was in July. And we started fighting after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
And we lost every single battle, until December 25th. That year.
Every battle, we lost. We were in retreat. On December 23rd, Thomas Paine wrote these word.
These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country.
But he who stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and women.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.
Yet, we have this consolation with the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything its value, and heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods. And it would be strange indeed, if so celestial of an article as freedom, should not be highly rated.
The government with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has awe right, fill in the blank. But that to bind us, in all cases, whatsoever.
And it being bound in that mart, is not slavery. Then there is no such thing as slavery upon the earth.
Read Thomas Paine. And keep him with you, David. I think your heart is in the right place. You sound like you are right with God. And you have a peaceful -- a peaceful heart.
Your feelings of trepidation, are warranted. But if God is with us, who can stand against us?
