The Courage to Stand Up!

Grandpa, tell me about the good old days Sometimes it feels like this world's gone crazy Grandpa, take me back to yesterday When the line between right and wrong didn't seem so deep Lovers really fall in love these days Stand beside each other, call it what may Promise really something, keep our heads Not just something they would say Families really bow their heads in praise Daddies really never go away Grandpa, tell me about the good old days When the line between right and wrong didn't seem so deep Lovers really bow their heads in praise Daddies really never go away Some of these topics are obvious when we're talking about the city and the fact that they're pretty much bankrupt. It's pretty obvious what we're going to talk about and I lay out the facts and the points of what I've learned. And by the way, I want to point out a couple things on that as we get started. I've covered a lot of material when it comes to the financial state of the city. And there were quite a few politicians around town and pronosticators that were going around saying what I was saying was not true or they were exaggerated. And what we found out is, unfortunately, I was right. The city is in a bad shape and they are not getting better, just to be honest. They're continuing kind of the circle to drain. We're hoping that they can pull out of that. We're hoping for some good decisions coming in the future with some cuts. But we're not going to talk about that today. Other than the fact that we are going to talk about courage and strength of character that I think is going to be definitely needed in the city going forward. Now, real quick, one thing on the city that I need to just mention. I got some bad news today for the city. And I think the announcement was given out to employees today that Moog in Radford would be closing. Obviously, a terrible hit to the employees that work there and families. That's Moog. It's out on Rock Road, right at the corner of Rock Road and Four Lanes. I think most of you know where that is. They're going to be shuttering their doors. Many are going to be losing their jobs by summer. But the plant should be completely closed by January of 2025. So, the hits just keep on coming for Radford City. They put themselves in a bad position. They spent up their reserves. They made some unfound and unwise decisions. The previous council did. And now when bad times come, we actually have no cushion now to weather that storm. So, I wanted to just add that in there. It's going to take a lot of strength and a lot of courage to move through what they're going to face in the next year. And it just adds to the already exacerbated problems that they have. So, I just wanted to get that announcement out because I just actually found it out today. And we may talk about it more in the future. But just some tough times in Radford. And it's definitely getting worse. It's definitely compounded. All right. I wanted to let you know about that. So, let's move on. You know, today, I'm kind of a little tongue-tied. But today, I'm going to talk about something that's been on my mind a lot. And I think about these things a lot. As I think about American, I think about my personal character and the character of others. And, you know, how I order my life. And some of these things always come back. It comes back to my childhood. It comes back to, you know, the principles as a red-blooded American boy growing up here in Radford. And the things that I've always thought and believed. One of the things I've always been in awe of are the heroes of America. The people that stood and fought and died and bled and sacrificed for the freedoms that we have now. And I always try to look at what they did. And I try to look at myself and see if I could meet the measure of those men and women that stood for the nation's founding and that fought and died in wars throughout our history to make sure that we live in a free and prosperous society. Quite frankly, I always find myself very lacking when I compare myself to the sacrifices that must have been made. But today I want to talk about a few points along that line and about, you know, and I want to encourage myself and I want to encourage others to be a little different than what we are witnessing now. To not be the normal when it comes to the direction that our society is going in. Now, in order to do that and to stay on track, I kind of do like I always do. I break it into segments or bullet points. You know, we always laugh about the preacher having three points in a poem. Well, I don't have a poem, but I do have three points that I'm going to work through today. And I have to do that because I'll just get to talking and I'll get outside the lines and you'll never know where I'm going. But the whole theme of today is going to circle around courage. Courage to stand, courage to stand today, courage to stand up for the future, and a strong look back at the past. And I think any time we start or we try to make a plan, we need to figure out what happened in the past. You know, there's an old saying that says, you know, people who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. But I'm kind of looking at it from a different way today. I'm actually looking at the past history of America, what brought us to this point, and trying to emulate it. Honestly, I think we stand on the shoulders of giants. Giants and courage that brought us to where we are today. Now, perfection, no. No, we could go through the past history of America and we can find a lot of black spots. A lot of black spots. But within those black spots and intermingled between them, we will find men and women who had the courage to correct those issues. To correct issues within our own nation, but also to stand and to fight those who would steal our liberty. I mean, it started, obviously, back with the Revolutionary War, and I'm not going to be going that far back. But it started then, with a group of men who signed that Declaration of Independence so many years ago, and they knew when they wrote their names on the paper that they were potentially signing away their life. If this thing called freedom, if this new thing called America did not work, their pen would hang them at the end of a rope. And they knew that. That's courage. That's really courage. The idea that this small band of rebels would take on the most powerful nation in the world in Great Britain to stand up for this idea that all men were created equal, given their rights by God, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I tell you, that was courage. That was courage. And it's amazing as we go back through American history, and I know American history now is being tainted, and people are trying to, because of the lack of perfection of some of those that were our founding fathers, in a completely different era, in a completely different time, they've tried to tear them down. Their real purpose is to tear down America. And they go to the root of America, the founding and the founding fathers, and try to tear them down to take away the accomplishments that's been made. So my first point, courage of the past. I want to look at some of the amazing things or some thoughts that are just going through my mind about the men and women that not only founded the country but preserved the country. I read a lot of books. I've been listening to books on tape. I've talked about that. I just finished Gettysburg. That's one that I was listening to on tape. But I've been watching also the series. I know a lot of you have watched it before. It's on Netflix now. It's also, I guess, it's always on maybe HBO because they produced this, and that's Band of Brothers. And it's 101st Airborne, I believe, Easy Company. And they go through, they're parachuted into Normandy on D-Day, and they go all the way through to the end of the war for them. And they follow a group of men, and they interview the men, and they're old. It's really moving to me to watch it. I know there's a lot of violence. It's real life. It's what happened. And I'm amazed. I'm amazed by the courage of these men. And I've thought a lot about it. As soon as I finished that series, I started the next one, which is the Pacific. And it goes through the Marines that landed on Guadalcanal and the islands of, you know, where they fought Japan during World War II and the issues and things that they went through. And I was really thinking, I was watching the episode last night, and they were landing on one of the beaches, and they were in the landing craft. I know a lot of you have seen that from Normandy and from D-Day, and this was very similar. And they're heading to the beach, and they're inside that little metal craft, and the bombs are exploding all around them and shrapnel and bullets are hitting the sides of the steel of the boat that they're in. And boats are getting hit around them and blowing up. And, you know, I thought about those men approaching the beach. And I tried to imagine. I can't, obviously. But I tried to imagine what was in their minds. These were 18-, 19-year-old, 20-year-old men with their whole life ahead of them. They had, in some cases, wives and children, parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters at home. What were they thinking as they approached that beach? And, you know, it kind of hit me that they're thinking the same things you would be thinking, Keith. They're thinking about their family. They don't want to die. They're scared to death. They're throwing up. They're praying out loud. They're trying to prepare themselves to meet their maker like you would be. They're scared to death, just like any of us would be. But the amazing part of it is that it's not amazing to be scared. We all have those emotions. God gave us those flight, those fear and flight instincts. When something's about to get us, we can kind of sense it sometimes, right? We kind of know, you know, not to touch that hot stove. We know not to get too close to the edge or we'll fall. We understand those things. And those men in those boats, as they approached it, they had the same feelings that we would have. That's not courage. The courage is when the gate drops to run forward. And I find that amazing. And I have to ask myself, and I think you should too, what would you do? Would you run forward into the fire or would you hide in the corner, hoping that the boat would turn around and they could take you back to the ship? But quite obviously, quite obviously, our men ran forward. Our men, when the gates dropped, charged the beach. They did it at Normandy. They did it at countless beaches across the South Pacific. And many of those boys that were in those boats, they took their final breaths that morning. That is quite a measure of courage. And it's a heritage. Those are the giants, when I talk about standing on the shoulders of giants, those are the shoulders that we stand on as a country. That was the bloody price of freedom that was paid. Tyranny defeated, liberty preserved. We should be thankful for that. And it's not just in our battles overseas. We've seen battles here at home to preserve freedom. You know, those that face the dogs and the hoses of Birmingham, Alabama, and Selma and other places, pretty amazing shoulders that we stand on. That's our heritage. That's our history. That's the courage of the past. And you know, that's not escaped on Radford either. We have our own heroes right from our own hometown. One of the most famous in my book is Colonel John Ripley. Do you guys know the story of the Radford High School graduate named John Ripley? A lot of us do, but I bet there's a lot of you out there that don't. I want you to hear it. And I won't do it justice. It'd be a great episode sometime. I've got a good friend who retells the story of John Ripley in an amazing way. Maybe I'll have him on one day to just tell that story. But, you know, the story of John Ripley, he's a graduate of Radford High School. In 1957, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He went on to become a commander. He ended up commanding the 4th Platoon, the 2nd Force Recon, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine, 2nd Marine Regiment. He was awarded quite a few medals, including the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, two Legion of Merit awards. He was a decorated hero. There's been books written about this guy, and I bet many in Radford have never heard of him. Let me just tell you a story, and I don't want to read it to you because I think we should all know it. It says here, John Walter Ripley was born on June 29, 1939, in Radford, Virginia. His family lived there until he was five years old. They then moved to Portsmouth, Ohio, where they remained for some years before finally settling in Radford, Virginia. After graduating Radford High School, John Ripley enlisted into the Marine Corps in 1957 at 17 years of age. A year later, he was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy by the Secretary of the Navy. He graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant. After completing the basic school, he joined the Marine Detachment on the U.S. Independence. After his sea duty, he joined 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines. In May 1965, Ripley was transferred to the 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company, and after training, he deployed to Vietnam with his platoon. In October 1966, Ripley joined 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines in South Vietnam. He served as Company Commander of Lima Company, known as Ripley's Raiders. He was wounded in action, then returned to active duty and completed his combat tour. In October of 1969, Captain Ripley was selected to serve as Exchange Officer with the British Royal Marines in a special boat service. During his 2 years of Vietnam service, he participated in 26 major operations. In addition to numerous decorations for extensive combat experience at the rifle company and battalion levels, Ripley was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism in destroying the Dong Ha Bridge during the 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive, also known as the Nha Trinh U Offensive. That action is memorialized at the Navy Academy with a large diorama titled Ripley at the Bridge. Let me tell you a little bit about what happened at that bridge. While under intense, unrelenting enemy fire, Ripley dangled for an estimated 3 hours under the bridge in order to attach 500 pounds of explosives to the span, ultimately obliterating it. His action conducted under enemy fire while going back and forth for materials definitely thwarted an onslaught by 20,000 enemy troops and dozens of tanks and was the subject of the book, The Bridge at Dong Ha by Colonel John Grider Miller. He attributes his success to the help of God and his mother. When his energy was about to give out, he began a rhythmic chant, Jesus Mary, get me there. His body attached to its extreme limits, his action is considered one of the greatest examples of concentration under fire in the annals of U.S. military history. Now that's amazing and that's a hero that we stand on from Radford, Virginia. That's really cool and I hope that we teach our kids that in school. I don't know if it's taught in Radford City schools, but it should be. It really should be. I know there's an award, the John Ripley Award that we give out at Radford High School, so I like to believe that it is. But he was quite an amazing man and a hero and there's more to tell. He did a lot more, but he was awarded all those awards or those medals for his bravery and his action there in Vietnam. We should be proud of that heritage. One of the things that stands out to me about that story is he was a commander. He didn't send one of his men to go and do that job. He stepped up and did it himself. That's leadership. Wow, that's courage. And I'm pretty proud of that, to be from Radford and to know that there's somebody from Radford that displayed that courage. And that's the courage of the past. The shoulders we stand on. Now, what about now? What about the present? You know, the next segment, I told you I had three points. The next segment I named Fear of the Present. Because I believe we live in a fearful time. We're fearful people. We're afraid of everything. You say, what do you mean, Keith? Well, this is just an observation that I have and that's really bothered me here lately. We have trouble getting good people to step up and lead. Why? Well, for common logic, for good reason. We have trouble getting good people to step up and lead because of the fear of the reprisals that ultimately come with it. It is simply easier to bury your head in the sand and go on about your life and do whatever you need to do for you and your family and to let everything else go. Just stay below the radar. Make sure that, you know, you're not sticking your head up above the rails of that metal boat heading to the beach, much less charging the beach when you get there. You're not going to do that. And what does that give us? It gives us poor leadership. Because there's always someone willing to step forward that really have no business being in leadership. We give ourselves over to poor leadership, to poor leaders, to lesser men and lesser women. Because we're not willing to have the courage to step forward and lead. Oftentimes they choose to lead because there's some personal gain there. That's the reason they're doing it. We have these unbelievable stories. I mean, it's like told over and over and over of these people that go to Congress. A job that, you know, they're making, what, $80,000 a year or whatever it is that they make. I don't even know. But they come out with just an average salary, but they come out multimillionaires. From the graphs and all the contacts and the stock trading that they're allowed to do under the table and all these things that happen, they come out millionaires. So they're not doing it in service to the nation. They're not showing courage to do it. A lot of them are doing it simply for the personal benefit for themselves and their family. The Biden crime family, no different. That's a perfect example of that. It's seldom that you see people decide to serve and really decide to serve because they want to change the locality, the city, the town, the state, the nation that they love. They just don't serve for those reasons anymore, or a lot don't. They serve for themselves. The people that would serve for others are afraid to. They're afraid to, like I said, because of the reprisals. And those reprisals are real. It's not something imagined. We see them. We see when someone steps up to serve on school board or city council or wherever it would be, they could quite quickly become the subject of the ire of the social media bullies throughout the city, the town, the state, the nation, whatever it is. And we've watched that happen, and we don't want to be that person. Just like we don't want to be that person when the gate drops that charges the beach for our nation. We don't want to be that person. It's okay that someone else is doing it, but we don't want to be that person. And ultimately, what happens is the conglomeration of people that think the way they do, that have conservative, common sense principles, that believe in the rule of law, that believe in right and wrong, that believe in fairness and decency, that believe in the weights and measures being equal in the hands of justice. People that believe that, we stay home. People that don't care about those things, they step forward. They risk whatever scrutiny they have to deal with for the personal gain. Now, I found myself, personally, not immune to that fear. I have found myself a coward a few times that I believe I should have stepped up and said something, or I should have charged the beach, so to speak, when the gate dropped. And so, I'm guilty. I don't want to put myself on a pedestal and say, oh, I'm doing this and everybody else should because I've failed down that avenue, too. I really have. And when I decided to do this podcast, you know, it was kind of a tough decision. There's been a number of podcasts and episodes that I've done that I was a little fearful to push forward on because I know what the result will be. And I promise you this, there are people that hate me for doing some of the podcasts I've done and for putting out some of the information, truthful information, that I've put out. They didn't want some of these things to come to light. They did not want people to know about RU and Cogen and us losing millions of dollars a year because of losing the electoral. RU is an electrical customer. They did not want you to know about the city's finances and how poorly they've been handled and how we're in terrible shape right now. They didn't want you to know that. They certainly didn't want you to know about the side deals and the conflict of interest between elected officials and the RU Foundation in regards to the Highlander Hotel, in my opinion. They did not want you to know about that or the emails or the things that were exchanged between the two that, in my opinion, proved beyond a shadow of doubt the personal treachery that some had when it comes to the city. They didn't want you to know that. People don't like people to tell the truth about what's going on. They like to be in control, operate things in a vacuum, and just let you sit in your side with your head in the sand, uninformed and oblivious to what's going on in your own city, how your tax dollars are being spent, wasted, lost, however you want to put it. They don't want you to know those things. It was a hard decision. I've made a number of hard decisions. I've done dozens of episodes at this point. Some of them were easier than others. Some of them were hard because I kind of knew the pushback that I would get. I experienced some of that on council. I'm telling you this ahead of time. I'm going to tell you some things that's happened to me. But I want you to know that I struggle with the same things you do about, you know, should I like this post or should I share this or should I make a comment on Facebook about what's going on? Should I do this podcast? Should I show up and speak out at this meeting? All those things cross my mind, and I wonder if I should. And I'm always pushing back, saying, no, I shouldn't. Why should I do that? Why should I be the one to say something? Why should I tell everybody? Other people ought to tell that. It's not my job all the time. But inevitably, I circle back and say, well, if not me, then who? I'm hoping there's going to be a lot of other people that step up in the coming year and that stand up for what's right when it comes to the direction of our city. We have a couple city council races that are open. We have a couple school board races that are open. We're electing a new president. We've got another Senate race coming up. Tim Kaine is just a – I don't know. I don't like him. We might get into that a little later. Not today, though. That's not for today. But there's a lot that needs to be done. But I push back against myself because, honestly, sometimes I'm fearful, too. You know, I served on city council for eight years, and there are things that happened within those eight years that I can't explain, but I personally believe that were done to try to intimidate me, to try to run me off, try to push me away from city business and city politics. You know, I was raising my kids then. They were all at home when I was on council. And when I was elected to council in 2010, I had a kid in every single school in the city. And one of the things I noticed was that there were always shots taken at my kids, you know, sometimes by coaches, sometimes by teachers, sometimes by administrators. And it was always the kind of comment, you know, I don't care. You know, they'd get in trouble like kids do. And my kids got in trouble just like anybody else's kids, just like I did in high school. And, you know, I got in trouble all the time. I was terrible. But anyway, they got in trouble. But they would always, it wasn't just, they weren't always treated the same. It was always this comment, like, I don't care if your daddy's on city council or not, you're not going to get away with it. And they weren't trying to get away with anything special, and I certainly didn't want them to get away with anything they shouldn't. But those comments were always made towards my kids, and it always bothered me. And those were kind of small things. And there was always comments that, you know, would be said about me on Facebook, or I'd find out about an email, or someone would make a comment to me in the grocery store, or things like that that were derogatory. And those were some of the things that you deal with. But I had other things happen at my house. You know, I had six tires slashed while I was on city council at my house. They would happen in the dead of night. I had a group of men in a car that were, that come by and that were caught by the police. They were throwing bricks and trying to throw them through, you know, car windows at my house. I had one that was bounced off the side window of my truck. It didn't break in that particular case, but it scratched it up pretty bad, and that was done. I had a guy that was tackled in my backyard. I had a group of police come through my yard, I think it was a Sunday morning, and some guy that was in my backyard, and I knew nothing about it. And they come through my yard with their pistols drawn and tackled the guy in the backyard. I never figured out what that was about. Just things that, and it may have nothing to do with city council, but things that worry you and things that get under your skin and, you know, that will kind of bring fear to you. Those things happened to me when I was on city council. And my point is this, you know, when you step up for a leadership role, when you do things, when you speak out, when you stand up, you're going to get shots fired at you, figuratively speaking, politically speaking. Hopefully not the other way. But things are going to happen, and they happened to me. So I remembered those things when I started this podcast because, you know, I had to think, you know, I'm kind of stepping up to this again. I had another time someone took a rock and they wrote obscene things, you know, in one of my vehicles with the rock. So, I mean, there was a lot of things that happened over those time periods when I'm involved in political things. There are some repercussions, and probably me telling you that will run anybody off that would be interested in running for any office. But I just want to point those out to you. Number one, if you're an elected official and you're dealing with things like that, you're not alone. You're not the first person to have issues like that. And if you're thinking about running, you're going to deal with that. But there's a matter of courage that I don't always have, but there's a matter of courage to go forward when the gate drops. And if we're going to have any kind of city at all, any kind of state, any kind of nation, good men and good women are going to have to charge the beaches of truth and decency and lawfare. You know, they're going to have to do the right thing. Someone has to step up. Someone has to fight for the cause of rights. Someone has to. You know, those things that happened to me, the tires, the vehicles, the people arrested, the things like that, I haven't told many people about that. Only my close friends know about that. I didn't advertise it. I didn't put it in the paper. I just dealt with it. It's probably a surprise to you that those things happen in the city, but they do. They do. I hope they don't happen often. I don't hear about them a lot, but they did happen to me. They really did. And the worst part or strangest part is you never could quite figure out why they were happening. People weren't talking. You know, when a group of 20-some-year-old men are caught doing things and they pretend they don't know you or they say they don't know you, but yet they've targeted your house multiple times, there's something going on there. But I never figured it out. But that's enough about that. So we know the courage of the past. We know the examples that were set for us, you know, by our founding fathers, by the men and women that stood for the cause of right, that fought, you know, the evil dictators of the past. We know those people who solved the problems within our own nation of slavery and of unequal treatment and all of those things. We know how those things happened. And we know great men and women stood up and fixed those problems of the past and preserved the freedoms that we have now. And we know the fear that we have for the present. We understand how it is to be attacked on social media. I've talked about some things that happened to me personally. We all understand that fear of being made fun of or attacked or having our kids attacked at school. We get that. We don't want to be the subject of social media posts and the subject of, you know, people's ire and, you know, just the hatefulness that comes with our social media age that we're in. We don't want to be stuck in that situation. So we all understand the fear. So what's next for the future? What kind of future do we have? Well, that's dependent on us, right? Because, truthfully, in my mind, it's not the present that we should fear. It's the future. Because if we do not have the courage of the past, right now, there's not going to be a future. We're not going to live in harmony. We're not going to be able to hide our heads in the sand. We are not going to be able to just go along and run our business or whatever it is quietly to preserve maximum profits. That's not going to work in the future. We're watching in our own city the fact that we've not been involved and we've not paid attention over the last few years. We are seeing the result of that, and we're about to become a town. We're about to lose the freedom we had to make decisions in our own schools by ourselves here in Radford. We're about to lose that. We're about to not get to elect our own constitutional officers because there's going to be a Montgomery County sheriff or a Montgomery County registrar or whatever. We're not going to get to do that. We're going to lose our autonomy. We're going to lose our personal freedom because we didn't pay attention. We didn't keep our hands watching the deal. We didn't watch mine in the store over the last five years, and we're seeing the results of that. We see a border with tens of thousands of people crossing every week, Chinese nationals and people that hate us from countries that hate us crossing. We cannot take care of our own poor, much less the poor of other countries. We're watching our votes being diluted. We're watching our wealth being diluted, and we're watching the crime in the streets and the disease grow exponentially throughout the nation. We're losing a handle on the future because of our fear of the present. We're watching one party use our judicial system to target people who do not agree with them politically in order to keep power. We're watching the destruction of one of the most special things about the nation, and that's the right of a fair trial and to be represented fairly within our judicial system. We're watching that disappear. We watched, and I talked about it in How to Rig an Election. We watched how the system was used and twisted not only in the nation but in our own city by one party, by one group, in order to seize and keep power. We've watched our elections turn out to win. None of us really, or at least I don't, have full confidence in our elections. I just don't anymore. I hate that. I'm not a conspiracy guy there. I just don't trust it, and I bet many of you don't either. That's a shame, and that happened because of our fear right now. We're not willing to stand up because someone may call us a crazy insurrectionist or they may call us an election denier or whatever because we just ask some basic questions about some things that do not seem right to us. We're not saying that the ballots are stuffed, but we're saying that some things are being done unfairly that can be used. I use the word rigged because it's not fair and it's twisted and it's not done according to our rules as a nation, as states, localities, whatever. They're just not done fairly. It strikes me that we all have these ideals and we want things to be done correctly, but we're not willing to do anything to make sure that that happens. When was the last time you wrote a letter to the editor and said, I think this needs to be looked into or I don't like this? When did you show up at a city council meeting and speak? When did you put a sign in your yard or give a few dollars to a candidate that may actually be running under the principles that we like? They actually are not trying to get themselves rich or gain something personally, but they actually care about their city, their state, their nation. I bet there's been 25 gun control bills pushed out in the House and the Senate. I can't remember the last time we had one put out to try to get rid of some of the silly rules that they've come up with over the last few years. We have people that we put in office to fight and they're afraid to fight. They don't stand up for the localities that they're supposed to represent. They stand up for themselves. They're afraid to wade out into deep water because they're afraid someone will dunk their head under. I think it's pretty clear, certainly as a city, but also as a state, as a nation, that we have reached a critical inflection point. A point where if we don't change the course of the way we're going, our future does not look bright. In the city of Ramford, if we don't get our finances under control, if we don't make the proper cuts that we need to make, if we don't stop the idea of tax and spend and spend and spend, of throwing money at the wall to try to please a lot of people and try to prove that you have thought of all these great ideas, those things that's happened over the last five years that's bankrupted us, if we don't stop as a nation putting politics ahead of what's best for the nation, where we can't even come together and work out something in the best interest of everybody because one party or the other may get credit, if we can't stop using our own court system and our own U.S. attorneys and special prosecutors, if we can't stop using them to prosecute our political opponents so we can stay as president or our party can continue or just to show how much we really hate someone, if we can't stop that, we're not going to have a nation to stand up for. We're not going to be charging any beaches anywhere. We're going to be trying to defend our own homes from what we've let into the country. We're not heading in a good way. You know, I told the story of John Ripley. I read it there. And you have to know that you had 20,000, an army of 20,000 from North Vietnam approaching that bridge, an almost unstoppable force at that particular point of the battle. There was not time to sit and be fearful in the present for John Ripley because if he didn't do something, there was not going to be a future. So he acted. He charged his beach and he set those explosives and he blew the bridge to save the people on the other side of the bridge. I think we've got some bridges to blow. I think we have some beaches to charge. I think we have some things to do in our own city. We need good people to run for office. And that good person may just be you. Do you have common sense? Do you have a strong moral compass about what is right and wrong? Do you care more about your community than you do your own personal interests? Are you willing to make a decision even if people don't like you for it? If you fit that category, we need you. We need you on our school board. We need you on our city council. We need you as one of our state representatives for the legislature or the Virginia Senate. We need people like that running for the state, running for the U.S. Senate in Virginia. We need people like that running for president. We need people like that just showing up to meetings and writing letters and sending emails and making suggestions. We need people like that to share good, positive posts that can move the city forward and move our community forward on Facebook. We need people like that to support those that are stepping up, that are doing the work. It's a lonely place to be in charge of something and have both sides coming at you at once when you're only trying to do the right thing. I've been there, and I know some others that are there now. It's tough. You know, there's an old saying, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me. We forgot about that, haven't we? I think it's important, and I need to learn this lesson myself, so I'm not just pointing fingers at you, I'm pointing them back at me too. I need to realize that I need to do what's right. I need to go the direction that's correct. I need to stand up for the ideals and the principles that are correct, and it's okay if people talk bad about me. I don't have to listen. I have to know that I'm doing the right thing. In order for me to personally have a good future, in order for the city to have a good future, we're all going to have to do that together. We fear the wrong things. We fear people that speak a lot, that are, you know, the keyboard warriors, the Facebook bullies. We fear those people. But we shouldn't. You know, there's a verse in the Bible, Matthew 10, 28 actually. And it says, There's greater things to fear than people's words. And a few slashed tires and a few, you know, cracked windows or whatever. I can get new tires. So can you. I can not read Facebook. But it's hard to live in a nation that, whose freedom is deteriorating at the speed of light. It's hard to live in a city that's spent up all its money and is losing its autonomy and its independence. It's hard to live in a city who has to raise, or going to have to raise its taxes exponentially just to pay the stupid tax of the decisions that others made while we had our heads in the sand. And I think there's a principle in history that we need to remember. And I think that if people from the past. Sorry, that's my dog. I think if people from the past could cry out to us. And warn us. About what our future may be looking like. The direction that we're going. I think they would tell us to please stand now. You know, we look at ourselves as a nation that's always been here. We're really kind of young for nations. Around 250 years old, that's not very old. There have been great nations that have risen and fallen. And we seem to be following that same pattern. And as I mentioned before, it is an inflection point. It is a time when we need to, as good, common sense, conservative people, to stand up, to present our American values, our Christian values. Before it's too late. You know, there was a Lutheran pastor in Germany, it's a famous quote. And he was a pastor during the time of the rise of the Nazis. And I think like many in Germany, he didn't really understand the whole Nazi ideal. And at first, I've read that he kind of was enamored by it, kind of agreed with the direction. Because it was about, you know, it seemed to have a positive message to begin with. But there was a devious plan underneath that many did not understand until it was too late. An idea of eliminating anyone that didn't agree with them politically. To prosecute. It's just like this nation. To prosecute people who did not agree with them politically. To find ways to get rid of them by any way possible. And we certainly, history showed us the unbelievable atrocities that a human being can do against another human being. But this pastor, his name was Martin Neumler. It's a German name. He was a Lutheran pastor. And he had this quote. And it's been enshrined in history. And I think if you'll listen to it, it means a lot. It kind of explains the error of hiding and not having courage. And not standing up for what is right. But here's what he said. First they come for the communists. And I did not speak out. Because I was not a communist. Then they come for the socialists. And I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists. And I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews. And I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me. And there was no one left to speak out for me. It's time to speak out I think. It's time to stand up. I do know this one thing though. There's one thing about the future that I am positive about. And I'm positive that no matter what happens on this old earth. That I've got a home waiting for me in heaven. I hope you know that too. I hope you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you don't, reach out to me. I'd love to talk to you about it. Alright, as always, I am going to end this segment by our theme verse. And if you're ever in doubt, find your answers in God's Word. You're not going to find it from me. You're not going to find it from your friends. You're not going to find it from the newspaper or news media or anything else. But I believe and I know that you'll find it in God's Word. And here's our theme verse. It's found in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verses 13 and 14. And here's what God's Word says. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandment. For this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret plan. Whether it be good or whether it be evil. Hey, thank you for joining me here today in the rain. I always appreciate it when you come and listen to my episodes. And I'm happy to have you here. I hope that God richly blesses you and you have a wonderful weekend and a week to come. And I look forward to joining you again here on One More Round Podcast. God bless. One More Round Podcast www.onemoreroundpodcast.com