December 26, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's that time, time, time, time, Luck and load. Michael
Arry Show is on the air. It's Charlie from Black
Very Smoke. I can feel a good one coming on.
It's the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Any attempt to restrict drinking and driving here is viewed
by some as downright undemocratic.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Two six packs show that Nash is a little then
Lugga's then a normal of Paul Harvey peace, which means
we can't get it all into one segment no matter
how hard we try. Here is the rest of that piece.
It's called freedom to chains. It's like sort of from
(00:49):
freedom to change to change. It's how you go from
being a free, independent people to being enslaved. And what's
interesting is, I'll tell you when the bit is over
the year it came out. This thing came out before
most of you were born. But it's just as true
today because every failing of the human condition, every one
(01:13):
of them, goes back to very simple things. Who will
make decisions for the individual? Will it be the individual
or will it be the collective? Will it be the king,
Will it be the authoritarian? Will it be the slave master?
It is not natural for you and me to get
(01:34):
to make decisions for ourselves. We get to make decisions
for ourselves because those who came before us fought are
a system where we would get to. That's why I
get angry when people give up their freedom.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Oh I have to.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Take a shot because you tell me to, because you're
the expert. Okay, I will, and I'll make sure that
everybody else has to take a shot too. You fight
for your freedom at every turn, because once it's gone,
you'll never get it back. Here's the rest of Paul
Harvey's freedom to chains.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It was internal decay, it was not external attack that destroyed.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
The Roman Empire.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Starting about one hundred and forty six BC, internal conditions
in Rome were characterized by a welder of plast wars
and conflicts, street brawls, corrupt governors, lack of personal integrity
and moral responsibility. About two hundred and ninety years after Christ,
a Roman emperor named Diocletian took over. He really grabbed
the bull by the horns. He took over in a
period of turmoil and severe depression. The first thing Diocletian
(02:35):
did was calling the gold and closed the banks and.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Raised the taxes.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
He reduced the power of the Senate delegated its power
to a lot of little government bureaus. Do you know
they even had a transportation act back there, prescribing the
fee required to rent one laden ass per mile, and
to today's rate of exchange at will to do about
one eighth cent per mile, which meant that in order
to make a profit a jackass would have to carry
five passengers, and was simply beyond the capacity of the jackass.
(03:04):
Diocletian put millions of people on the public payroll, but
when this failed to do the job the country was
still in trouble, he asked more personal powers for himself.
For a brief while, incidentally they were stand by powers.
But then he used him all at once. He froze wages,
he froze prices, he froze jobs, He stopped profits. He
dictated to the farmer what he should plant, when and
how he should sell it, and for how much neration
food and what happened? The labor market closed down, incentive
(03:27):
was gone. Farm life became dependent on bureaucratic red tape.
Exorbitant taxes cost the farmer's land. He kept for himself
only a small plot on which he might grow turnips
for his family. He lost the rest of it to
the state, and without food and with incentive gone, city
life stagnated and declined, and Rome passed into what history
has recorded as the Dark Ages, lasting one thousand years.
(03:49):
Just by turning to the left, the world has gone
in circles. A nation would evolve from a monarchy into
an oligarchy, from oligarchy to dictatorship, from dictatorship to bureaucracy,
from bureaucracy to pure democracy, where finally the people would
cry out from the chaos and confusion of the streets,
so please, God, give us a king, And God would
(04:09):
give them a king, and they'd have a monarchy again
and start the whole silly cycle anew. Now, either we
will profit from the errors of their ways, or it
follows us to night to day. Our children are going
to have to relive the Dark Ages all over again.
(04:31):
How come, after thousands of years of experiment, our new
nation has come so far, so fast, all this in
less than two hundred years.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
What is the secret of our success?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, I think it had to do with the basic
American's creed. Perhaps it never passed the pioneer's lips in
this form, but if it had, I think he would
have said something like this, I believe in my God,
in my country, and in myself. I know that sounds
like a trite, too simple thing to say, and yet
it's a rare man day who dared to stand up
and say, I believe in my God and my country
(05:03):
and in myself and in that order. When the early
American pioneer first turned his eyes toward the West, there
were only Indian trails or traces, as they were called
for in the follow through the wilderness. Do you know
today you can roll escape from Miami to Seattle, from
San Diego to Plymouth Rock in this little bitty instant,
as historical time is measured, our seven percent of the
(05:26):
Earth's population has come to possess more than half of
all the world's good things.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
How come well, sir?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
When that early pioneer turned his eyes toward the West,
he didn't demand that somebody else look after him. He
didn't demand free education, he didn't demand a guaranteed rocking
share at eventide. He didn't demand that somebody else take
care of him if he got ill or got old.
There was an old fashioned philosophy in those days. The
demand was supposed to provide for his own and for
his own future. He didn't demand a maximum amount of
(05:55):
money for a minimum amount of work, nor did he
expect pay for no work at all. Come to think
of it, he didn't demand anything. That hard handed pioneer
just looked out there at the rolling planes stretching away
to the tall green mountains, and then lifted his eyes
to the blue skies and said, thank you God.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Now I can take it from here. Now that's fear.
It isn't dead in our country.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's dorm and it's been discredited in some circles, driven underground,
but it isn't dead. It's just a few seasons ago,
politicians baiting their hooks with free barbecue and treating a
Ponzi promise for votes, began telling us we don't want
opportunity anymore. We want security. We don't want the opportunity.
They said, we want security, and they said it so
often we came to believe them. We wanted security, and
they gave us chains, and we were secure suddenly, with
(06:46):
our constitutional guarantees depleted, with our national character eroding away,
with our tax laws penalizing those who dare to prosper,
with workers concentrating on how little they can get by
with instead of how much they can produce. Suddenly, we
looked overhead one day to disc covered that the first
ten moon in space was a Russian accomplishment, that free
men dragging their feet had been out distanced by slave
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workers dragging their chains, and we were sore afraid. Perhaps
this was a disguised blessing too, maybe a dramatic accompany
Head centers and back to work again. If we can
revive in ourselves, then in our youth something of that
(07:30):
basic American's creed. The horizon has never ever been so limitless.
For man stands now on the threshold of his highest adventurable,
his first foltering footsteps into space twenty years from today.
Half of the products you will be using in your
everyday living aren't even in the dictionary. Yet we've got
(07:53):
it made. If we just keep on keeping on, we've
got it made. And if we don't, we will follow
those other great nation states of history into the graveyard
of ignominious oblivion. History promises only this for certain, we
will get exactly what we deserve.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Man Michael Berry in the system like a tow modern day.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
I have always been one nutood for America's public servants
or people who sacrifice for others. And you may not
know this. If we're paying tribute to Paul Harvey. Paul
(08:46):
Harvey's father was a policeman who was killed in the
line of duty and his tribute to policemen. This hits
for me because I've had officers in my family. Of course,
my brother was a police officer. This one hits me
and hits me hard. If you have a policeman in
your life, share this with them. They've probably heard it before,
(09:08):
but there's a good chance they haven't. It's called what
is a policeman? We started the show paying tribute to firefighters,
now we turned to policemen.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
A policeman is a composite of what all men are.
I guess, a mingling of saint and center, dust and
deity called statistics wave. The fan over stinkers underscore instances
of dishonesty and brutality because they are news. What that
really means is that they are exceptional. They are unusual.
They are not commonplace. Buried under the fraud is the fact,
and the fact is that less than one half of
(09:37):
one percent of policemen misfit that uniform, and that is
a better average than you'd find among clergymen.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
What is a policeman?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
He, of all men, is at once the most needed
and the most wanted, a strangely nameless creature who is
served to his face and pig or worse behind his back.
He must be such a diplomat that he can settle
differences between individuals so that each will I think he won.
But if a policeman is neat, he's conceited. If he's careless,
he's a bum. If he's pleasant, he's a flirt. If
he's not, he's a grouch. He must make instant decisions,
(10:09):
which would require months for a lawyer.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
But if he hurries, he's careless. If he's deliberate, he's lazy.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
He must be first to an accident, infallible with the diagnosis.
He must be able to start breathing, stop bleeding, ty splints,
and above all, be sure the victim goes home without
a limp, or expect to be sued. The police officer
must know every gun draw on the run and hit
where it doesn't hurt. He must be able to whip
two men twice his size and half his age without
damaging his uniform, and without being brutal. If you hit him,
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he's a coward. If he hits you, he's a bully.
A policeman must know everything and not tell. He must
know where all of the sin is and not partake.
The policeman from a single human hair must be able
to describe the crime the weatmon the criminal and tell
you where the criminal is hiding. But if he catches
the criminal, he's lucky. If he doesn't, he's a dunch.
(11:00):
If he gets promoted, he has a political poll. If
he doesn't, he's a dullard. The policeman must chase bum
leads to a dead end, stake out ten nights to
tag one witness who saw it happen but refuses to remember.
He runs files and writes reports until his eyes ache
to build a case against some felon who will get
dealed out by a shameless, shamous or an honorable who
(11:21):
isn't honorable. The policeman must be a minister, a social worker,
a diplomat, a tough guy and a gentleman. And of
course he'll have to be a genius because he'll have
to feed a family. It's on a policeman's salary.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You know, one of the things that's near and dear
to my heart is the bylaws by which we operate
this country. Oh, they're not called the bylaws. They're called
the constitution. And then we have amendments to that constitution.
But they are by laws. That's exactly what they are.
They're beautiful by laws. Paul Harvey says, we have a
(11:59):
say sacred honor to our nation's first citizens. And here
is a wonderful history lesson again. Storytelling to make it
come to life is called our sacred honor Americans.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
The how and the why of our beloved republic are
so much better known and understood than the who. The
United States of America was born in seventeen seventy six,
but it was conceived one hundred and sixty nine years
before that. The earliest settlers had watered the new world
with much sweat. They had built substantial holdings for themselves,
(12:35):
for their families, and when the time came to separate
themselves from a tyranny and ocean away, at best, it
meant starting all over again after.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
The ravages of war.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Researching what you're about to hear gave a whole new
dimension to my reverence for our nation's first citizens. All
others of the world's revolutions before and since were initiated
by men who had nothing to lose, nothing to lose.
Our founders had everything to lose and nothing to gain
(13:08):
except one thing.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Hello Americans, I'm Paul Harvey.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
You remember the cherry tree fiction a long time after
you have forgotten the more earth shaking history making episodes
in the life of George Washington. You have misplaced in
your memory the details of Ben Franklin's statesmanship, but you
remember his flying a kite. Joyce Kilmer was a great
military hero, but the only thing you personally recall about him.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Is his poetic tribute to trees.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Maybe of this current decade, that which will be remembered
best will not be its wars and its moon rockets,
or its crumbling frontiers, or the giants who.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Lived and died.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Maybe all that'll survive to linger in the day by
day vocabulary of generations yet unborn, may.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
The songs of.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
A Memphis minstrel, or the reincarnation of electric automobiles. But
for any eve of the fourth of July, I Paul
Harvey do here with bequeath them to you something to remember.
You may not be able to quote one line from
the Declaration of Independence at this moment. Henceforth, you'll always
(14:25):
be able to quote at least one line. So in
the last paragraph, where you will recall when I remind you,
it says we mutually pledge to each other our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor. In the Pennsylvania State
House that's now called Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the best
men from each of the colonies sat down together. This
(14:46):
was a very fortunate hour in our nation's history, one
of those rare occasions in the lives of men when
we had greatness to spare. These were men of means,
well educated. Twenty four were lawyers and jurists. Nine were farmers,
owners of large plantations. On June eleven, a committee sat
down to draw up a declaration of independence. We were
going to tell the British fatherland no more rule by
(15:06):
red coats. Below the dam of ruthless foreign stream of
freedom was running shallow and muddy, and we were going to,
like the fuse to dynamite that dam. This pact, as
Burke later put it, was a partnership between the living
and the dead and the yet unborn. There was no bigotry.
There was no demagogery in this group. All had shared hardships.
(15:30):
Jefferson finished a draft of the document in seventeen days.
Congress adopted it in July, and so much as familiar history,
but now King George third had denounced all rebels in
America as traitors.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Punishment for treason was hanging.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
The names now so familiar to you, from the several
signatures on that Declaration of independence. The names were kept
secret for six months, for each new the full meaning
of that magnificent last paragraph, in which his signature pledged
his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor. Fifty six
(16:09):
men placed their names beneath that fledge. Fifty six men
knew when they signed that they were risking everything. They
knew if they won this fight, the best they could
expect would be years of hardship and a struggling nation.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And if they lost, they'd face a hangman's robe.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I looked at him, and they looked at me, you know,
and I just looked at her, and I have to
just get your stuff and get out.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
To Michael Barry's shoe. I reas over and got a newspaper,
and I wrote it up, and I slapped him on
the nose. I said, bad.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Unfortunately, I cannot play the entirety of that piece in
one segment, which is why we cut it up for two.
This is, as Paul Hargy would say, the rest of
the story. It's called our sacred honor. It's a tribute
to ours, the people who created this great nation. I'm
(17:04):
reading a book by Paul Johnson right now about the
founding of America in Winthrop and Salem, Massachusetts, and Providence,
Rhode Islands and Rhode Island, Roger Williams and the freedom
of religious expression, which was such a big deal, particularly
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when you think that we came from England, where the
church was the state, and the state was the church,
the Anglican Church, and you did what the church said
because it had the might of the government behind it.
But many people in this country today believe that freedom
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of expression and religion should in some way be curtailed
if it relates to government, whether that's a tax exempt
status or is silly notion people have that the separation
of church and state means you can't talk in the pulpit,
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you can't talk at the church, you can't talk as
a Christian leader in a government circle. That's not what
it means. Separation of church and state means keeping the
state out of the church, not the church out of
the state. Make sure you understand that.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
In the Pennsylvania State House that's now called Independence Hall
in Philadelphia, the best men from each of the colonies
sat down together. This was a very fortunate hour in
our nation's history, one of those rare occasions in the
lives of men when we had greatness to spare. These
were men of means, well educated. Twenty four were lawyers
and jurists. Nine were farmers, owners of large plantations. On
(18:47):
June eleven, a committee sat down to draw up a
declaration of independence. We were going to tell the British
fatherland no more rule my red coats. Below the dam
of ruthless foreign rule, stream of freedom was running shallow
and muddy, and we were going to like a fuse
to dynamite that dan. This pact, as Burke later put it,
was a partnership between the living and the dead and
(19:08):
the yet unborn. There was no bigotry, there was no
demagogery in this group. All had shared hardships. Jefferson finished
a draft of the document in seventeen days. Congress adopted
it in July, and so much as familiar history, But
now King George third had denounced all rebels in America
as traitors.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Punishment for treason was hanging.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
The names now so familiar to you from the several
signatures on that Declaration of Independence. The names were kept
secret for six months for each new the full meaning
of that magnificent last paragraph, in which his signature pledged
his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor. Fifty six
(19:55):
men placed their names beneath that fledge. Six men. He
knew when they signed that they were risking everything.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
They knew.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
If they won this fight, the best they could expect
would be years of hardship and a struggling nation. And
if they lost, they'd face a hangman's rope. But they
signed the pledge. And here is the documented fate of
that gallant fifty six Carter Braxton of Virginia, wealthy planter, trader,
saw his ships swept from the seas to pay his debts.
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He lost his home and all of his properties, and
died in rags. Thomas Lynch Junior, who signed that pledge,
was a third generation rice grower aristocrat, large plantation owner.
After he signed, his health failed. His wife and he
set out for France to regain his failing health. Their
ship never got to France was never heard from again.
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Thomas McKean of Delaware was so harassed by the enemy
they was forced to move his family five times in
five months. He served in Congress without pay. His family,
in poverty and in hiding. Looted the properties of Ellery
and Climber and Hall and Gwinnett and Walton and Hayward,
Rutledge and Middleton. Thomas Nelson Junior of Virginia raised two
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million dollars on his own signature to provision our allies
the French fleet. After the war, he personally paid back.
The loans wiped out his entire estate, and he was
never reimbursed by his government. In the final battle for Yorktown,
he Nelson urged General Washington to fire on Nelson's own home,
which was occupied by Cornwallis. It was destroyed. Thomas Nelson
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Junior had pledged his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor.
The Hessians seized the home of Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey.
Francis Lewis had his home and everything destroyed his wife imprisoned.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
She died within a few months.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Richard Stockton, who signed that declaration, was captured, mistreated, his
health broken to the extent that he died at fifty one.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
His estate was pillaged.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Thomas Hayward Junior was captured when Charleston fell. John Hart
was driven from his wife's bedside while she was dying.
Their thirteen children fled in all directions for their lives.
His fields and gristmill were laid waste for more than
a year. He lived in forests and caves, and returned
home after the war to find his wife, did, his
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children gone, his property's gone, and he died a few
weeks later of exhaustion at a broken heart. Lewis Morris
saw his land destroyed, his family scattered. Philip Livingstone died
within a few months from the hardships of the war.
John Hancock history remembers best due to a quirk of fate,
rather than anything. He stood for that great sweeping signature
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attesting to his vanity towers over the others. One of
the wealthiest men in New England. And yet he stood
outside Boston one terrible night of the war, and he
said burne Boston, though it makes John Hancock a beggar.
The public good requires it, so he too, lived up
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to the pledge. Of the fifty six, few were long
to survive. Five were captured by the British and tortured
before they died. Twelve had their homes from Rhode Island
to Charleston sacked, looted, occupied by the enemy, or burned.
Two lost their sons in the army, one had two
sons captured. Nine of the fifty six died in the war,
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from its hardships or from its more merciful bullets. I
don't know what impression you had had the men who
met that summer in Philadelphia, but I think it's important
that we remember this about them. They were not poor men.
They were not wild eyed pirates. These were men of means.
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They were rich men, most of them, and had enjoyed
much ease and luxury in their personal living. Not hungry men, certainly,
not terrorists, not irresponsible malcontents, not fanatic in sendi areas.
These men were prosperous men, wealthy landowners. They were substantially
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secure in their prosperity.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
They had everything to lose, but they.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Considered liberty, and this is as much as I'm still
say it. They had learned at liberty. It was so
much more important than security that they pledged their lives,
their fortunes, and their sacred honor. And they fulfilled their pledge,
and they paid the crust, and freedom was born.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Michael, do I have a story for you.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
My brother in law murdered to Native Americans.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Michael Berry show. Now you have my attence.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
This next piece is perhaps Paul Harvey's most famous. It's
called If I Were the Devil. You may have heard
it before. Heck, you may have heard it multiple times before.
If you've listened to our show for any length of time,
I know you've heard it. Here Paul Harvey uses a
wonderful technique to talk about the downfall of America. And
(25:19):
this is older than many people in our audience. And
you may say, well, how did he know about all
that back then? Because nothing changes, nothing changes. The temptation
to be distracted by other things than your family did
not begin with the cell phone. The temptation to focus
(25:42):
on what doesn't matter and to chase false idols rather
than what matters, that didn't start in the modern era.
That's as old as mankind. The temptation to serve yourself
and not those you love, The temptation to let time
(26:03):
get away from you. Didn't start with sitting in front
of the computer for four hours or scrolling on TikTok.
That is as old as time. Those are failings of
human beings. Life is what happens on the way to
do what you'd planned to do. Life's what happens right here,
(26:25):
right now, on Thursday afternoon or Friday afternoon or Saturday morning,
when what you really want to do is do something
other than play with your kids or your grandkids, or
coach them, or go throw a ball with them, or
help them with their homework.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
You don't want to do that. You do something else.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
You want to do something more self serving, and you
want to do something more self serving all day, every day,
in bit by bit, but in your mind you want
to be a good mom, will be a really good mom,
really good dad. Well, that means doing what you need
to do when you least want to do it. And
(27:10):
that's the hard part. That's what makes it hard. You know,
this is such a wonderful country, and I.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Don't believe that in most of the world.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
I've traveled a pretty good bit that people love their
country the way we love our country. They may love
their country because it's their country, but they don't love
the things about that country that make it a country.
We are the United States of America because we were
a breakaway nation that sought to create something. We were
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the proof of concept of self governance without a king,
without a monarchy.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
We were.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
We became the proof that we could do this Benjamin
Franklin's great line, a republic if we can keep it.
It's not easy to keep. There are so many temptations
as a nation to spend our time and waste our
time and be distracted by things rather than doing the
(28:18):
equivalent of helping our kid with homework, teaching our kid discipline,
because right now we'd really rather do this silly thing.
And that's important to understand. It's important to understand that
maintaining this great nation takes a lot of work. It's hard,
(28:42):
and we're gonna lose a lot of battles. We got
cheated in twenty twenty. We got cheated out of that election.
There's no question. We watched Donald Trump have to be
in I felt like Seamus when they were when they
were killing William Wall us in braveheart, he was having
to witness this awful, awful transgression, this awful injustice. We
(29:08):
have had to be witnesses to awful violations of everything
this nation stands for, by the Obamas and the Clintons
and the Bidens and beyond the media and the Cheneys
and kin Singers and Rubens.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
We've had to be.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Witnesses to a history that I'm not proud of or
happy about and getting back up. And that's the beauty.
That's why I love to read the emails. You said,
is how many of you get up every day and
you don't make a dime off of politics. You ain't
trying to sell anything to the government, not one thing.
But you get up every single day and try to
(29:55):
make our country better, try to make your household better,
try to make your family better, your neighbors better, kids better,
your students better, your employees better. And that's who our
listeners are, which is pretty cool. People ask me why
I still have so much hope for this country. I
read my emails, I hear from you, I hear what
you say here. It is in a way let me
not know what we're talking. It's called if I were the devil.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
If I were the devil.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
If I were the devil, if I were the Prince
of darkness, I'd want to engulf the whole world in darkness,
and i'd have a third of its real estate and
four fifths of its population. But I wouldn't be happy
until I have seized the ripest apple on the tree
the So I'd set about, however necessary to take over
the United States.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
I'd subvert the churches. First.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom
of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I
whispered to Eve, do as you please.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
To the young, I would whisper that the Bible is
a myth.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I would convince them that man created God instead of
the other way around. I would confide that what's the that
is good, and what's good is square, and the old
I would teach to pray after me our father, which
aren't in Washington.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
And then I'd get organized.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
I'd educate authors in how to make the low rid
literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting.
I'd threatened TV with dirtier movies, and vice versa.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I peddle narcotics, to whom I could.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
I'd tranquilize the rest with pills.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
If I were the Devil, I'd soon have families at
war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations
at war with themselves until each in its turn was consumed,
and with promises of higher ratings. I'd have mesmerizing media
fanning the flames. If I were the Devil, I would
encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions,
(31:53):
just let those run wild until before you knew it.
You'd have to have drug snipping dogs and metal detectors
at every schoolhouse door. Within a decade, i'd have prisons overflowing.
I'd have judges promoting pornography. Soon I could evict God
from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from
the houses of Congress and in his own churches. I
(32:15):
would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would
lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and
church money. If I were the Devil, I'd make the
symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas
a bottle. If I were the devil, I'd take from
those who have and give to those who wanted, until
(32:35):
I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
What will you bet?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
I couldn't get whole states to promote gambling as.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
The way to get rich. I would caution.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Against extremes in hard work, in patriotism, in moral conduct.
I would convince the young that marriage is old fashioned,
is more fun, but what you see on TV is
the way to be.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
And thus I could undress.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
You in public, and I could lure you into bed
with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words,
if I were the devil, I just keep right on
doing what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Paul Harvey, good day.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Elvis has left for k Thank
Speaker 1 (33:29):
You, and good night,
It's that time, time, time, time, Luck and load. Michael
Arry Show is on the air. It's Charlie from Black
Very Smoke. I can feel a good one coming on.
It's the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Any attempt to restrict drinking and driving here is viewed
by some as downright undemocratic.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Two six packs show that Nash is a little then
Lugga's then a normal of Paul Harvey peace, which means
we can't get it all into one segment no matter
how hard we try. Here is the rest of that piece.
It's called freedom to chains. It's like sort of from
(00:49):
freedom to change to change. It's how you go from
being a free, independent people to being enslaved. And what's
interesting is, I'll tell you when the bit is over
the year it came out. This thing came out before
most of you were born. But it's just as true
today because every failing of the human condition, every one
(01:13):
of them, goes back to very simple things. Who will
make decisions for the individual? Will it be the individual
or will it be the collective? Will it be the king,
Will it be the authoritarian? Will it be the slave master?
It is not natural for you and me to get
(01:34):
to make decisions for ourselves. We get to make decisions
for ourselves because those who came before us fought are
a system where we would get to. That's why I
get angry when people give up their freedom.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Oh I have to.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Take a shot because you tell me to, because you're
the expert. Okay, I will, and I'll make sure that
everybody else has to take a shot too. You fight
for your freedom at every turn, because once it's gone,
you'll never get it back. Here's the rest of Paul
Harvey's freedom to chains.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It was internal decay, it was not external attack that destroyed.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
The Roman Empire.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Starting about one hundred and forty six BC, internal conditions
in Rome were characterized by a welder of plast wars
and conflicts, street brawls, corrupt governors, lack of personal integrity
and moral responsibility. About two hundred and ninety years after Christ,
a Roman emperor named Diocletian took over. He really grabbed
the bull by the horns. He took over in a
period of turmoil and severe depression. The first thing Diocletian
(02:35):
did was calling the gold and closed the banks and.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Raised the taxes.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
He reduced the power of the Senate delegated its power
to a lot of little government bureaus. Do you know
they even had a transportation act back there, prescribing the
fee required to rent one laden ass per mile, and
to today's rate of exchange at will to do about
one eighth cent per mile, which meant that in order
to make a profit a jackass would have to carry
five passengers, and was simply beyond the capacity of the jackass.
(03:04):
Diocletian put millions of people on the public payroll, but
when this failed to do the job the country was
still in trouble, he asked more personal powers for himself.
For a brief while, incidentally they were stand by powers.
But then he used him all at once. He froze wages,
he froze prices, he froze jobs, He stopped profits. He
dictated to the farmer what he should plant, when and
how he should sell it, and for how much neration
food and what happened? The labor market closed down, incentive
(03:27):
was gone. Farm life became dependent on bureaucratic red tape.
Exorbitant taxes cost the farmer's land. He kept for himself
only a small plot on which he might grow turnips
for his family. He lost the rest of it to
the state, and without food and with incentive gone, city
life stagnated and declined, and Rome passed into what history
has recorded as the Dark Ages, lasting one thousand years.
(03:49):
Just by turning to the left, the world has gone
in circles. A nation would evolve from a monarchy into
an oligarchy, from oligarchy to dictatorship, from dictatorship to bureaucracy,
from bureaucracy to pure democracy, where finally the people would
cry out from the chaos and confusion of the streets,
so please, God, give us a king, And God would
(04:09):
give them a king, and they'd have a monarchy again
and start the whole silly cycle anew. Now, either we
will profit from the errors of their ways, or it
follows us to night to day. Our children are going
to have to relive the Dark Ages all over again.
(04:31):
How come, after thousands of years of experiment, our new
nation has come so far, so fast, all this in
less than two hundred years.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
What is the secret of our success?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, I think it had to do with the basic
American's creed. Perhaps it never passed the pioneer's lips in
this form, but if it had, I think he would
have said something like this, I believe in my God,
in my country, and in myself. I know that sounds
like a trite, too simple thing to say, and yet
it's a rare man day who dared to stand up
and say, I believe in my God and my country
(05:03):
and in myself and in that order. When the early
American pioneer first turned his eyes toward the West, there
were only Indian trails or traces, as they were called
for in the follow through the wilderness. Do you know
today you can roll escape from Miami to Seattle, from
San Diego to Plymouth Rock in this little bitty instant,
as historical time is measured, our seven percent of the
(05:26):
Earth's population has come to possess more than half of
all the world's good things.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
How come well, sir?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
When that early pioneer turned his eyes toward the West,
he didn't demand that somebody else look after him. He
didn't demand free education, he didn't demand a guaranteed rocking
share at eventide. He didn't demand that somebody else take
care of him if he got ill or got old.
There was an old fashioned philosophy in those days. The
demand was supposed to provide for his own and for
his own future. He didn't demand a maximum amount of
(05:55):
money for a minimum amount of work, nor did he
expect pay for no work at all. Come to think
of it, he didn't demand anything. That hard handed pioneer
just looked out there at the rolling planes stretching away
to the tall green mountains, and then lifted his eyes
to the blue skies and said, thank you God.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Now I can take it from here. Now that's fear.
It isn't dead in our country.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's dorm and it's been discredited in some circles, driven underground,
but it isn't dead. It's just a few seasons ago,
politicians baiting their hooks with free barbecue and treating a
Ponzi promise for votes, began telling us we don't want
opportunity anymore. We want security. We don't want the opportunity.
They said, we want security, and they said it so
often we came to believe them. We wanted security, and
they gave us chains, and we were secure suddenly, with
(06:46):
our constitutional guarantees depleted, with our national character eroding away,
with our tax laws penalizing those who dare to prosper,
with workers concentrating on how little they can get by
with instead of how much they can produce. Suddenly, we
looked overhead one day to disc covered that the first
ten moon in space was a Russian accomplishment, that free
men dragging their feet had been out distanced by slave
(07:09):
workers dragging their chains, and we were sore afraid. Perhaps
this was a disguised blessing too, maybe a dramatic accompany
Head centers and back to work again. If we can
revive in ourselves, then in our youth something of that
(07:30):
basic American's creed. The horizon has never ever been so limitless.
For man stands now on the threshold of his highest adventurable,
his first foltering footsteps into space twenty years from today.
Half of the products you will be using in your
everyday living aren't even in the dictionary. Yet we've got
(07:53):
it made. If we just keep on keeping on, we've
got it made. And if we don't, we will follow
those other great nation states of history into the graveyard
of ignominious oblivion. History promises only this for certain, we
will get exactly what we deserve.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Man Michael Berry in the system like a tow modern day.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
I have always been one nutood for America's public servants
or people who sacrifice for others. And you may not
know this. If we're paying tribute to Paul Harvey. Paul
(08:46):
Harvey's father was a policeman who was killed in the
line of duty and his tribute to policemen. This hits
for me because I've had officers in my family. Of course,
my brother was a police officer. This one hits me
and hits me hard. If you have a policeman in
your life, share this with them. They've probably heard it before,
(09:08):
but there's a good chance they haven't. It's called what
is a policeman? We started the show paying tribute to firefighters,
now we turned to policemen.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
A policeman is a composite of what all men are.
I guess, a mingling of saint and center, dust and
deity called statistics wave. The fan over stinkers underscore instances
of dishonesty and brutality because they are news. What that
really means is that they are exceptional. They are unusual.
They are not commonplace. Buried under the fraud is the fact,
and the fact is that less than one half of
(09:37):
one percent of policemen misfit that uniform, and that is
a better average than you'd find among clergymen.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
What is a policeman?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
He, of all men, is at once the most needed
and the most wanted, a strangely nameless creature who is
served to his face and pig or worse behind his back.
He must be such a diplomat that he can settle
differences between individuals so that each will I think he won.
But if a policeman is neat, he's conceited. If he's careless,
he's a bum. If he's pleasant, he's a flirt. If
he's not, he's a grouch. He must make instant decisions,
(10:09):
which would require months for a lawyer.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
But if he hurries, he's careless. If he's deliberate, he's lazy.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
He must be first to an accident, infallible with the diagnosis.
He must be able to start breathing, stop bleeding, ty splints,
and above all, be sure the victim goes home without
a limp, or expect to be sued. The police officer
must know every gun draw on the run and hit
where it doesn't hurt. He must be able to whip
two men twice his size and half his age without
damaging his uniform, and without being brutal. If you hit him,
(10:39):
he's a coward. If he hits you, he's a bully.
A policeman must know everything and not tell. He must
know where all of the sin is and not partake.
The policeman from a single human hair must be able
to describe the crime the weatmon the criminal and tell
you where the criminal is hiding. But if he catches
the criminal, he's lucky. If he doesn't, he's a dunch.
(11:00):
If he gets promoted, he has a political poll. If
he doesn't, he's a dullard. The policeman must chase bum
leads to a dead end, stake out ten nights to
tag one witness who saw it happen but refuses to remember.
He runs files and writes reports until his eyes ache
to build a case against some felon who will get
dealed out by a shameless, shamous or an honorable who
(11:21):
isn't honorable. The policeman must be a minister, a social worker,
a diplomat, a tough guy and a gentleman. And of
course he'll have to be a genius because he'll have
to feed a family. It's on a policeman's salary.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You know, one of the things that's near and dear
to my heart is the bylaws by which we operate
this country. Oh, they're not called the bylaws. They're called
the constitution. And then we have amendments to that constitution.
But they are by laws. That's exactly what they are.
They're beautiful by laws. Paul Harvey says, we have a
(11:59):
say sacred honor to our nation's first citizens. And here
is a wonderful history lesson again. Storytelling to make it
come to life is called our sacred honor Americans.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
The how and the why of our beloved republic are
so much better known and understood than the who. The
United States of America was born in seventeen seventy six,
but it was conceived one hundred and sixty nine years
before that. The earliest settlers had watered the new world
with much sweat. They had built substantial holdings for themselves,
(12:35):
for their families, and when the time came to separate
themselves from a tyranny and ocean away, at best, it
meant starting all over again after.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
The ravages of war.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Researching what you're about to hear gave a whole new
dimension to my reverence for our nation's first citizens. All
others of the world's revolutions before and since were initiated
by men who had nothing to lose, nothing to lose.
Our founders had everything to lose and nothing to gain
(13:08):
except one thing.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Hello Americans, I'm Paul Harvey.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
You remember the cherry tree fiction a long time after
you have forgotten the more earth shaking history making episodes
in the life of George Washington. You have misplaced in
your memory the details of Ben Franklin's statesmanship, but you
remember his flying a kite. Joyce Kilmer was a great
military hero, but the only thing you personally recall about him.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Is his poetic tribute to trees.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Maybe of this current decade, that which will be remembered
best will not be its wars and its moon rockets,
or its crumbling frontiers, or the giants who.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Lived and died.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Maybe all that'll survive to linger in the day by
day vocabulary of generations yet unborn, may.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
The songs of.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
A Memphis minstrel, or the reincarnation of electric automobiles. But
for any eve of the fourth of July, I Paul
Harvey do here with bequeath them to you something to remember.
You may not be able to quote one line from
the Declaration of Independence at this moment. Henceforth, you'll always
(14:25):
be able to quote at least one line. So in
the last paragraph, where you will recall when I remind you,
it says we mutually pledge to each other our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor. In the Pennsylvania State
House that's now called Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the best
men from each of the colonies sat down together. This
(14:46):
was a very fortunate hour in our nation's history, one
of those rare occasions in the lives of men when
we had greatness to spare. These were men of means,
well educated. Twenty four were lawyers and jurists. Nine were farmers,
owners of large plantations. On June eleven, a committee sat
down to draw up a declaration of independence. We were
going to tell the British fatherland no more rule by
(15:06):
red coats. Below the dam of ruthless foreign stream of
freedom was running shallow and muddy, and we were going to,
like the fuse to dynamite that dam. This pact, as
Burke later put it, was a partnership between the living
and the dead and the yet unborn. There was no bigotry.
There was no demagogery in this group. All had shared hardships.
(15:30):
Jefferson finished a draft of the document in seventeen days.
Congress adopted it in July, and so much as familiar history,
but now King George third had denounced all rebels in
America as traitors.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Punishment for treason was hanging.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
The names now so familiar to you, from the several
signatures on that Declaration of independence. The names were kept
secret for six months, for each new the full meaning
of that magnificent last paragraph, in which his signature pledged
his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor. Fifty six
(16:09):
men placed their names beneath that fledge. Fifty six men
knew when they signed that they were risking everything. They
knew if they won this fight, the best they could
expect would be years of hardship and a struggling nation.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And if they lost, they'd face a hangman's robe.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I looked at him, and they looked at me, you know,
and I just looked at her, and I have to
just get your stuff and get out.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
To Michael Barry's shoe. I reas over and got a newspaper,
and I wrote it up, and I slapped him on
the nose. I said, bad.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Unfortunately, I cannot play the entirety of that piece in
one segment, which is why we cut it up for two.
This is, as Paul Hargy would say, the rest of
the story. It's called our sacred honor. It's a tribute
to ours, the people who created this great nation. I'm
(17:04):
reading a book by Paul Johnson right now about the
founding of America in Winthrop and Salem, Massachusetts, and Providence,
Rhode Islands and Rhode Island, Roger Williams and the freedom
of religious expression, which was such a big deal, particularly
(17:25):
when you think that we came from England, where the
church was the state, and the state was the church,
the Anglican Church, and you did what the church said
because it had the might of the government behind it.
But many people in this country today believe that freedom
(17:48):
of expression and religion should in some way be curtailed
if it relates to government, whether that's a tax exempt
status or is silly notion people have that the separation
of church and state means you can't talk in the pulpit,
(18:08):
you can't talk at the church, you can't talk as
a Christian leader in a government circle. That's not what
it means. Separation of church and state means keeping the
state out of the church, not the church out of
the state. Make sure you understand that.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
In the Pennsylvania State House that's now called Independence Hall
in Philadelphia, the best men from each of the colonies
sat down together. This was a very fortunate hour in
our nation's history, one of those rare occasions in the
lives of men when we had greatness to spare. These
were men of means, well educated. Twenty four were lawyers
and jurists. Nine were farmers, owners of large plantations. On
(18:47):
June eleven, a committee sat down to draw up a
declaration of independence. We were going to tell the British
fatherland no more rule my red coats. Below the dam
of ruthless foreign rule, stream of freedom was running shallow
and muddy, and we were going to like a fuse
to dynamite that dan. This pact, as Burke later put it,
was a partnership between the living and the dead and
(19:08):
the yet unborn. There was no bigotry, there was no
demagogery in this group. All had shared hardships. Jefferson finished
a draft of the document in seventeen days. Congress adopted
it in July, and so much as familiar history, But
now King George third had denounced all rebels in America
as traitors.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Punishment for treason was hanging.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
The names now so familiar to you from the several
signatures on that Declaration of Independence. The names were kept
secret for six months for each new the full meaning
of that magnificent last paragraph, in which his signature pledged
his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor. Fifty six
(19:55):
men placed their names beneath that fledge. Six men. He
knew when they signed that they were risking everything.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
They knew.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
If they won this fight, the best they could expect
would be years of hardship and a struggling nation. And
if they lost, they'd face a hangman's rope. But they
signed the pledge. And here is the documented fate of
that gallant fifty six Carter Braxton of Virginia, wealthy planter, trader,
saw his ships swept from the seas to pay his debts.
(20:25):
He lost his home and all of his properties, and
died in rags. Thomas Lynch Junior, who signed that pledge,
was a third generation rice grower aristocrat, large plantation owner.
After he signed, his health failed. His wife and he
set out for France to regain his failing health. Their
ship never got to France was never heard from again.
(20:47):
Thomas McKean of Delaware was so harassed by the enemy
they was forced to move his family five times in
five months. He served in Congress without pay. His family,
in poverty and in hiding. Looted the properties of Ellery
and Climber and Hall and Gwinnett and Walton and Hayward,
Rutledge and Middleton. Thomas Nelson Junior of Virginia raised two
(21:10):
million dollars on his own signature to provision our allies
the French fleet. After the war, he personally paid back.
The loans wiped out his entire estate, and he was
never reimbursed by his government. In the final battle for Yorktown,
he Nelson urged General Washington to fire on Nelson's own home,
which was occupied by Cornwallis. It was destroyed. Thomas Nelson
(21:34):
Junior had pledged his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor.
The Hessians seized the home of Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey.
Francis Lewis had his home and everything destroyed his wife imprisoned.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
She died within a few months.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Richard Stockton, who signed that declaration, was captured, mistreated, his
health broken to the extent that he died at fifty one.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
His estate was pillaged.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Thomas Hayward Junior was captured when Charleston fell. John Hart
was driven from his wife's bedside while she was dying.
Their thirteen children fled in all directions for their lives.
His fields and gristmill were laid waste for more than
a year. He lived in forests and caves, and returned
home after the war to find his wife, did, his
(22:21):
children gone, his property's gone, and he died a few
weeks later of exhaustion at a broken heart. Lewis Morris
saw his land destroyed, his family scattered. Philip Livingstone died
within a few months from the hardships of the war.
John Hancock history remembers best due to a quirk of fate,
rather than anything. He stood for that great sweeping signature
(22:43):
attesting to his vanity towers over the others. One of
the wealthiest men in New England. And yet he stood
outside Boston one terrible night of the war, and he
said burne Boston, though it makes John Hancock a beggar.
The public good requires it, so he too, lived up
(23:04):
to the pledge. Of the fifty six, few were long
to survive. Five were captured by the British and tortured
before they died. Twelve had their homes from Rhode Island
to Charleston sacked, looted, occupied by the enemy, or burned.
Two lost their sons in the army, one had two
sons captured. Nine of the fifty six died in the war,
(23:25):
from its hardships or from its more merciful bullets. I
don't know what impression you had had the men who
met that summer in Philadelphia, but I think it's important
that we remember this about them. They were not poor men.
They were not wild eyed pirates. These were men of means.
(23:46):
They were rich men, most of them, and had enjoyed
much ease and luxury in their personal living. Not hungry men, certainly,
not terrorists, not irresponsible malcontents, not fanatic in sendi areas.
These men were prosperous men, wealthy landowners. They were substantially
(24:08):
secure in their prosperity.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
They had everything to lose, but they.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Considered liberty, and this is as much as I'm still
say it. They had learned at liberty. It was so
much more important than security that they pledged their lives,
their fortunes, and their sacred honor. And they fulfilled their pledge,
and they paid the crust, and freedom was born.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Michael, do I have a story for you.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
My brother in law murdered to Native Americans.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Michael Berry show. Now you have my attence.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
This next piece is perhaps Paul Harvey's most famous. It's
called If I Were the Devil. You may have heard
it before. Heck, you may have heard it multiple times before.
If you've listened to our show for any length of time,
I know you've heard it. Here Paul Harvey uses a
wonderful technique to talk about the downfall of America. And
(25:19):
this is older than many people in our audience. And
you may say, well, how did he know about all
that back then? Because nothing changes, nothing changes. The temptation
to be distracted by other things than your family did
not begin with the cell phone. The temptation to focus
(25:42):
on what doesn't matter and to chase false idols rather
than what matters, that didn't start in the modern era.
That's as old as mankind. The temptation to serve yourself
and not those you love, The temptation to let time
(26:03):
get away from you. Didn't start with sitting in front
of the computer for four hours or scrolling on TikTok.
That is as old as time. Those are failings of
human beings. Life is what happens on the way to
do what you'd planned to do. Life's what happens right here,
(26:25):
right now, on Thursday afternoon or Friday afternoon or Saturday morning,
when what you really want to do is do something
other than play with your kids or your grandkids, or
coach them, or go throw a ball with them, or
help them with their homework.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
You don't want to do that. You do something else.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
You want to do something more self serving, and you
want to do something more self serving all day, every day,
in bit by bit, but in your mind you want
to be a good mom, will be a really good mom,
really good dad. Well, that means doing what you need
to do when you least want to do it. And
(27:10):
that's the hard part. That's what makes it hard. You know,
this is such a wonderful country, and I.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Don't believe that in most of the world.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
I've traveled a pretty good bit that people love their
country the way we love our country. They may love
their country because it's their country, but they don't love
the things about that country that make it a country.
We are the United States of America because we were
a breakaway nation that sought to create something. We were
(27:45):
the proof of concept of self governance without a king,
without a monarchy.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
We were.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
We became the proof that we could do this Benjamin
Franklin's great line, a republic if we can keep it.
It's not easy to keep. There are so many temptations
as a nation to spend our time and waste our
time and be distracted by things rather than doing the
(28:18):
equivalent of helping our kid with homework, teaching our kid discipline,
because right now we'd really rather do this silly thing.
And that's important to understand. It's important to understand that
maintaining this great nation takes a lot of work. It's hard,
(28:42):
and we're gonna lose a lot of battles. We got
cheated in twenty twenty. We got cheated out of that election.
There's no question. We watched Donald Trump have to be
in I felt like Seamus when they were when they
were killing William Wall us in braveheart, he was having
to witness this awful, awful transgression, this awful injustice. We
(29:08):
have had to be witnesses to awful violations of everything
this nation stands for, by the Obamas and the Clintons
and the Bidens and beyond the media and the Cheneys
and kin Singers and Rubens.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
We've had to be.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Witnesses to a history that I'm not proud of or
happy about and getting back up. And that's the beauty.
That's why I love to read the emails. You said,
is how many of you get up every day and
you don't make a dime off of politics. You ain't
trying to sell anything to the government, not one thing.
But you get up every single day and try to
(29:55):
make our country better, try to make your household better,
try to make your family better, your neighbors better, kids better,
your students better, your employees better. And that's who our
listeners are, which is pretty cool. People ask me why
I still have so much hope for this country. I
read my emails, I hear from you, I hear what
you say here. It is in a way let me
not know what we're talking. It's called if I were the devil.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
If I were the devil.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
If I were the devil, if I were the Prince
of darkness, I'd want to engulf the whole world in darkness,
and i'd have a third of its real estate and
four fifths of its population. But I wouldn't be happy
until I have seized the ripest apple on the tree
the So I'd set about, however necessary to take over
the United States.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
I'd subvert the churches. First.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom
of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I
whispered to Eve, do as you please.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
To the young, I would whisper that the Bible is
a myth.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I would convince them that man created God instead of
the other way around. I would confide that what's the that
is good, and what's good is square, and the old
I would teach to pray after me our father, which
aren't in Washington.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
And then I'd get organized.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
I'd educate authors in how to make the low rid
literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting.
I'd threatened TV with dirtier movies, and vice versa.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I peddle narcotics, to whom I could.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
I'd tranquilize the rest with pills.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
If I were the Devil, I'd soon have families at
war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations
at war with themselves until each in its turn was consumed,
and with promises of higher ratings. I'd have mesmerizing media
fanning the flames. If I were the Devil, I would
encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions,
(31:53):
just let those run wild until before you knew it.
You'd have to have drug snipping dogs and metal detectors
at every schoolhouse door. Within a decade, i'd have prisons overflowing.
I'd have judges promoting pornography. Soon I could evict God
from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from
the houses of Congress and in his own churches. I
(32:15):
would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would
lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and
church money. If I were the Devil, I'd make the
symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas
a bottle. If I were the devil, I'd take from
those who have and give to those who wanted, until
(32:35):
I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
What will you bet?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
I couldn't get whole states to promote gambling as.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
The way to get rich. I would caution.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Against extremes in hard work, in patriotism, in moral conduct.
I would convince the young that marriage is old fashioned,
is more fun, but what you see on TV is
the way to be.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
And thus I could undress.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
You in public, and I could lure you into bed
with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words,
if I were the devil, I just keep right on
doing what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Paul Harvey, good day.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Elvis has left for k Thank
Speaker 1 (33:29):
You, and good night,
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