Welcome to the Kim Monson Show podcast.
Kim Monson is your host.
Thanksgiving Day, a day set aside to acknowledge and thank the Divine Provider for our blessings. Creator of The American Minute and author Bill Federer discusses religious freedom and the Pilgrims.
Scott Powell, author of Rediscovering America: How Our National Holidays Tell an Amazing Story About Who We Are explains that the story of America is an adventure story.
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The Kim Monson Show airs on KLZ 560 AM every Monday thru Friday, 6-8 AM MST.
You can listen to the live stream by going to www.klzradio.com
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s the Kim Munson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
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I find that it takes work to get your brain around these ideas, and it takes work to engage in these conversations.
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The latest in politics and world affairs.
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With what is happening down at the Statehouse, I used to think that it was above my pay grade to read the legislation, and it’s not.
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Today’s current opinions and ideas.
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I see big danger in as much as we will be giving an unelected bureaucrat the power to make rules about what we inject into our bodies.
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Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
SPEAKER 08 :
Indeed. Let’s have a conversation. And welcome to the Kim Munson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You’re each treasured, you’re valued, you have purpose today. Strive for excellence. Take care of your heart, your soul, your mind and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment. Thank you to the team I work with. I am so grateful for them. That is producer Joe and producer Luke and producer Rachel and producer Nicole. and Zach, Echo, Charlie, all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. I get to work with a really amazing team. And check out our website. That is KimMunson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. And you can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. And thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice, and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. We are pre-recording all the shows for our Thanksgiving week. And many times we have these great special guests for these special weeks. And a gentleman who you know is Bill Federer. And he is the creator of the American Minute, which you can hear on KLZ 560. He has written many, many books. But we want to talk about… thanksgiving and in particular one particular book that he’s written the treacherous world of the 16th century and how the pilgrims escaped it the prequel to america’s freedom bill fetter welcome to the show
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s great to be with you.
SPEAKER 08 :
Boy, that’s quite a title. But I think people, I recently gave a speech. I said that here in America now, we live in the best of times and we live in the worst of times. And the best of times, we are living on the blessings of what freedom can do. But our worst of times, I think it is under attack. We’re in a dangerous time in our country as well. But our country began during very treacherous times. And so hint your book.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. So the first thing I do is explain how in Europe you had to believe the way your king did. It was considered treason if you did not. And so you had for all the way from Constantine on, you had the top-down form of church government called hierarchical clergy lady model when the reformation happened you had protestants john calvin and puritans that came up with a congregational model of church government with no bishops no bishops no king until when the king of england henry viii had broken away from rome uh he made himself the head of the anglican church And he had his advisor say, well, if you really want to break from Rome, you need to stop using that Latin Bible. Get yourself an English Bible from the German princes at Martin Luther’s German Bible that helped them to break away. You need an English Bible. Henry says, great, get me one. Well, it just so happens a few years earlier, Henry VIII had William Tyndale burnt to the stake for translating the Bible into English. But now he wants an English Bible. William Tyndale’s last words before he died was, Lord, open the king of England’s eyes. And so Henry VIII wants to divorce Catherine of Aragon. After 18 years, she did not have a son. Wants to marry Anne Boleyn. The pope wouldn’t recognize the divorce, so he decides to make himself the head of his own church. And then he gets this English Bible. They take Tyndale’s work, polish it up, call it the Great Bible. And he puts it in every church in England, dusts his hands. He goes, that’s it. We broke him from Rome. But something unexpected happened. People began to read it and began to compare what’s in this Bible to this king divorcing and beheading his wives. And so a group started that wanted to purify the Church of England, so they were nicknamed the Puritans. The king didn’t like him. He thought he didn’t need any purifying. He thought he was fine just the way he is. So he persecuted them. He had an archbishop named William Laud, L-A-U-D, and he composed a list of all the leaders in England, put an O or a P by their name, O for Orthodox, P for Puritan, and the Puritans were canceled, kicked out of jobs, kicked out of teaching at Oxford. And then there was another group that said it’s beyond hope of purifying. We’re going to separate ourselves. We’re going to meet in these small congregations with no bishops. We’re just going to be completely independent. And they will call themselves separatists. They formed themselves into the Baptist Church, the very first Baptist Church in England. And then later the Congregationalist churches and then later the Quakers and then the Presbyterians. They had small groups. They called them conventicles and covenanters. And the king did not like that. And he would persecute them. They would be in their barns and basements by candlelight. Their church meetings would be raided. And so the king had the Book of Common Prayer. So you do not make up your own prayers because you could make up one that’s wrong. So the government wrote all the possible prayers down and put them in a book called the Book of Common Prayer. If you like praying, you just open it to the right page and read the prayer. And if you’re caught with a little Bible study and you don’t have a bishop there and you’re making up your own prayers, the FBI will kick in the door, will arrest you, will drag you before the star chamber. It’s a room with stars on the ceiling. It’s a government hearing room. That’s sort of like a January 6th hearing. And they’ll twist your arm and cut off your ear and brand you on the face as a heretic and get you to confess to something you didn’t do. And then they would put you in a cell and just let you waste away for days, months, years. One of the people they caught was John Bunyan, and he is being drug away. He goes, better to be persecuted than be the persecutor. He spends 12 years in one of those cells, and that’s when he writes Pilgrim’s Progress, that famous novel that we’ve seen in the movie. I love it. Anyway, then the king passed the Conventicle Act, where it outlawed small group meetings. And they later changed the name of it to the Riot Act, because you could be planning an insurrection in your little Bible study, right? You’re not having the king’s bishop there. And so the police would kick in the door and pull out a piece of paper and read the Riot Act.
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So that’s where that comes from, huh? Read the Riot Act.
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And he’d read it, and it would say, everyone must immediately disperse or we will arrest you, drag you into that star chamber, and it’s not like you’re in a cell, you’ll never be seen again. And the king did not like small group meetings so much that he outlawed coffee houses. Now, coffee was, from Ethiopia, the one African country to stay Christian, and the Muslims called the Christians in Ethiopia kafirs, which means infidel. And so they called it the copper bean or the coffee bean. And so the Muslims would bring them with them on their crusades. The Muslim crusaded. They conquered all of North Africa, which used to be Christian. They conquered Spain, which used to be Christian. They conquered the Holy Land, which used to be Christian. They conquered Syria, which used to be Christian. They conquered Turkey, which used to be the Byzantine Christian empire. All seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelation were wiped out by the Muslim Turks. And then they conquered Constantinople, cutting off the land routes to India. That’s when Columbus set sail looking for a sea route. But finally, they’re outside of Vienna, Austria. And they’re stopped on September 11th, 1683 by the Polish King Jan Sobieski. But Sobieski goes into these abandoned Muslim tents and sees these bags of beans and realizes this was this new Muslim drink that allowed them to fight day and night. And they weren’t sure if they should drink it. And so they took a cup of it to Pope Clement. He tasted it, said this is too good to leave for the Muslims. Let’s cheat the devil by baptizing it. And then that gave the okay. So coffee houses started all across Europe. It’s actually a social phenomenon where instead of going to pubs and ale houses, they would transition to going to coffee houses. And since they would be hyped up rather than be put to sleep, some think this helped fuel a later industrial revolution. Right. You get more ideas and more creativity. Anyway, in London, they had 3000 coffee houses. People would gather together, drink coffee, and talk about the king and his government and would criticize it. And the king did not like that because every now and then a group would start and have an assassination attempt against him. And so he outlawed coffee houses as well as outlawing Bible studies.
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I’d be in jail for sure because I like both of those. Yeah.
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And so these pilgrim separatists were raided. They met at their home of a government agent named William Brewster, and he had a state. He was like a postal administration, and the pilgrims would meet there. Well, a neighbor snitched. And the police would raid their Bible study, and they’d put them in prison, in jail, in stocks, where they’d put your hands and your head through this piece of wood, and you’d just stand there in the middle of the street all day long, and you’d be mocked and made fun of. And then the Pilgrims decided to flee to Holland. Now, Holland was seven provinces, or the Netherlands. Holland was one of those seven provinces. And they were trying to get independent from Spain. So it was an 80-year war of independence for Holland to break away from Spain or the Netherlands. And these provinces did not always agree on religion, but they hated Spain so much they had a little give and take. So Holland was the most religiously tolerant place in all of Europe, the Netherlands. And so the pilgrims said, hey, we’re getting persecuted by the king here in England. Let’s flee to the Netherlands. And so a bunch of them sell their property and they go down to the port city and buy a ticket and they all get on. And right before they take off, The captain robs them, turns them over to the police, and they’re put in jail for being heretics and not believing the way the king did. And so some other of these pilgrim separatists decided to arrange for a Dutch ship to sail along the coast of England, and they would just be waiting in little rowboats, and then they would hurry up and row out there and get on the ship and sail away. Well, the pilgrims show up a day early. And they’re waiting in these little rowboats. And the waves and the surf and the kids are getting sick. And they’re just waiting and waiting. And the women say, can we just wait on shore? And so women and kids are waiting on shore. And finally, the Dutch ship shows up. They then are rowing out there and they’re stowing everything on the ship. And while they’re waiting, somebody saw the ship snitched to the police. The police and the soldiers come over the hill, capturing the women and children. And the Dutch captain’s like, well, I don’t have any army with me, and I can’t fight. And so he sails away with the men. And you can just picture these women on shore seeing this boat sailing away with their husbands, and it disappears over the horizon, and those women and children are put in jail. And they’re taken to court, to another court, another jail, another court, for two years. These women and children are being shuffled from one court to the other. Finally, a judge said, well, you really didn’t do anything wrong. Go home. They go, duh, we sold our homes to go to Holland. So just to get them out of their hair, they put them on a ship, sent them over to Holland. They asked around, and they finally found out which their husbands were, and then they all settled in Leiden, Holland. And…
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SPEAKER 08 :
And welcome back to the Kim Munson Show. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. We have prerecorded the shows this week. I’m so honored to have an honored and featured guest, and that is Bill Federer. He is the creator of the American Minute. You can hear that on KLZ 560 and all of our platforms. He’s written so many different books, and he’s just a wealth of knowledge. And we’re talking about his book, The Treacherous World of the 16th Century and How the Pilgrims Escaped It. So Bill Fetter, we’re talking about the pilgrims. The women and children end up being in jail basically for two years in Holland. And finally, I guess they end up then going to Holland and they are going to be reunited with the men. So tell us about that.
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Right. So they settle in Leiden, Holland, and that is where there’s a university called that was started in 1572, because the year before, 1571, you had the Spanish stopping the Muslims on the Mediterranean with the Battle of Lepanto, biggest battle ever on the Mediterranean Sea. 230 Muslim ships powered by 15,000 Christian slaves under the deck rowing in the Holy League, led by the King of Spain. and the Austrians, because Spain controlled Austria too, and they stopped the Muslims. And rather than go around the Mediterranean and free up the rest of the Mediterranean for Muslim control, the King of Spain the next year, 1572, decided to stop the Reformation that was taking place in Holland. So he sends the Iron Duke of Alba to Antwerp, Holland, And he commits the Spanish fury and kills 10,000 Dutch Reformed Protestants. And now there were Catholic killing Protestants, Protestants killing Catholics. A lot of killing going on at this time. So we don’t want to get into reopening all that. But in Holland… The seven provinces, William the Silent, the Prince of Orange, drives the Spanish out and then opens a university, and it’s very tolerant. They even have a Jewish rabbi. So Spain drove the Jews out, and some of the Jews went to Portugal, and some of the Jews went to Holland. Matter of fact, some of the Jews went to the Dutch colony in South America, Recife. And then when the Spanish and Dutch attack there, these Jews fled again to Jamaica. And then they fled to a Dutch colony called New Amsterdam. And that was later became New York. So anyway, so these Dutch had a merchant military fleet and the Dutch East India Company. And it was the most prosperous company in world’s history. If I can go down a rabbit trail, in the Middle Ages, there’s no companies. It’s the sin of usury to pay or receive interest. So if you want to do something big like sail around the world looking for trade and spices, you had to hit up a rich guy like the king of Spain. And so when the Reformation happened, Holland had more or less the first company called the Dutch East India Company. And you could buy a part ownership in a boat that’s going to Malucas Island in Indonesia from nutmeg and cinnamon. And when it came back, you would get a share of the profit. So it’s called a joint stock company. And if you wanted to sell your interest in this boat while it’s at sea, you would go down to something that they invented. It was called a stock exchange. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, first one ever in the world. And so the Dutch that settled New Amsterdam brought over there on Wall Street, where they had the wall around New Amsterdam. That’s where they would trade their stock, and that turned into Wall Street in America. But over there, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange was the first one ever in the world. They even had the first stock market crash. So tulips came from Turkey, and the Dutch liked tulips, and they would put little, you know, certain kind of bacteria would make different colorful flowers when they finally bloomed. And so there was the tulip windhousen, the tulip wind craziness, where people were buying these tulips. The cost of a house, a year’s salary, they would buy one tulip, and it was like, buy and sell, buy and sell. And then the tulips started blooming again. And nobody wanted to buy them anymore. And the whole thing collapsed. And it was like a big major stock market crash. And so you’re investing in a boat, and the boat is captured by Muslim pirates, or it sinks in a hurricane. That’s when the Dutch invented insurance companies.
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Oh, my gosh.
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The very first insurance companies in the world were the Dutch. And now the British quickly copied and they had the British East India Company that later took over India. And then the British founded the Virginia Company and then the London Company, where they settled Virginia and Massachusetts. But so we have the Dutch and they have these seven provinces and 80 year war of independence from Spain. One of the cities the Spanish had surrounded and they would they would butcher everybody in the city. I mean, it was pretty brutal. So the Dutch broke the dikes. And so Holland, a lot of it is below sea level. If you’ve ever been to the beach and you can like walk out a quarter of a mile and it only comes out to your waist, you know, well, they would build a wall way out there in the ocean and then they would get windmills to pump and they would take the water and pump it over that little wall on the other side and they would reclaim that land. And they would bring in fresh dirt, and then he had to keep these windmills going to keep the saltwater. And then they would extend it a little bit further and extend it a little bit further until you had miles and miles of area, and it’s all below sea level. Well, when the Spanish were attacking the city, they broke the dikes, and the seawater comes in and drowns the Spanish army. But still, the pilgrims settled in Leiden. And William Brewster is the smart guy. He’s the one who had his nice estate in England, but he left all that. And he is there in Leiden and he’s helping to teach English. And while he’s there, he meets the Jews. And so the Jews were chased out of Spain and then even went to Holland. And the Jews began, the pilgrims began to identify with the Jews and say, you know, you left the Pharaoh and we left the king of England and you crossed the Red Sea and we crossed the English Channel and you went into your province and we’re looking for our province land. And so in all their writings, these pilgrims began to see themselves as sort of carrying on this Jewish, and they particularly looked to the first 400 years out of Egypt before King Saul. So it’s called the Hebrew Republic, and it’s the period from around 1400 B.C. to 1000 B.C. where you have millions of people and no king. It’s literally the first instance in world history where you have millions of people and no king. And it worked because every Israelite was taught the law, and they were personally accountable to God to follow the law, and they were in a covenant with each other and with God. So God gives you blessings, and you voluntarily share them with your neighbor because you’re doing it as unto God. Not socialism, where the government takes away your stuff involuntarily and gives it to their supporters. No, this is where you get the stuff. And so the Pilgrims began to identify with the Hebrews. And then the rabbis had their feast at the end of the year. the Feast of Tabernacles. It was Thanksgiving. And so in Holland, in Leiden, they had two Thanksgivings. One was an annual Thanksgiving to thank God for driving the Spanish out. And the other was the pilgrims saw these Jews celebrating their Jewish Feast of Thanksgiving or Tabernacles. And So the thought is maybe this is where the pilgrims got their idea for a Thanksgiving at the end of the harvest season when they came to America. So when Spain is threatened after 12 years of being in Holland, these pilgrims, they have to learn the Dutch language. They’re working three jobs and their kids are beginning to assimilate and become Dutch. And some of the young men are joining the Dutch merchant military fleet. And so these pilgrims realized, we’re just going to assimilate and we’re going to be no more. And it was such a hard life that no more of these separatists were joining them. And then they even had a print shop and they were printing stuff and smuggling it back into England. And the King of England sent people over to raid it and destroy the print shop. So these pilgrims decide they want to flee again. And they originally think of going to Guyana, South America, because they read about the perpetual spring weather and, you know, the climate being really nice. But then they heard about the Spanish destroying a French colony. called Fort Caroline. Today it’s Jacksonville, Florida. But in 1565, you had a bunch of French Protestants called Huguenots settle Fort Caroline. And the Spanish found out about it and surrounded their little fort and said, look, just surrender, and then we’ll move you someplace else. Well, they surrender, and then they said, oh, we just forgot, you’re heretics, and we don’t have to keep our word to heretics, so they killed the men, and then they took the women and children away, and so then the Spanish founded St. Augustine, Florida, which is the first continuous settlement of Europeans in America. And so the pilgrims heard about the Spanish butchering these French people, And so they said, you know what, we don’t want to go to Guyana. We don’t want to go anywhere near where the Spanish are. And so the Dutch go to these pilgrim separatists and say, hey, you want to settle? We’ve finagled to get this area that we’re going to call New Netherlands, and you can be our first settlers there. And the pilgrims say no. And now the Dutch do settle New Amsterdam in 1624, which is four years after 1620 when the pilgrims come over. um but the pilgrims say no so then the pilgrims try to get the king to give let them have passage and it’s a whole lot of negotiating back and forth and they finally get the okay even though they’re going to go to jamestown and submit to the king’s government because the king’s looking for settlers jamestown originally was a company colony And if I can go on another rabbit trail, there’s three types of colonies. Company colonies, crown colonies, and proprietary colonies. So the company colony. That originates with the letter of mark that they would give the pirates. So Spain had the Caribbean, had Portobello, Panama, which was the big port that all the gold from South America came through. And Spain had gold and the French and English and Dutch pirates came. would raid the Spanish ships. A French pirate named Leclerc, nicknamed Peg Leg, because he had his leg blown off, he was based out of St. Lucia in the islands, and he had a fleet of pirate ships. And he would attack, you know, and capture Spanish gold. You had the French, but also the English. And Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake, he was such a good pirate that he was nicknamed El Draque by the King of Spain. Now, there’s three types of pirates. One is called privateer. And so you have a pirate capturing… You know what, Bill?
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Let’s leave that as a cliffhanger for our next segment, the three different types of pirates. This is absolutely fascinating. I’m talking with Bill Federer. He is the creator of The American Minute, which we hear on KLZ 560. He’s the author of many different books. And we’re talking about his book, The Treacherous World of the 16th Century. I did want to mention the Center for American Values. They are located in Pueblo, Colorado. Pueblo is known as the home of heroes because there are four Medal of Honor recipients that call Pueblo home. But check out the Center for American Values. They do a couple of things. They honor our Medal of Honor recipients with their portraits of valor. And then also want to make sure that we instill and understand ourselves and for our children these foundational principles of honor, integrity, and patriotism. So they have all these great educational programs. You can get more information on that by going to AmericanValueCenter.org. That’s AmericanValueCenter.org. We get to do all of this because of sponsors.
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SPEAKER 08 :
And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMunson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter, and you can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice, and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. I want to say thank you to Karis Oil & Gas for their sponsorship of the show, as well as Laramie Energy. And thriving. And so thank you. We need to continue to have conversations about that. But this week is Thanksgiving and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. And we’re doing very special shows for you. We’ve prerecorded them. And on the line with us is Bill Federer. He is the author of The American Minute, which you can hear here on KLZ 560, but on many stations throughout the country. But we’re talking about his book, The Treacherous World of the 16th Century, How the Pilgrims Escaped It. And, Bill, before we went to break, we were talking about pirates. And you said there’s three different kinds of pirates. What are they?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, the first is called the privateer. And this is a subcontracted pirate. So the Queen Elizabeth in England had Sir Francis Drake, and he would rob the Spanish ships of their gold. But once you have a ship filled full of gold, what do you do? You sail around in a circle? No, you got to land somewhere and spend it. And so the Queen of England said, look, I’m going to Not ask questions of where you got this, but when you land in England, I get a percentage. And so that’s called a letter of mark.
SPEAKER 08 :
And then you had… Now, that’s not like a percentage going to the big guy, is it?
SPEAKER 03 :
I just had to ask. It’s pretty similar. Okay. And then you have buccaneers. So that comes from baka, which means cow. So… The sailors would go through and they would let cows out on the island. Sometimes they would let pigs out too. And then the cows would just eat and live and multiply. And then the next time they’d be going through the island, if they wanted something to eat, they’d stop and barbecue a cow. Barbecue came from the… Islanders. Unfortunately, they had some of them were cannibals. They called them caribbee. And so you had to be really careful which island you would stop off on. But they would grab these, steal these cows. And so they were called Buccaneers. Well, so the fine print of the letter of Mark said that you would give the monarch in England a percentage of what you captured at sea. And Captain Henry Morgan said, at sea, at sea. That means if I get it on land, I don’t have to give him anything. So he lands in Panama, and he marches through the jungle with his men, and they capture Portobello, Panama. And this is the city that all the gold comes from, from the Potosi mines in Inca Peru that come up to Portobello. They get on these ships, and they go to Spain. He rakes and pillages and kills and captures all this gold. And the Spaniards are like, okay, England, we know you know that these guys are doing this, and we’re going to declare open war on England if you don’t stop it. And so the monarchs are like, okay, privateers and buccaneers, no more. And so they would one by one go to him and say, look, if you just switch over and join the British Navy, we’ll make you a captain. So that’s what Henry Morgan does. He goes from being a pirate to being a captain. I mean, it’s the best of both worlds. And once he’s a captain, he starts approaching his other pirate acquaintances and says, OK, guys, that’s over. We got to switch over to this new model. And some of them switch and some of them don’t. And the one that And he’s nicknamed Blackbeard. And since the pirates are now snitching on pirates, they know where all the hangouts are. And so he had a favorite hangout around North Carolina on the coast near Beaufort and Okra. And he had the downsides. And he had several ships. And so he decides he’s going to abandon his one ship called the Queen Anne’s Revenge. and he’s going to do it off the coast in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. And so that’s where he thinks it. He keeps on doing his piracy stuff, and he was a – this is – you have something called false flag. I talk about it in my book on socialism, where pirates really didn’t want to get into a fight because if they got wounded, there’s no pirate hospitals, and they didn’t want to destroy the very booty that they’re trying to capture. And so it was a psychological thing. So they would raise a flag of a friendly ship in distress, and another ship would come by and see through their little telescope, oh, look, there’s a friendly ship in distress. And they would get closer and closer and closer until they got too close to get away quickly. And the friendly ship and distress flag would come down, false flag, and up would come a pirate flag. And the pirate flag with the skull and crossbones and the scimitar sword came from the Muslims. So the Muslims had pirates on the Mediterranean Sea and they would raid all the European ships and cut off heads. And so they would have this scimitar sword. And so that’s what the pirates adopted as their Jolly Roger type of skull and crossbow scimitar sword flag. And so the people would panic. And Blackbeard, Edward Teach, he was like 6’8″. big mop of black hair big black beard and he would take the wicks from the cannons that you would light the cannon up with and he’d light them on fire and stick them in his beard and in his hair so he looked like this big huge smoking demon and he would have a dagger in his teeth and he’d have a gun the pistols in his hand and his men would board the ship and everybody would like panic and say okay take my gold just just take all my stuff just let me leave me and let me live and so it was a psychological thing and so that went into our vernacular as a false flag Where, you know, the government would plan something for the sole purpose of getting everybody to panic and fear. So they’ll quickly surrender. Here’s my freedom. Track me. Follow me. I’ll take whatever you tell me to do. Just just let you know. And anyway, the Blackbeard is finally and he would get drunk, you know, before the fight. And so they like they shot him a bunch of times. They stabbed a bunch. And he’s continuing to fight and continue to fight. Finally, somebody comes up behind him and kills him. And they chop off his head and they hang his head from the yard arm of the ship. And for a year, the ship sails around with Blackbeard’s head hanging on it. And they would capture pirates and put them in iron cages at the entrance to a port. So you go through there and you see the bones of the pirate rotting away. Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER 08 :
Do you think part of this, does all of this, when we get to the Constitution, no cruel and unusual punishment? I mean, would it be based on some of the stuff that they were doing?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, yeah. But the British did this. I mentioned how they would put the Baptists in the Newgate prison or the Tower of London. They didn’t feed you in the British prison. You had to have some friend that missed you and would bring you food. And so one of these Baptists, the founders of the Baptist faith in England were John Smith, John Burton, and Thomas Hellwise. And branching off of that first Baptist church is John Robinson’s church, and we call them the Pilgrims. So the pilgrims were basically a Baptist church split. And but so John Merton is in the English prison and some friend brings him some food and a little bottle of milk. But instead of a cork, it had a wad of paper. And when the guard wasn’t around, he unfolded the paper, took a splinter, dipped it in the milk and he would write out his pamphlets. The milk dries. It’s clear. And they would fold up the pamphlet and the paper, stick it in the empty bottle. And then when his friend took it home, he would unfold the paper, hold it above a candle, and the heat of the candle would turn the milk brown. They could see what he wrote, and they would touch up these pamphlets. But you’d have friends die and starve to death in prison because nobody knew where they were at.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, let me go back because I think I took you down a different rabbit hole. Anything else regarding Blackbeard or, you know, you said, you know, the bones and all that. Is there anything else on that as we’re getting back then over to John Merton?
SPEAKER 03 :
know we got to get to the building okay so you had um privateers where you would give the king a portion then you would have buccaneers where they could steal stuff on land and wouldn’t have to give the king anything but then you had pirates and a pure pirate is somebody that’s a it’s a privateer gone haywire he’ll attack anybody even ships from his own country and um and that’s what blackbird was a pirate okay but the privateer the letter of mark that turned into companies And so the king, somebody would say, hey, we want to sail over to the first company of merchant adventurers, a bunch of rich guys who pitched in their money. They were going to sail north of Russia to get to China in 1555. And the boat gets frozen in the ice, and they all die except a dog sled comes out and takes them to Ivan the Terrible of Russia. So they change the name of the company to the Muscovy Company. But the idea was the king risks nothing. The king spends nothing, but he gets a percentage of what comes in. And so it’s a win-win for the king. And so the British have companies. The Dutch have companies. The Dutch have the Dutch East India Company, the Pilgrims. They decide they want to come to America. They are out of money. They approach some investors in England who formed the Virginia Company. And they have bylaws. And sort of getting ahead of myself, but the bylaws said everything would be owned in common. And they actually tried it for seven years. And they almost starved to death. And the bylaws said everything got by cooking, hunting, fishing, trading shall go into ye common stock, and everything that people need will come out of ye common stock. And at the end of every year, what’s left will be divided equally among the investors, the adventurers, and then the planters or the settlers. And they tried it, and they almost started it. So William Bradford said scrap this, wanting stuff in common and stuff. Everybody gets your own plot of land. And he said, this made all hands more industrious. The women now went willingly into the field and took their little ones with them to plant corn. Well, before they would allege weakness and to have compelled them would have been thought great oppression. So basically, the pilgrims tried communism and they scrapped it. And then they gave everybody their own plot of land and they had a great harvest. And we call that the first Thanksgiving. But but back to the pilgrim boat ride. So the pilgrims get these investors and they’re in England. And they set sail on two ships. One is called the Godspeed, but it doesn’t speed or the Speedwell. I’m sorry, the Speedwell. And it doesn’t speed well. So they have to take it back or try to fix it. It still doesn’t sail well. They have to take it back again. And they’re going through months of good weather and they’re going through lots of their saved up food. And so they have to downsize and get onto the Mayflower. So now it’s just down to one ship. And they are now sailing in. You know, September, October, November, it’s a 3,000-mile journey, 66 days, and they’re caught in the North Atlantic in storms. Oh, my God. And the terrible freezing weather. And so the pilgrims are confined to the between deck. It’s a little four-foot ice space for 66 days, and they’re tossing and turning. There’s no privacy, and the sailors were making fun of them. And then one of these pilgrims named John Howland got tired of the smell, and so he climbed topside just as a wave was sweeping over the deck, and it washes him overboard in the freezing North Atlantic where you only get a few minutes before you die. Well, a rope from the ship’s sails was dragging in the water, and it caught his arm, and he was being drug along, and they were able to pull him back into the boat. He’s freezing, but he survives. And he ends up, you know, getting married and having lots of descendants could be traced back to John Howland. And so the pilgrims land in America, but they were going to go to Jamestown and submit to the king’s government.
SPEAKER 08 :
And let’s stop right there, Bill Federer. And we’ll keep that as a cliffhanger for our last segment. And I’m talking with Bill Federer of the creator of the American Minute. I did want to mention the USMC Memorial Foundation located right here in Golden, Colorado. And they’re just doing great work to raise money for the remodel of the Marine Memorial. I am so grateful for them. You can get more information by going to USMCMemorialFoundation.org. That’s USMCMemorialFoundation.org. And a great sponsor of the show is Lauren Levy.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
All of Kim’s sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That’s kimmunson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 10 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Be sure and check out my website. That is KimMunson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter there, and you can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to Laramie Energy and Karis Oil & Gas for their sponsorship of the show. We do wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. We’ve pre-recorded this very special show, and I’m talking with Bill Federer. He is the creator of The American Minute, which you can hear right now. right here on all KLZ 560 platforms, but throughout the country. And we’re talking about his book, The Treacherous World of the 16th Century and How the Pilgrims Escaped It. So the pilgrims are on the Mayflower now, and they think they’re going to Jamestown. What happens?
SPEAKER 03 :
They get caught in a storm, and they land off the coast of Massachusetts. The captain tries to sail south, but they almost sink because it’s really shallow off the coast of Cape Cod. And the captain says, forget Virginia, goes back to Plymouth Rock and says, everyone off the boat. And they say, well, we have a problem. Who is going to be in charge? We were going to go to Jamestown and submit to the King’s government. James Stein was a company colony. They had 500 people die. They had Indian attacks. They had famines. They had starvation. It was almost providential that the Pilgrims did not land there. But the company colony went bankrupt. They threw it on the king’s lap. He sends over a royal crown governor. It’s now a royal colony. ruled directly from the king. Sort of like India was ruled by the British East India Company for centuries until finally the people of India went to the queen, Victoria, and said, look, we don’t want this company ruling it. So the queen decides to make it a royal crown colony of India, and she rules it directly. And then the third is a proprietary colony where the king gives it all to, like, William Penn and so forth. So the pilgrims were going to go to Virginia and submit to the king’s government. They get blown off course. They land in Massachusetts. There’s no king appointed person in their vote. And so they… They do something unique. They write the Mayflower Compact. And this is where everybody agrees, which is we in the presence of God, having undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith, a voyage to plant the first calling of the northern parts of Virginia, and we covenant ourselves together. into a civil body politic to enact just and equal laws as shall be thought most meet or necessary, under which we promise all due submission. Simple revolutionary. There’s a polarity change in the flow of power on planet Earth. Instead of top-down rule by kings, it’s bottom-up rule by we, just the 102 of us in the boat. There’s no king appointed person. We are all equal, and we’re all going to agree to this. We’re all going to covenant together. And that became their form of government that was the seed for self-government in America. And so it’s a polarity change in the flow of power. Set a top-down rule by kings, a bottom-up rule by we. And the word federal is Latin for covenant. And so you had these New England pastors that would come over with their little covenant churches, and they would take their covenant form of church government and make it their community government. We call this New England. They would have a meeting house, and that’s where the pastor would teach the Bible. That’s where they would get together and do their city business. And so all they had was church members. So all the church members were involved in the city government. They were like, no non-church members to be lazy and let them run stuff. And the word synagogue means meeting house. That’s where the rabbi would teach the law. That’s where they would get together and do their city business. So these pilgrims were looking back to this Israel as a model the first 400 years out of Egypt before they got a king, before King Saul. And so you have this Hebrew Republic where everybody is taught the law. In a sense, King Saul is the divider between England and America. The kings of England looked to the Bible for their authority, but they looked to this King Saul and on the divine right of kings. I’m the chosen king. The Calvinist Puritans, right, and these pilgrims that found the New England, they looked to the pre-King Saul period. This 400-year period of Israel where there’s millions of people in no king, it worked because every single person was taught the law, everybody was personally accountable to God to follow the law, and they were in a covenant with each other and with God. And so this is the… Both look to the Bible. One looks to the King Saul and on. The other looks to the pre-King Saul. And so we are a pre-King Saul. We’re people where we’re all taught the law. We’re accountable to God to follow it. And so this is what the pilgrims did with their Mayflower Compact. And so that’s why we look to the pilgrims as the seed of self-government. Now, in the couple of minutes I have left, I also want to throw in another little story, and that’s Islam. So Muslims had pirates, and they would capture ships. And so William Bradford writes in his History of the Plymouth Plantation, he says in 1625, the Pilgrims had two ships with core fish, dried fish, and 800 pounds of beaver skins, as well as furs that they had saved up to send back to England for trade. And they said they went joyfully home until they were well within the English Channel, almost inside of Plymouth, England. But even there, she was unhappily taken, one of the ships, by a Turkish man of war and carried off to Salar, Morocco, where the captain and the crew were made slaves. Thus, all their hopes were dashed, and the joyful news they meant to carry home was turned into heavy tidings, and now by the ship taken by the Turks, all trade was dead. So here we have today fundamentalist Islamists, and they’re doing their attacks. Well, guess what? The pilgrims themselves had to deal with these Muslim pirates. One of the Muslim pirates was named Barbosa, which means red beard, and he was from Algiers, and he would attack ships. Another one was called Dragoot Reef. And he actually captured an entire Irish village, the stolen village of Baltimore, Ireland, in the 1600s. He came up at nighttime and rounded up the whole town and put them on ships, took them to Morocco, sold them into slavery. The king of Denmark, King Christian IV, tried to ransom back. So there were whole Catholic orders in Europe through the Middle Ages called the Trinitarians. And the head of the order was called the Ransomer. And they would collect alms and donations to go under a white flag to ransom your friend back. And so Miguel de Cervantes, that wrote Man of La Mancha, Don Quixote, he was captured by the Muslim pirates. And he was ransomed back by these Trinitarians. And the Muslims had Spain for 700 years. And they had enslaved over a million Europeans there. And so this was like a fear, and since Spain controlled Holland for centuries, that the story is that what St. Nicholas, you know, would come once a year with presents, but he had a little helper named Svarte Pete, who was a Muslim. And they tell the kids, if you’re good, St. Nicholas will give you a present. If you’re naughty, Svarte Pete will put you in a gunny sack, take you back to Spain and sell you into Muslim slavery. Oh, my gosh. And so when you tell little kids that Santa Claus is coming, they start crying. I was doing a call-in radio show one time, and a guy said, yeah, I was raised over in Holland, and every little boy in our town, the night before St. Nicholas visited, the boys would go to sleep with pocket knives in their pockets. And I said, why is that? He goes, that’s to cut ourselves out of the gunny sack in case Marte Pete took it. And I thought, boy, I would have loved to have tormented my little brothers with that story.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and Bill, this always goes so quickly. We have two minutes left on this Thanksgiving Day. What an amazing story of all this history. How would you like to button this up? Sure.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’ve got two minutes. Squanto. So the pilgrims land, half of them died the first winter, and they would not have survived another year. But the spring of 1621, out of the woods comes an Indian Speaking to them in perfect English, right? And it was Squanto. And so the Spanish and French and Dutch and English would capture Native Americans and bring them back to Europe, sell them into slavery. And that’s what happened to Squanto. And he was a slave purchased by some monks, given his freedom in Spain. And he hitchhikes his way across Europe, gets to England. and works there for years. Then he gets to work for a Newfoundland company, and he’s learning English, and then he gets dropped off on the coast of America just months before the Pilgrim’s Land. And Squanto’s there to find out his entire village is wiped out by a plague. Lo and behold, a few years earlier, a French shipwrecked in Cape Cod, and the sailors got ashore, and the Indians killed most of them, but they must have had an illness that wiped out the tribe. And so Squanto’s depressed, and he’s living with another tribe when his friend comes into his tipi and says, hey, Squanto, there’s some English people on your old stopping ground. So the pilgrims, in a sense, landed at the one spot on the eastern seaboard that was unpopulated. And then the other tribes wanted that land because they thought some great spirit had driven and killed everybody. And so the pilgrims— And Squanto comes in there, and you can just imagine the dismay. I mean, half the pilgrims had died, and out of the woods comes an Indian, and he goes, oh, how are you guys doing? You know, I mean, yeah, London, yeah, I used to live in London, yeah, you know. And then he goes, oh, in this place, and he’s speaking to them in perfect English. And he’s like, I grew up right here. I know this place like the back of my head. I’m over the hills this spring. And Squanto teaches them how to catch fish. They said, we tried that. He goes, no, these are salmon. They spawned this river. We’ll be packed. You know, he’s looking at the moon, and no one can tell the time of year. And then he teaches them how to plant corn. They said, we tried planting. He goes, no, you’ve got to put a fish there and bury it with the corn, and it fertilizes the soil. And then he teaches them how to take the corn, put it in a pot, shake it over a fire and make popcorn. But most importantly, taught them how to catch a beaver. And it took 40 years worth of beaver skins for these pilgrims to pay off the debt to that investor, those investors that financed their whole trip. And so, but then Squanta was their interpreter, put them on good terms with the other tribes. And so the pilgrims didn’t have the Indian tax that Jamestown had. And so William Bradford says that Squanta was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation. And before he died, Squantico bequeathed several of his belongings and some of his English friends. And then he begged Governor Bradford to pray for him that he would go to the Englishman’s God in heaven. Wow. And so here he probably became a Christian. Wow. It’s a fascinating history.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely. Bill Federer, thank you so much. This is so fascinating for our Thanksgiving. And I wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. And our quote for the end of the show is G.K. Chesterton. He said, I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. So, my friends, today be grateful. Read great books. Think good thoughts. Listen to beautiful music. Communicate and listen well. Live honestly and authentically. Strive for high ideals. And like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you. And God bless America. Stay tuned for our number two.
SPEAKER 09 :
and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s the Kim Munson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 08 :
That seems to me like government is establishing a religion.
SPEAKER 13 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 08 :
If you give people rights, women’s rights, gay rights, whatever, there can’t be equal rights if there’s special rights.
SPEAKER 13 :
Today’s current opinions and ideas. Surveys show that people still really prefer freedom versus force. Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
SPEAKER 08 :
Welcome to the Kim Munson Show. Let’s have a conversation. Thank you so much for listening. Each of you are treasured and valued. You have purpose today. Strive for excellence. Take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment. And thank you to producer Steve, producer Luke, Zach, Patty, Keith, Charlie, Echo, all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. And it is Independence Day. We have prerecorded these shows for you for Independence Day week. And we have very special guests, and we’ll be getting to our guests here in just a moment. But check out our website. That is kimmunson.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You’ll get first look at our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays. You can email me at kim at kimmunson.com. And thank you to all of you who support us. We are an independent voice. We search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. On the line with me has become a fan favorite, and that is Lieutenant Colonel Bill Rutledge. He is retired, United States Air Force, 93 years old. Right, Colonel Rutledge? Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, 94, and I’ll be 95 next month. Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER 08 :
I’ll be 95, I’m sorry, when this is recorded, in July, July the 23rd.
SPEAKER 04 :
July the 23rd, you will be 95. I don’t know where the year went. Somehow I still had you at 93. Well, that’s okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Ladies love that when they do that. That is true. That is true. But you’re a great historian, but in this remarkable life of yours, you have this… curiosity in this care about people you’ve always been curious to hear people’s stories and so the the stories that you have that you share are just remarkable you’ve traveled the world and but today Colonel Rutledge I wanted to talk about George Washington and you put together some notes on this but wanted to talk about him you’re a military guy so let’s start with how he developed his military leadership
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. George, first of all, as a very young man, he wanted to be a part of the Royal Navy. So he actually took a cruise aboard ship. down into the gulf and he got sick he had a very bad case of smallpox and then when he got back his mother also told him that you’re not going to be in the navy i don’t want you at sea so that ended his military career at that stage but he still was interested and george learned to be a surveyor when he was a teenager So he did a lot of surveying in the western part of Virginia, all the way out to the Appalachian area. So he was very knowledgeable going west from Williamsburg, which was, of course, the colonial capital. And he was approached, well, he became active in what was the militia in those days. And even at the age of 20, George was a captain. And by 21, he was a major in the Virginia colonial militia. So the governor of Virginia learned that the French were moving forces down from Canada to gain control of the upper reaches of the Ohio River. And by doing that, they would control a huge amount of what now would be like Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and all those areas east of the Mississippi. And the British were not in favor of this at all. So George was picked by the governor himself. to go and speak to the commander of the French forces, which had moved to the area which is now Pittsburgh, which was where the Ohio was formed when the Allegheny and the Monongahela River joined. So George made one of three trips to there. His first trip, George, was about almost 21. And he just took a few people with him for interpreters. So they went, and it took them many, many days. It was in the fall. It was snowing. It was cold. They had to ford rivers and streams. But he was an outdoorsman, and he persevered. So they reached the French, and they took a written message over from the governor of Virginia. to the commanding officer of the French military force, which had been established there at the start of the Ohio River, now Pittsburgh. And basically, the English were taking a position that this was English territory, whereas the French claimed, oh, no, LaSalle was down here 150 years ago. So we’re claiming it on the basis of discovery from LaSalle. Well, that didn’t work too well with the British. Nevertheless, he wrote out a reply, the commander did, which George took back to the governor of Virginia. When he got back and gave it to him, it made it clear that the French weren’t going anywhere. They were staying right where they were. They had a very strategic position, and they were going to maintain control of the Ohio Territory. So the governor said, I want you to go back and I want you to take a smaller force to show that we are serious about it and that we are going to be moving west and we would like for them to evacuate. So he did. He took a small group and he had an interpreter with him because there were several Indian tribes along the way. And they went back. Then as they approached the French fortress, the French commander, the French officer in charge was approaching them. And for some reason, and no one knows, shots were exchanged between the French and the British. So those were really the first shots that eventually became known as the French and Indian War. in america but it was also called a seven-year war on the continent of europe now there are people who are not in support of washington who claim well george washington started the french and indian war no that’s not true the french started it by bringing all those forces south and claiming it was their territory and had they been willing to go back to canada there would have been a war in there So George had a few casualties, and he did a retreat from the area, returned to the governor of Virginia, and he briefed him. So now that we’ve had two trips, so the British then decided we are going to have to assemble a force. So word went back to England what was happening. So a small group of I shouldn’t say a small group. Actually, it was between 2,000 and 3,000 British Redcoats came from England under the command of a general. And they came and assembled, but they needed somebody to guide them. So George was picked to be the aide to the general and lead him over back to the area. George did try to counsel them on the tactics that the French used with the Indians. And it was not like they fought wars in Europe, where there were direct confrontations between lines of fire. And it was like we know, where you shoot from the woods and you use all sorts of techniques. But the general didn’t pay any attention. So George went with him, and the long and the short of it is the French and the Indians set up a situation where they surrounded the British forces. It was an ambush, and they decimated the British soldiers. They killed almost every one of the general—I mean, almost all of the officers. They killed the general. This was the first situation in which George survived where he should have been killed, where he made a statement later in life that it was divine providence that had protected him. And he was to have several other instances like that that protected our country. And we actually had the July the 4th to celebrate by his survival. So George took what British soldiers were left and made a retreat back to Williamsburg so he could brief. And he did not go back again. So this was three trips to that area. The war concentration moved north into Canada so that although it lasted for many more years, it It was not in the area where George Washington or Virginia were affected. Okay. So that’s the early days of the French and Indian War and how George learned to be a commander in the field.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. I’m talking with Lieutenant Colonel Bill Rutledge, retired United States Air Force. about George Washington, and we have important conversations because of sponsors like the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team, and they can create personalized insurance plans to cover all your needs, from protection for your cars to your home, condo, boat, motorcycle, and business and renters coverage. Contact the Roger Mangan Team now at 303-795-8855 for a complimentary appointment. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan’s Team is there. And we are running some of these evergreen shows for this week of Thanksgiving. We hope that you are enjoying them. And then pre-recording with some of our sponsors regarding their thoughts about Thanksgiving. And Karen Levine is a valued friend, which I’m grateful for, a valued sponsor. And you’ve been with the Kim Munson Show and America’s Veterans Stories since before the Kim Munson Show. And I am so grateful for you and all the great stuff that you do.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, thank you. I am grateful to be a part of the Kim Munson Show and the partnership we’ve had. And when I joined and became a sponsor, it wasn’t to build my business per se. Of course, I am grateful that I have had the privilege to serve many of the listeners with their real estate needs. But I did it because of your mission to have the conversations that you’re having. And what I have learned over these six years has been pretty phenomenal. the things we don’t know about what’s happening to our country. And Thanksgiving is a time for us to be thankful for the things that were done decades ago to give us these freedoms that we have. And so we need to be reminded on Thanksgiving Day to be thankful for all the work that many men and women have done over the years to protect our freedoms.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and this has been a journey for you and I. How we got to know each other was when I was in the clothing business, you were my client. And so this whole radio thing and this battle of ideas, you and I have really been somewhat in tandem on this. We’ve kicked the tires on these ideas together and learned a lot. And it’s not that we always agree. And you’re a good enough friend that you will push back. And even with the ladies group, sometimes it’s like, Kim, rein it in a little bit. And I appreciate that relationship that we have.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, one of the freedoms we were given in the founding fathers, right, is freedom of speech. And we have seen that gotten taken away from us through public policy and those we have elected. They’ve told us we can’t say those things and we can’t do those things. We can’t. We can’t. We’re not allowed to. And freedom of speech is a beautiful thing that we can have these conversations. And when we don’t agree, we learn from each other and actually come from. two different perspectives that we may find out are the same perspective. We just came from a different angle and didn’t have the foundational understandings.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I think Hamilton and Jefferson, they looked at things differently, but I think that they did agree on the sanctity of the individual and If you don’t have that agreement, there’s problems. But then I think it’s important to engage in the battle of ideas of why the sanctity of the individual, individual freedom, all those things are so important. And so we have great opportunity. Karen Levine, everything residential real estate. I’ve heard from some people that you’ve been working with regarding selling a home and purchasing of a home. And they are so appreciative of your years of experience and your understanding and your counsel and the fact that you work with experts on inspections and all. And I think that we don’t talk enough about that on the show that you have.
SPEAKER 06 :
But I’ve heard how much people appreciate you. I think that we have had a rough year, we, the realtor association, realtor practitioners, because we’ve talked about the lawsuits that are coming after our industry. And the belief, the narrative is, is for the benefit of you, homebuyers and home sellers. And in fact, it will ultimately cost you more money in the attempt to take me the professional down from what I do and what I bring to the table is my knowledge of many many years of transactions of of hitting brick walls of learning new things and having this resource in my head to be able to counsel you well about the things that might trip us up the things that might get in our way and most consumers, most homeowners are those looking to buy. They only do this every 10 to 15 years. And the landscape changes daily in my business. So I love to come in as a consultant, as a counselor, as a resource, and to empower you to have the knowledge to make good decisions. And so I love what I do. And to be able to help somebody buy, sell their say their first home and to be able to move up into the home that they want to raise their kids over their school years is so exciting and it’s always a learning experience for me but I also get to empower my knowledge on them to help them move forward with their dreams. Well I love it. What’s that phone number? The phone number is 303-877-7516 and I look forward to you reaching out with any questions you might have about real estate. And Karen Levine, I wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving. And same to you, Kim.
SPEAKER 02 :
So I switched my insurance to the Roger Mangin State Farm Insurance Agency. Get this, I actually talked to Roger Mangin, who has been helping people with their insurance coverage in our community for 47 years. He helped me create a State Farm personalized price insurance plan for my home and auto and explained affordable options. For personalized service and peace of mind that you are working with a team that cares about you and your family, call Roger Mangin now at 303-795-8855. Kim highly recommends the Roger Mangin State Farm Insurance Team. Again, that number is 303-795-8855.
SPEAKER 08 :
and welcome back to the kim munson show be sure and check out our website that is kim munson m-o-n-s-o-n.com sign up for our weekly email newsletter and you can email me at kim kimmunson.com as well thank you to all of you who support us we are an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force force versus freedom if something’s a good idea you should not have to force people to do it i did want to mention the center for american values they’re located right here in pueblo colorado And it is a really special place. And they have the Portraits of Valor, which are portraits of 160 or over 160 of our Medal of Honor recipients with a quote by each of them. They’ve also created a delightful book with all these quotes as well. You can buy that by going to the Center for American Values website, and that is AmericanValuesCenter.org. That’s AmericanValuesCenter.org. And again, just it’s an amazing place. And they focus on honor, integrity and patriotism. On the line with me is Lieutenant Colonel Bill Rutledge, a retired United States Air Force, 94 years young. He will turn 95 in July of this year. We’re talking about George Washington. And during the break, Colonel Rutledge, you said that you’ve got a copy of a document that George Washington had written. So tell us a little bit about that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, when George got back from his visit, the last visit, the governor, Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie, asked him to write from his journal a summary of what his experience had been, what he had told the French, and the replies that the French had written and sent back. So he wrote it. Now, George wrote this as a letter, like an after-action report to give to the military commander, meaning the governor, about his experience in combat. And so he wrote all of this with the idea that it’s one-to-one. It’s George to the governor. However, it was so interesting and it had such political implications that that it was printed by a printer in Williamsburg in 1774. So it was printed a few months after he had written the letter to the lieutenant governor. And they said that it was the most widely circulated and read publication within the 13 colonies up to that date. So it gave a great image of to the readers all over in all the various colonies that George Washington was not only a man in the field but he also was a good writer and that he had the potential to become a good leader they were not thinking of a revolution at the time this was in the early 1750s but nevertheless it was his start to have public recognition then during the decades between the early 1750s. And 20 years later, he took a more active role. He became the owner of Mount Vernon by inheritance. He married then a widow who had a lot of money and a lot of property. And he became very prosperous and also very much involved in the political activities of the state of Virginia. And he became the commander of the militia for the state of Virginia. Okay. All of this was a follow-on from those three trips to Pittsburgh.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. And just a clarification, that was published in probably 1754, correct? Correct. Yes, in Williamsburg. In Williamsburg. Okay, great. I have a copy right here. Yes. That is remarkable. And it’s remarkable that you can find all that stuff, too. I think you must be good at organizing things, Colonel Rutledge.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I hope so.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. He is now the commander of the Virginia Colonial Militia. He was in his late 20s. What happens after that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, he then became active even as a member of the House of Burgesses, which was like our state government. It was actually an advisory body. to help advise the royal representative who was the acting governor. So he met many, many people in that capacity. And then when he acquired Mount Vernon and then the estate, the Curtis estate, after he married Martha, he became one of the wealthiest men in the state of Virginia. And because of his prior experience in the military, and the fact that he now was the commander of the state which had the largest population at that time, and also that was one very political environment, and he was in contact with all of these people, he became very famous, very well known. So it gave him a reputation that… prepared him for leadership in what was to become the revolution. But he did one other thing, too, that was really interesting. After, well, we had, first of all, we had Lexington and Concord. And this was in April of 1775. And there was a famous poem written about that and about Paul Revere’s ride. So after this time, the Continental Congress, decided that they would have to assemble a force because Boston was occupied by the British, and they wanted to counter that. So they were looking for leadership, and, of course, George was one of the principal candidates. He very wisely dressed in his best uniform when he went to Philadelphia, and he’s about 6’2″, and a handsome man, and a very good conversationalist. So he was very easily selected as the best qualified man to go to Boston to try to counter the siege that was going on there. So in July of 1775, he took command of the various colonial militias that had assembled around the perimeter of Boston. And he basically, with their support, lay siege to Boston.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I’m just thinking, here he’s a very wealthy man. And the journey that he is going on here to then be taking up arms against the crown, there was tremendous risk for him to do that, Colonel Rutledge.
SPEAKER 04 :
There was tremendous risk to him and to every person involved. in the Continental Congress. It was going to be compounded when they signed the Declaration of Independence, when we’re in one of the signers, or perhaps it was Benjamin Franklin, as I recall, said, we gentlemen, we shall all hang together or we will hang separately. for treason is what it came down to.
SPEAKER 08 :
So this narrative out there that we’ve heard over the last few years is that the founders were just these old rich guys that were just trying to protect their money. That’s really not the case, is it, Colonel Rutledge?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, no, it isn’t. Now, there were a few that were very wealthy, but most were not. They came from all 13 colonies. They were very versatile. Most of them were landowners. They had to be well enough off that they could afford to be away from their properties for many months sometime at a time in Philadelphia. But they were what we would consider like middle Americans today. They had good values. They were well-read. And they wanted independents.
SPEAKER 08 :
But when they first started this journey, I think they still thought they were going to be part of Britain. But when would you say that it became apparent that they were going to become independent?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I think it started a lot, of course, from the battles around the Boston area. And then when Washington took command… He decided that he must organize his militia into a fighting force. And when he did this, he basically then was encircling Boston. And General Howe, who was the commander of the Redcoats there, decided just to move back into Boston because it – He could quarter his troops better there. Actually, what they used to do, they’d take over people’s homes. And that’s one of the reasons we have something in our Constitution against that. But they would be quartered in there, and they’d be in good shape for this winter weather. And they’d also have access, of course, to the port for resupply. So it was a good location for them. But Washington decided that he would continue to keep – a force around there and do a siege, but he needed more power and he needed cannons. And one of the really great stories was the first week that George was in command. And this is the first week in July, 1775. A young man came to him and his name was Henry Knox. He was 25 years old. And Henry loved reading about the military. And he was not a soldier, but he had ideas. And he talked to General Washington and said, I know where there are cannons that you could use. And he found out that what had happened is Ethan Allen from Vermont and the Green Mountain Boys had captured Fort Ticonderoga in northern New York. And they had a lot of cannons. So he approached the commander, George Washington, about it. Washington rather cavalierly said, well, Mr. Knox, why don’t you just take charge of this and use your initiative? Well, we’re talking about hundreds of miles away and thousands of pounds of weight. But Knox did. He took charge. And he left Boston in November of 1775. He got to upper New York in December 1775. And they built sledges by cutting down trees all around Ticonderoga. And they also built boats that they could work. And they moved down to Albany. And then they were waiting for the lakes to be frozen over so these sledges could carry these massive weights. and when i talk about massive weights i’m talking about their estimate was 120 000 pounds collective weight of these cannon that and i presume with cannonballs and whatever else they have that had to be moved from the out um the area on the Hudson River, diagonally across to Boston, 300 miles in the wintertime, moving all this mess. What happened was, he did it. He got all of those guns back over to Georgia by the spring of 1776. And Washington decided… That it was very important that he have these to put up on the Dorchester Heights, which overlook Boston. Meanwhile, General Howe was getting sort of stir-crazy, and he was thinking about taking an offensive action against the colonials. If he had taken an offensive action and defeated Washington’s forces, there would have been no July the 4th. But he didn’t. He was just… Not quite ready to do that when one morning in March 1776, he looked up and he saw a cannon all across his height overlooking Boston. And he was shocked. And he actually made comments to the effect that the… that Washington must have access to thousands of men in order to do this. Well, it isn’t true what he did. For several nights, he had his men go out and put down gun placements all across high territory when it was dark, so the British didn’t know what was going on. But his theme was, we’re going to get the psychological edge because we’re going to move them all into place one night. And that’s precisely what they did. The general came out and looked at it. He said, I couldn’t get my whole army to do that in three months.
SPEAKER 08 :
And here Washington did it in one night. It is a remarkable story.
SPEAKER 04 :
One night he showed his force. And that was a determining factor in not having a British offensive and also in the withdrawal of the British from Boston to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
SPEAKER 08 :
It is a remarkable story and, again, remarkable man. I’m talking with Lieutenant Colonel Bill Rutledge, retired United States Air Force. We get to have these great conversations because of sponsors.
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is kimmunson.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. And you can email me at kim at kimmunson.com as well. And we are pre-recording these shows for the week of July 4, but we do wish you a very happy Independence Day. I am talking with Lieutenant Colonel Bill Rutledge, retired United States Air Force. And he will turn 95 this July, and we’re talking about George Washington. And just to kind of button up the Battle of Boston is that George Washington was just 44 years old when this was all accomplished, and that is how he became the father of our country, correct? That’s correct. Okay. What happens after that, Colonel Rutledge?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, after the British left Boston— Washington recognized the strategic location of New York City and the port and felt that it was very important that he gain control there so that it was not dividing the colonies so that New England was not separated from the Middle Atlantic and the southern colonies. And if they kept control, it would be very difficult for any kind of military force to be united against the British. So Washington took the lead, and he decided to attack New York City. And at the time, he had assembled about 10,000, it’s hard to call them soldiers. They were just farmers and everything else, but they had their own guns. And they were from each of the various colonies in the northeast. But as they were going down, they had such a short tenure, they would sign up for maybe a month or maybe six months or somebody would have signed up for a year. Well, as they moved south towards Long Island, many of them just took off and went home. Now, some of them did this. Not necessarily out of fear, because it was time to put in the crop. Most of them were farmers. They had things to do, or their family needed them. So many, many left. So the time he gets to Long Island, he’s lost a few thousand troops already. He still thinks he has an advantage with the initiative, and But he was to have shocks for the next few months because he didn’t win anything in New York. He just lost battle after battle. First of all, he lost in Long Island when he thought he wouldn’t. Then he crossed over and went into Brooklyn. And when he got into Brooklyn, he found out he needed to get out of there, but he was going to have trouble getting out of Brooklyn. And this is where the divine providence factor came into effect. He had to evacuate where the British couldn’t tell what was going on. So he assembled a lot of boats to get out of there and to get on to Manhattan. And what happened was they had a Northeaster that came in with fog and rain, and it was miserable. But the main thing, it took care of visibility. So he was able to evacuate out of Brooklyn when he was basically surrounded by the British. So he gets over to Manhattan, and his luck is not a heck of a lot better there. So he’s gradually working north, and he gets all the way up the White Plains, and then he gets up even north of there. And then there’s a fortress that they set up that they call Fort Washington, which was very small. But every time when it looked like he had no chance at all, something would happen weather-wise or good luck-wise so that he was able to slip away. And so eventually he was able to get out of the New York area, get across the Hudson River, and get into New Jersey. By now he only has probably 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers total left And so he’s going through an area in New Jersey, south and west, yet New Jersey had more people who were in sympathy with the crown than who were in sympathy with any kind of a revolutionary movement. So he was not going through land where he was being treated well. He was like a hostile force coming through. So it was very difficult for him. but he continued on down all the way to Philadelphia. And the British didn’t follow him very closely. They took sort of a leisurely route going down because they thought that Washington could be defeated easily once he was engaged. So he did get down and got to Philadelphia, and then the British were slowly, slowly coming down. And… It was, again, a continuation from in 1776. Now, while he was in the New York area, and when things were very low, this is when the people in Philadelphia suddenly decided, well, we’ll sign this thing and we’ll call it the Declaration of Independence. Not a good deal for Washington, because it didn’t make the British any happier towards Washington.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and just address this. He was losing battle after battle. And when he’s losing battle after battle, he’s seeing farmers and merchants, his fellow countrymen, well, his fellow men die. And, I mean, he didn’t lose heart. He didn’t give up, which I think we really need to recognize that because that is so important, Colonel Rutledge.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, his leadership was essential. Washington was actually in the field for about six years, five or six years, and scattered all over from Boston all the way down to South Georgia. And they just weren’t winning. He only won three battles. In the whole war, Trenton, Princeton, and Yorktown. No, actually, you might kill Boston because he got the British to evacuate, but he didn’t have any direct confrontation with them. But he had plans, and he knew how to retreat. He knew how to use his people, and he had the dynamic leadership to keep them together. And he also had a few people who were extremely supportive and good writers and could encourage the people to stay with him. But he was running very hard against upstream.
SPEAKER 08 :
But he didn’t give up. And if he would have given up, we would have no declaration of independence that we are celebrating today. I think that’s important that we recognize that. And I think we get a little spoiled here in 2023 America and just don’t think about what Washington and Farmers and Merchants of the Continental Army just exactly – what they did for us all these years ago. Continuing on, what do you think is the next thing that we should really talk about?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, we’re all talking about 1776 now, which means we’ve already made the Declaration of Independence in July. The British know that we’re seeking their independence, and they want to get rid of us. Meanwhile, The British have contracted with the Germans, the Hessians, and these are mercenary soldiers, and they have sent thousands of them to America. And they had one concentration at Trenton, New Jersey. And George was across the river. in the Philadelphia area and decided he was going to attack the German concentration at Trenton. And the time to do it was going to be Christmas night. And he thought that they would be celebrating the event and would not be as attentive to their security. That didn’t turn out to be true. A lot of people liked the story, but they didn’t let it really happen. George went down to cross the river. And it was frozen. There were icebergs. It was terrible. And he divided these forces up into three forces. One was to come in to Trenton from the south. One was to come straight across the river. And the other was to go north and then come down. And they would all converge on the the German forces that were in Trenton. Well, what happened was the ones at the south couldn’t get across. There was so much icebergs and everything else, they just couldn’t get their boats across. So that was the largest force, but it never got into action. Then the ones in the middle, they were trying to get across, and they were having trouble also. So George got his forces across from the north. And again, now his whole force has been reduced by at least two-thirds. And right then, what happened was the Germans had actually posted guards way out around the perimeter to be able to alert the commander in the event there were any kind of incursions. Well, this is another one of those divine intervention situations because the weather turned terrible. They had a blizzard. They had not only snow but hail and fog, and it covered their presence north of Trenton. So they continued moving forward, and when they got to the edge of Trenton, they had the advantage because they did have a few of their cannon, their field pieces with them. And the outpost people finally got to their commander and let him know But before he could get his forces together, Washington and his people were into Trenton and were coming right at them and were using their cannon. And the Germans did come out. They did resist. In fact, a German commander was hit and was killed in the battle. So it was a contested fight. It wasn’t a give-up situation that people kept saying, well— The Germans all were drunk. They celebrated. That wasn’t the case.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, I’ve heard that, and I’ve actually shared that. So that’s what I’ve thought about that evening, but that was not the case, huh?
SPEAKER 04 :
No. The commander was very much in charge, and he came out and he led from the front, and he was leading. But the problem was he was outgunned and out-surprised at that time, and so… The initiative is with the Americans and with Washington. And it took the day. And so they won there. They captured all these people that were surrendered. And then in addition, in the old days, what you’d do, you’d sign a document indicating that you would not fight against the force anymore. And so consequently, although he had no way to put them in a… contained area, they signed that they would agree not to fight against the Continental Forces. So there was a target of opportunity nearby in Princeton.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, let’s keep that as a cliffhanger, Colonel Rutledge. I’m talking with Lieutenant Colonel Bill Rutledge. He is a great historian, just a great, has a great interest in people and a frequent guest on the show. And we’re talking about George Washington on this Independence Day. And we get to do this because of great sponsors.
SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at Kim Munson dot com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We are an independent voice. We search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And this Independence Day week, I highly recommend that you honor our founding by going to the USMCMemorialFoundation.org and making a contribution as they are raising money for the remodel of the Marine Memorial out at 6th and Colfax. And my friends, it is so important to honor, remember those that have been willing to give their lives or given their lives for our independence. And so, again, go to usmcmemorialfoundation.org to make a contribution. Honored to have on the line with me Lieutenant Colonel Bill Rutledge, retired United States Air Force. We’re talking about George Washington, and he’s finally had a success at the Battle of Trenton. So he decides that he’s going to augment that success, and he goes over to Princeton, correct, Colonel Rutledge?
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s correct. And what happened there was he actually had a smaller force, than the British, and they did not expect any attack because they had gotten a little bit of word by what had happened at Trenton. But the fact that he had had success motivated his men and his leadership, and he went on to Princeton, and they attacked head-on to the British there and were successful. But this is another case where, again, divine providence played. In this case, it wasn’t the weather. This case was him as a target on a big horse and the biggest man out there, 6’2″, big, on top of him, and leading the horses in front. He had to have been the target for so many of the guns. His cape, his hat… so much part of his uh overall attire was pierced with shots but he wouldn’t hit he didn’t he he never was shot off of his horse in the whole war and this is so unusual and later on as they were looking over his uniform as he was and as he was writing notes and memoirs and things Everyone was astounded that he had survived this situation. And again, when they asked him, how could he explain that? He couldn’t. And he fell back on this comment so often. It was divine providence. And he didn’t say this was God, this was Jesus, this was some saint. But that was his collective term. And it seemed to fit pretty well to summon the things which were so unpredictable and uncontrollable, like the weather. And how can people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey shoot at a guy on a horse who’s in front of everybody and not hit him? These were just unheard of. Wow. These were things that happened. And now we’re talking about our early 1777. Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
So what happens then?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, then he’s faced with a situation of having to get back to Philadelphia, having to go back across the Delaware River, and that’s when he went out to Valley Forge. And when he went out to Valley Forge, He was only a few miles west of Philadelphia. And so the British, General Howe and his brother, Admiral Howe, who collectively brought the British forces in and decided they’d just stay in Philadelphia for the winter. So they occupied people’s houses and things all around. And they knew that Washington and his forces were at Valley Forge. But that’s not how you fought wars in those days. In those days, you went into a winter area where you camped, and people didn’t make war very much in the winter. So that’s when we had all the trials and tribulations of terrible, terrible survival conditions for those in Valley Forge that winter time. And the fact that it got down to sometimes slightly less than 3,000 people still out there with George Washington. Fortunately, he had his key lieutenants, who later became very great leaders in the new republic. But it was hard, and it was very difficult. And it was the era when… Paine wrote These Are the Times that Try Men’s Souls. And that publication was written about what was happening in Valley Forge in Washington’s survival. And Paine actually went out there. He was in the Army. And Washington got to know him. And he wrote this document. That was read all over America, and it was designed to encourage the people who were in support of the new republic. And we’ve talked about this one on other occasions. But that one quote describes so much the time that tribe men sold.
SPEAKER 08 :
Isn’t it amazing, Colonel Rutledge, how words are so powerful? Those words from Thomas Paine so long ago. As I look at 2023 America, I’ve got it on my outline that I look at on a daily basis. because we’re in a time now that tries men’s souls. But we can listen to the stories of George Washington and the Continental Army and take great heart from what happened then and I think apply that to 2023 America.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I think there are certain parallels. One of the other parallels, which was even more frightening to me, is George Orwell’s
SPEAKER 08 :
1984. Yes. And so ideas are powerful. We are in quite a time, but we’ve been in difficult times before. I think prayer is very important, again, throughout our history, whether or not it was George Washington kneeling by his horse and saying a prayer to Patton, saying a prayer in World War II, having the troops say that. I think prayer is very important. I think it’s important, again, for 2023 America. We’ve got just about a minute or so left. How would you like to summarize all this for our listeners, Colonel Rutledge?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I think the key thing people need to appreciate is that America was blessed with a unique leader. And if it had not been for George Washington, we would not have had independence for decades. and the fact that Washington led, and although he’d lost far more battles than he ever won, he finally prevailed at Yorktown in 1781 by his own strategy and his tactics. The British thought that his forces were in New Jersey right across the Hudson because he set up camp and left the fires there and left the tents and did a force march all the way down to Virginia, where he joined his other army that was coming up from the south that was in pursuit of the British, so that the British had gone to Yorktown, because it was a close place to get reinforcement, to get new forces, get new supplies. But when they got down there, the good luck was that the French Navy, for once in the whole war, actually blocked the British Navy so that they could not get in and relieve the British forces at Yorktown. And that’s why they surrendered there. And although the war was not formally ended for well over a year, By the negotiators, that was the last major battle of the war at Yorktown.
SPEAKER 08 :
Wow. Colonel Bill Rutledge, thank you so much for being our featured guest on this 4th of July broadcast. I so greatly appreciate it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you. It’s a pleasure.
SPEAKER 08 :
And our quote for the end of the show is George Washington. He said this. He said it is impossible to govern the world without God. It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits and humbly implore his protection and favor. So my friends today, be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically today. strive for high ideals and like superman stand for truth justice and the american way my friends you are not alone god bless you and god bless america
