Point of View February 12, 2025 – Hour 2 : Unbreakable Boy

[00:00:04] Across America, Live, this is Point of View, Kirby Anderson. Second hour today, we're going to spend some time in just a few minutes talking about this film, Unbreakable Boy. Kevin Downs is with us in just a minute. He's co-founder and CEO of Kingdom Story Company, but can't join with us for a moment.

[00:00:33] And that is fine because there are other things to talk about. So we'll begin to look at a couple of other of the articles I've posted. And when he can join us, we'll come back and talk about this film that I think would really be, first of all, a tearjerker. I can't even watch every time I watch the trailer. First time I saw it in the theater, I thought, oh, my gosh, this is quite a film.

[00:00:56] And then every time I try to watch it again, just to re-remind myself of some of the aspects of it, I'm thinking it's a pretty powerful film. So we will get to that in just a minute. But let me take a few that I put at the bottom of our list. These are kind of short stories. But nevertheless, you heard the other day that President Trump decided that maybe it is time to stop producing the penny.

[00:01:20] Now, for those of you that ever watched the TV show The West Wing, there was an episode there about pennies. Why is it we produce pennies? Because the bottom line is it costs quite a bit to produce a penny. Back in the days when there was copper in the penny, it would probably even be worth more now as well. So as a result, he wanted to actually end that. So I pulled an article here from The New York Times.

[00:01:47] And that is where it says America must free itself from the tyranny of the penny. And then to add to that, interestingly enough, I found another piece by Phil Klein. Not only should we get rid of the penny, we should get rid of the nickel. And until I saw some of those numbers, I thought, well, maybe it's just they're kind of a nuisance.

[00:02:10] But first of all, before we get into the details, this is a think a very clear reminder, which I talked about the other day, of the fact that our dollars are being devalued. Our money is being devalued. You don't like it when some of the oldsters say, I used to be able to get a what piece of candy for a penny or even a piece of candy for a nickel.

[00:02:35] I remember when a quarter was worth something and now it's, you know, just almost a difficulty to even carry change around anymore. Of course, a lot of young people don't. They just simply put everything on their credit card. But interesting enough, Katie Weaver writing for The New York Times put it this way. She said, I was disappointed to learn recently that the United States has created for itself a logistical problem so stupendously stupid.

[00:03:03] One cannot help wondering if it is wise to continue to allow this nation to supervise the design of its own holiday postage stamps. Let his own preside over the administration of an extensive interstate highway system or nuclear arsenal. It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I have come to think of it as the perpetual penny paradox. Okay, here it is. Most pennies produced by the U.S. Mint are given out as change but never spent.

[00:03:33] This creates an incessant demand for new pennies to replace them so that cash transactions that necessitate pennies, anything concluding with a sum whose final digit is 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, or 9 can be settled. Because these replacement pennies will themselves not be spent, they need to be replaced with new pennies which also are not spent.

[00:03:57] And as a result, the best estimates, this is her estimate, and this is a conservative estimate, that there are probably 240 billion pennies lying around the United States. Or $7.24 for every man, woman, and child here. And enough to hand two pennies to every bewildered human born since the dawn of time. So, nevertheless, that's the case.

[00:04:24] And, of course, this doesn't go into it initially, but a little bit later in the article, points out that a penny is going to cost you about 3 cents. So we spend 3 cents to produce 1 cent. Does that make any sense? No. Now, if you go back to the old West Wing article or story, it was, well, yeah, but Abraham Lincoln is on the penny.

[00:04:46] This is something that people in Illinois want to keep around, and I'll ask our listeners in Illinois when I go next month, is it next month, month after that, when we go to WPEO in Peoria, Illinois, if they really need the penny anymore. But it's worse than that because the other article I've posted for you isn't just maybe we need to abolish the penny, but it's even worse because we need to abolish the nickel. First of all, this particular article gives you some of the facts.

[00:05:16] And that is if you are going to, as the federal government, actually stop producing pennies where you're spending, and this estimate is $3.69, I guess you should say, to produce every penny. So we're actually 3.5 cents to produce one penny.

[00:05:36] If you think that's bad, it actually now, for nickels, costs 13.78 cents to produce a 5-cent nickel. And that makes no sense at all. And that one comes from the U.S. Mint's annual report. So the gap between the cost of producing some of the change and the actual face value is getting greater and greater and greater every single year.

[00:06:05] This is the 19th consecutive year that both pennies and nickels cost more to produce than their face value. You can figure this out. Maybe eventually it would be the dime, but it turns out that the dime is smaller. So for a while we won't over exceed and pass the dime. But at least pennies and nickels, maybe we just need to round to the closest 10 cents.

[00:06:32] And, of course, I think you can see some implications to that. First of all, just the amount of metal of any sort that goes into producing things that aren't necessarily even producing a positive function in society. I will bring you back to the 240 billion pennies lying around the United States.

[00:06:55] I know some of you might want to call in and talk about the piggy banks that are jammed full of pennies and things of that nature. But, again, it's bad enough that it costs us, if now we want to use the U.S. Mint's annual report, 3.69 cents to produce one penny or 13.78 cents to produce one nickel. But the reality is that some of those are being saved.

[00:07:23] And so a penny saved, a penny earned. No, a penny saved is one more penny to produce. And so those are some articles I was going to put at the end of the program. But since we are still trying to connect up with Kevin Downs, which we will hopefully after the break, we'll talk about this new movie, Unbreakable. If not, we'll move on to some other topics. It is certainly a movie I think you'll want to see.

[00:07:45] And for those of you who have a child that's a special needs child or you have a friend, family member, church member that does, which I think would be virtually all of the audience, it is almost impossible for my wife and me to walk down the street and not pass at least one home in every street we walk on that has at least one special needs child,

[00:08:10] including just two doors down from us at home that has two autistic special needs children. So this is going to be a film that we'll talk about after the break that I think you'll want to know more about. I was aware it was coming out when I first saw the trailer in the theater, and we have now provided you lots of information. Looks like we've now connected up with Kevin Downs.

[00:08:32] But since we're going to a break, we'll just wait three minutes during the break and we'll come back and talk about this film that I think you're going to want to see, Unbreakable Boy. All that coming up right after these important messages. This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:17] We're the single most vibrant economy in the world, and we're the single strongest military in the world. If we can agree on these two things, which I think should be non-controversial. He believes that these two elements are why America is the most important country. Doesn't matter if you make the best oranges or burritos or make the best shoes. These products don't equate to being the most powerful country.

[00:09:46] America has the strongest and most vibrant economy and the strongest and most powerful military. He then argues that there is only one thing that gives you both of these two things, which is technological supremacy. Next comes his concern. He believes we are in an existential risk of losing our place in the world. The reason he believes is simple. We've had people from the inside trying to sabotage our economy effectively and trying to sabotage our military capability.

[00:10:15] He adds that we've had too many in leadership who don't know what they're doing. I would add that this last election was about this, at least in part, but much more reform needs to take place. We need people with economic judgment and military judgment. Earlier this week, my commentaries have touched on the problem with DEI. We need to return to a meritocracy and we need to put the right people in the right positions to have a strong America. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:46] For a free copy of Kirby's booklet, A Biblical View on Loneliness, go to viewpoints.info slash loneliness. That's viewpoints.info slash loneliness. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Once again, we are now going to be spending some time talking about this new film, Unbreakable Boy. And we are privileged to have with us Kevin Downs. He is the co-founder and CEO of Kingdom Story Company.

[00:11:14] And he has really put together a very impressive career of producing, directing, acting. As a matter of fact, while we talk about acting, he's played roles in Courageous, Mom's Night Out, I Can Only Imagine, Jesus Revolution, Best Christmas Pageant, and the rest. If you're not familiar, Kingdom Story Company has really been working on trying to focus on faith and inspiration, really kind of a positive impact through storytelling.

[00:11:40] And, of course, we might also remember some of their other films, Ordinary Angels, Unsung Hero. Of course, I mentioned The Best Christmas Pageant. This one coming out now, Unbreakable Boy. And, Kevin, thank you for joining us once again here on Point of View. Hey, it's good to be here. How are you? I am good. And I know you had to race over some icy roads, so I'm glad that you were safe. And I'm glad you're with us now. And this is an incredible story.

[00:12:08] You've already heard me say once, and I've said it more than once off air to various individuals. When I'm in the theater and I'm watching the trailer for the first time, I'm going, whoa, I'm tearing up right now. And this is the trailer? And then I'm thinking, and then every once in a while I'll watch the trailer again just to kind of remind myself of what's there. And I don't know how anybody could make their way through this film without just being really touched.

[00:12:34] And so this is why I wanted to help people know that here we're coming up to the opportunity next week for people to see it in the theaters. And so tell us a little bit of the story. I can probably do that as well, but you have a better expertise here. And I'd love to have people understand what it means to actually get into a theater and watch Unbreakable Boy. Yeah, no, you hit the nail on the head. It's such an inspiring story.

[00:13:02] I mean, this is a film that is going to make you feel good about life and give you a different perspective on life, in my opinion. It centers around this young boy, Austin, who is autistic but also has this rare brittle bone disease, osteogenesis imperfecta, which means basically his bones are made of chalk. But he has this view on life that is just so touching. Every day can be the best day.

[00:13:30] It doesn't matter what is going on, what curveball's life throws at you. He just has this perspective that, you know what, we can make the best of it. Anybody can be a friend of ours. It doesn't matter if they've hurt us. It doesn't matter what they've done to us. We can still love them back selflessly like the Bible teaches us. And so I watch the snow. I've watched it a ton. And I just – it makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you just feel good about life. It makes you want to hug your neighbor and hug your parents if they're near you.

[00:14:00] Zachary Levy is an individual that many people know from other films that he's been involved with, as a variety of others. Of course, in the background, Patricia Heaton. So you've got obviously very good production values, a very powerful and poignant message. But as I've pointed out already, we've tried over the years to talk about the need for us in the church and even for us as individual Christians to reach out to couples that have a special needs child.

[00:14:29] And, of course, I live in a community where it seems like everywhere I go I run into some parent, a couple that have a special needs child. I just mentioned a minute ago, two doors down from us. They have two that are autistic. And in some respects, this also reminds you of the pros and the cons, some of the difficulties that parents face and challenges, but also how this can be a very uplifting film as well, isn't it? Yeah, no, it is.

[00:14:59] I mean, definitely when you hear it through the lens of Scott, who is Austin's dad, Scott is who Zachary Levi plays in the film. And, you know, it's not always a bed of roses to say, but, you know, Austin is there to really remind him that no matter how tough it gets, dad, that today is just the best day. Like one of my favorite lines in the film, he's drinking a chocolate or a strawberry shake at the end. And he goes, this is the best strawberry shake ever. He just wants to stop the world.

[00:15:28] Everybody needs to listen to me. Listen to me. It's the best strawberry shake ever because today is the best day. And he's such an inspiration. I mean, in real life, Austin is an inspiration. I got the privilege of being around him, you know, definitely for the run-up to the release of the film. And he's just so excited about it, and he should be. He's an inspiring young man. So, again, let's talk about the background because some people might say, oh, it's a wonderful story, but there is a grain of truth, isn't there, in this that people might have missed if they only watched the trailer.

[00:16:00] Yeah, no, yeah, it's a true story. Obviously, we came to it because there was a book called The Unbreakable Boy. It was brought to us. And at first we were looking at it as a television series. And when I read it, I was like, you know, this is a movie. We should absolutely make this as a movie. And so we actually made it during kind of the height of the pandemic a few years ago. We made another film called American Underdog, and we made this one at the same time. I remember that.

[00:16:26] And so we decided to hold on to it because we just thought the film was so special. We wanted audiences to be prepared, to be encouraged by this movie. And so we believe that February right now, we're past the election, we're past a lot of things in the news cycle, that audiences could really be uplifted by this story in particular. Well, that's why I thought it would be good to mention, because Zachary Levi plays the quarterback in, of course, Underdog, and he now plays the father. Of course, we've seen him in other roles as well, Shazam.

[00:16:56] And it's been just a great opportunity to see how his career has developed. And, of course, we see him oftentimes now commenting about the fires in Southern California and a variety of others. But since we only have a few minutes left, one of the things I always want to encourage people, Kevin, to do is to go to your website, and we have that link there, or they can just simply go to theunbreakableboy.movie either way, but we've got the link there, and then put in your email, I mean, I should say your zip code.

[00:17:26] And what you're going to find very quickly is that there are opportunities, but they really need to make sure that they maybe even put it on the calendar for next week so that they don't miss it. Oftentimes, some people say, oh, I'll get to it when I can. No, this is a release that you really want to make your way to next week. Isn't that true? Yeah, you want to bring friends and family, coworkers, because it's a film that will make you feel good.

[00:17:55] It'll start a lot of discussion, there's no doubt about it. And we've been doing a lot of screenings prior to the release, and audiences have just really loved it and enjoyed it. Like a lot of our films, you know, we had a film come out in November called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which obviously got a lot of buzz, and people loved it, and we're coming out with our latest here. It comes out February 21st, so next Friday, only in theaters, so you'll want to check it out this coming weekend.

[00:18:22] One of the other things I wanted to mention real quickly before I let you go is the fact that there is a place for small groups. And, again, sometimes it's great to grab a friend, but we in our Sunday school class have sometimes identified films that we thought would be really great and faith-affirming and family-oriented. And so we try to go in and bring sometimes as much of the entire Sunday school class as we can.

[00:18:49] Usually there's group size there where it says less than 50. I'm sure you have some groups that get in larger, but there are small group opportunities, and there's a small group page. So there's all sorts of things you could do because I think one of the other benefits, Kevin, is not only to identify this as an issue. It's a fun story. It's a fun story is to say, okay, what can we do as a community, as a small group, as a church, as individual Christians,

[00:19:14] to reach out to those who are struggling with or trying to deal with some of the special needs of their children? Yeah, no, that's absolutely right. But, you know, going with a group to the theater certainly brings and addresses and highlights, you know, special needs kids and everything that we do in the community. I always think we can do more.

[00:19:37] It's one of the things that drew me to this film was just, you know, movies have this unique way of really highlighting whatever the issue is or the social issue is, the topic that they discover. And this one is special needs and how important and unique these individuals are and what can we do together as a community to lift them up and do more for them. That's so good. Again, their website is theunbreakableboy.movie. If you go there, you can see where you can find out about tickets. You can watch the trailer.

[00:20:07] You can get group tickets. Up our right-hand corner, there's a place where you can post things on Facebook and Instagram and X and all sorts of other places and educate other people about that. And so, Kevin, I appreciated all that you have done over the years with these various films, and we wanted to make sure that people knew about Unbreakable Boy. And so I appreciate you being with us today here on Point of View. All right. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Have a good one. Okay. Kevin Downs. And, again, I know he had to race across some ice,

[00:20:34] so appreciate him finally finding a place to pull over and chat with us as well. You today have heard about Dead Sea Scrolls and Unbreakable Boy. So whether you want those salt-encrusted fossilized squirrels or you want to talk about an Unbreakable Boy, we've got some of that material there as well. In the process, we've also, of course, talked about a few other things, Mark Fogle and Elon Musk. Let me get back to the issue of maybe school choice in a minute,

[00:21:04] but also a piece that was by Rich Lowry about Trump's counter-march through the institutions. I'll try to explain what that means. It's sort of a paraphrase of something that has been attributed to people like Herbert Marcuse, but we'll get into that in the last half hour. And all that's coming up right after this.

[00:21:30] In 19th century London, two towering historical figures did battle, not with guns and bombs, but words and ideas. London was home to Karl Marx, the father of communism, and legendary Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon. London was in many ways the center of the world economically, militarily, and intellectually. Marx sought to destroy religion, the family, and everything the Bible supports.

[00:21:59] Spurgeon stood against him, warning of socialism's dangers. Spurgeon understood Christianity is not just religious truth. It is truth for all of life. Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to stand against darkness today? Get the light you need on today's most pressing issues delivered to your inbox when you sign up for the Viewpoints Commentary at pointofview.net slash signup.

[00:22:27] Every weekday in less than two minutes, you'll learn how to be a person of light to stand against darkness in our time. It's free, so visit pointofview.net slash signup right now. Pointofview.net slash signup. Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:57] You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson. Back once again, if you'd like to join the conversation, 1-800-351-1212. We've been talking about so many different issues. You can certainly pick and choose. But let's head out to South Carolina to talk to Carol.

[00:23:25] Thank you for joining us today here on Point of View. Yes. I would like to express my opinion on what I saw about 55 years ago. I worked downtown L.A. in California, Pershing Square is in the middle of the city. And every day that I would park my car and walk about half a block to a block,

[00:23:51] I saw women that were from, I would say, seven to nine months pregnant going to an office in Pershing Square every single day I went to work. And I knew a lot about foreign things across the border.

[00:24:15] And I believe that was not good for me to see that. I just kind of surmised what was going on there. So that was 55 years ago. I'm sure that it's gone on all these years there. And, again, that has been one of the questions that people have asked about what is called birthright citizenship.

[00:24:40] I don't think that a president will prevail on that if it does go to the Supreme Court. It's not going to – even though I think there is a really good question about why would an individual who is deliberately coming here to have a child so that then you have that particular child become automatically a U.S. citizen, then you get what's called chain migration. So, Carol, you're identifying something that's been talked about for some time.

[00:25:09] And it's interesting that you said this happened how many years ago? 55 years ago. Wow, yeah. Because some people have talked about that as a recent phenomenon. But I thought you said more than 50 years ago. So here we go again about the fact that you were seeing that then.

[00:25:29] And, of course, there are all sorts of phrases that are used sometimes that are seen as pejorative about those babies that are actually produced here. But whatever phraseology you want to use, if, indeed, you were actually crossing a porous border so that you can then have a child here that then becomes automatically a citizen, then in order for that child to be taken care of,

[00:25:56] well, then obviously you need a mother and a father and then maybe aunts and uncles, and that's oftentimes referred to as chain migration. So, Carol, I appreciate you sharing that. I had no idea that somebody could document it happening 55 years ago. 55 years ago. And I have friends that are Hispanic. Hispanic. And they had to do it the right way, the legal way. And they are against illegal ways of doing things and wrongful things. Right.

[00:26:26] And that's one of the things that I think you have discovered even in the most recent couple of polls is that you would say, well, the Hispanic population would be supportive of people coming across the border. And oftentimes they're saying, no, we are probably some of the people most concerned about it because of the impact that it has on our particular ethnic group from a perception point of view. But also, if, indeed, individuals who are willing to cross the border and then receive payment under the table

[00:26:55] because they don't have to necessarily fulfill all the requirements for Social Security and OSHA requirements and everything else, sometimes they feel taking jobs away from them. So you can see why some of those arguments are being made as well. Well, Carol, I appreciate you sharing that. And as we head down this road of doge and head down this road of trying to find waste and abuse and fraud, I think we're going to hear all sorts of stories like that.

[00:27:25] Which brings me to one of the articles I would encourage you maybe to read in its entirety. It's sometimes hard to read even an entire article in one segment. But this one by Rich Lowry is referred to as Trump's countermarch through the institutions. Now, to understand that, you need to understand that just the other day we had a guest on the program talking about Herbert Marcuse.

[00:27:50] As a matter of fact, I just more recently bought a book that had a whole chapter on him because I wanted to understand more because he is one that has talked about doing a long march through the institutions. The actual original quote goes to Rudi Duschke, who is also German. And the argument and the idea at the time was we have the 1960s student movement,

[00:28:16] but what we really need to do is kind of change our view of Marxism. And instead of suggesting that we're going to try to bring about some kind of massive revolution that where the proletariat revolt against the bourgeoisie, maybe we can actually take a long march through institutions. In other words, instead of working against these institutions, maybe we should start working within them.

[00:28:46] And as he says here, simply not boring from within, but really, in a sense, taking over. Learn how to program, read computers, how to teach at different levels, learn how to organize, learn how to recognize, and, in a sense, begin to develop a whole structure, which I think has been relatively successful in the university setting, to really, in a sense, take that over.

[00:29:12] In this particular article by Rich Lowry, he recommends, and I would recommend this video that he has a link to, by Christopher Ruffo, who is with the Manhattan Institute, and talks about this whole strategy of, again, the long march through institutions. Which has been the goal of many of these leftist activists. In comes Donald Trump. And so I'm now skipping over whole paragraphs, in which Rich Lowry says,

[00:29:41] Trump is bringing to bear a real counterforce via federal power. He says this represents, he says, a new way of thinking about cultural change for the right, and it's a strange reversal, he says. To wit, it's the progressives who effectively use civil society to their ends, and now conservatives are attempting to use government to theirs.

[00:30:04] He says, for example, the Department of Health and Human Services didn't direct Disney to inject woke storylines into its programming. The company did it on its own, because once you have the takeover, if you will, of the universities, then you have individuals, maybe university administrators, faculty members, and others, that are encouraging those ideas.

[00:30:28] Those individuals in the schools then go out, and they are having an influence there as well. And so, as he says, as we witnessed over and over again, the leaders of elite institutions weren't even necessary for change. They just bent to the woke fixations and moral bullying of their youthful underlings who expected, quote, the man to cater to their whims. As we've said before, I think the biggest mistake we've said is, well, there's a lot of crazy things on campus.

[00:30:58] But once these kids get off campus and they go into the corporate world, they're going to realize how crazy some of those ideas are. Instead, what they found is they had fellow travelers there in some of these businesses, corporations, industries, and the rest, who then just adopted those ideas. And so he says Trump's new factor in this equation is an executive branch willing to exercise its discretion over federal funds to attempt to counter the woke cultural tide.

[00:31:27] The most recent example was the executive order, he says last week, saying that federal funding would be withdrawn from educational institutions that permit males to compete in female sports. When that came out, everybody wondered what would happen next. Didn't have to wait long. The NCAA instantaneously, we talked about this on Friday, changed its policy to say that only athletes who were female at birth could compete against females.

[00:31:54] Another one would be the anti-DEI executive order. He says they're already having a similar effect among federal contractors. If you go to the doge.tracking that I just mentioned a minute ago, you'll see some of those there. And he says now you even notice that West Point is disbanding its identity-based clubs in response to Trump's orders. Again, this is a cultural change.

[00:32:21] Such groups are part of the cultural ecosystem on college campuses, which encourage at the margin students to think of themselves as separate and distinct groups. And, of course, once we start on the universities, you've already seen some of that from Governor Ron DeSantis, whose approach to Disney and the state's public universities, where he used Disney's dependency on government dispensions, dispensation, excuse me,

[00:32:49] its so-called special tax district, and its status of the university as actual government institutions, which provided an opportunity to push back on the woke culture. And so, in some respects, as he said, Trump's executive actions could be a classic case of what's good for the goose is good for the gander, given the fact that President Barack Obama used the threat of cutting off federal funds to impose all sorts of procedures.

[00:33:15] Now, what was useful for Barack Obama is now being used by Donald Trump. So, it's a very interesting article reminding us that there has been this slow, long march through the institutions by the leftists. Donald Trump now has put together a counter-march, and I would encourage you to read this article. Very well written, and really helps us understand, in some respects, what's taking place. We'll take a break.

[00:33:45] Come back with more right after this. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Back for a few more minutes, and I might just say for tomorrow, we have Lathan Watts in studio, Vice President of Public Affairs for Alliance Defending Freedom. We are going to post his article. You can probably find it ahead of time if you'd like.

[00:34:14] I think you will appreciate some of his insights, and then we'll keep him around to talk about some of these various Supreme Court cases, some of which are his, some of which are others, and so I want to educate you about some very good prayer targets. By the way, speaking of prayer, if you scroll down to the right-hand side of our website, you're going to see Pray for America. The latest Pray for America going out is encouraging you to pray for some of this doge work

[00:34:43] and actually quotes some of the individuals that have said, we're going to take it into the streets. We need to impeach this individual who voted for him and all the rest, so I think this is a matter of prayer, and we'll probably get into some of that tomorrow with Lathan Watts because he gets into that with some detail and can also talk about, if you will, behind the scenes some of the experiences he's had, first with First Liberty Institute, now with Alliance Defending Freedom, having an office there in Washington, D.C.,

[00:35:11] hearing some things that you would probably only get to hear here on Point of View, so I think it's going to be a great program for the first hour, then we'll get into some other issues in the news, so that's front and center. Let me also mention my commentary today has the title Strong America. It comes from some of the comments made by Chamath Palahipatia, all these names I've had to come up with here, and he's an individual that you may be familiar as kind of a tech giant, tech CEO,

[00:35:40] for a long time owned one of the very important sports teams, but he was on the other day in which he says, you know, we need to step back for just a minute as Americans and recognize that we are, and he's not patting ourselves on the back, he's just being honest, we are the single most important country in existence in the world, hence the reason I call this Strong America, because he says there are a couple of things that certainly make us strong. We have the most vibrant economy in the world,

[00:36:10] although that is faltering a little bit, and we're the single strongest military, although we're being challenged by China in particular, and so these are some issues that he raises, and goes on to say that there are two things which give you both of those opportunities, and its technological supremacy. It's a good piece, and it came out today as my commentary, but I'll give you a preview, because next week, I already record these commentaries with Megan,

[00:36:39] I also recorded a commentary based on the book by Victor Davis Hanson. Now back, I think in August, I talked about when the book came out, but I'm realistic enough to know you're not going to read his book. Okay, this is why I recommend, as I did just a few minutes ago, you might want to, if you want to understand more about this, long march through institutions by the woke activists to go to the video that is in that piece that I just mentioned by Christopher Ruffo.

[00:37:08] You can watch a video. In this case, you can watch a five-minute video summary by Victor Davis Hanson that was produced by our friends at Hillsdale College, and it's also one of the reasons we produce the booklets. Everybody seems to love the booklets I put out. I recognize they may be a little too simple, some people might even think they're a little bit simplistic, but they're like the CliffsNotes versions on some things you really need to know about. And I might just say that if you are not a supporter of Point of View,

[00:37:37] that's a very good reason to do so. Next month, we're going to have our Truth Team Week. I know we already have Joel Rosenberg scheduled, so I certainly would encourage you to be in prayer about that, and maybe if you want to even give before our Truth Team, we'll be able to have a way to challenge some of our listeners. But one of the benefits is to receive, if you give a dollar a day, $30 a month or more, those booklets, and that is the case. And of course, reading the booklets are helpful. As a matter of fact, I might even do a booklet on Victor Davis Hanson's book

[00:38:07] because it's so significant. But here is just a reminder that you can actually get a video summary of the book. And these two commentaries, the one today and the one that is next week, reminds us of the need to have a strong America. Because just imagine what the world would be like if we did not have the kind of military strength that we have right now to hold in check.

[00:38:35] We talked earlier about Russia, certainly China. How about just the terrorist activities, North Korea and the rest? And then also a strong economy, which, by the way, is faltering and needs some work for sure, which we've talked about many times. What would happen if we just had economic chaos around the world? So a strong America is really important. Just before we end, though, let me real quickly mention school choice. We will do more about this on Friday. We'll have Penne Dexter

[00:39:04] and Kelly Shackelford. Penne Dexter has certainly been looking at school choice. Kelly Shackelford, of course, had a case that went to the Supreme Court on school choice. And this article by the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal says, very simply, school choice has been on a roll, at least in Republican-led states, and the momentum is continuing this year in some. And so they talk about Tennessee, which lawmakers have passed educational savings accounts, ESAs,

[00:39:34] worth about $7,000 for about 20,000 students. Texas is really just getting started, but the Republican Governor Greg Abbott is working on that. South Carolina, where we also broadcast, the Senate passed a bill Tuesday, that's a week ago today, or last Tuesday, a week ago, providing scholarships for about 10,000 students in households, up to about 300% of the poverty line. Idaho, House lawmakers on Friday, last Friday,

[00:40:04] passed a bill creating refundable tax credits for up to $5,000 for tuition and other expenses. In New Hampshire, you have the governor there calling for an expansion of the education savings accounts. And then you have, of course, Wyoming, where the state House recently passed a bill removing the income eligibility limit from, again, these educational savings accounts and raising the scholarship. The eligibility limit was at 150%

[00:40:34] of the poverty level. Some are now using more like 300% of the poverty level. But, again, these are benefits to individuals who, frankly, could not afford to put their child into a private school or a Christian school. And, of course, Kelly Shackelford's case was a situation out of Maine in which they said, well, you can use this educational savings voucher anywhere except in a Christian school. And then later they said, well, you can maybe use it

[00:41:02] in a religious school, but it can't be in one that's a Christian school that doesn't agree to some of these parameters that we set forth. And the Supreme Court has not looked kindly on any of those attempts by Maine to do so. They struck down the Maine case before and I suspect will be going back again. So, those are some topics we'll probably address more on Friday. I recognize, again, because it's a national program, you may not always want to know what's happening

[00:41:31] in any particular individual state. But this has become kind of a national trend and I thought we would come back and get into the issue of educational savings accounts, some of the legal issues, some of the other concerns, the criticisms, because, as I've said, everything's on the table on point of view and we'll certainly try to cover that as well. Already you've heard me mention the fact that you can scroll down and find the Pray for America. I would hope that you would sign up

[00:42:01] for that if you have not. On the left-hand side you have my viewpoints commentary. You can sign up for that as well. And, of course, we also have a little button there, point of view highlights on Spotify. Megan puts that together and if you aren't subscribing to that, I would highly encourage you to do so. We've, of course, had a take action idea to contact your two senators about cabinet officers. We're coming down to the end. As I mentioned today, Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed that probably we will replace next week because there will

[00:42:30] be other things to be talking about as well. But if you would like some of the facts, figures, news information, or even some of the videos that we've talked about, the movies, all of it available on the website pointofview.net. Hope that you'll take the time to check out what we have there and if you would want, maybe even click on that button that says donate if you appreciate what we're doing to try to educate others. Thank you again for listening. I want to thank Megan for help engineering the program. Steve, thank you

[00:43:00] for producing this great program today and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow right here on Point of View. It was not that long ago that censorship appeared to be almost inevitable. Free speech was being attacked and strangled in many places and some of us wondered if this was the end. But now, many feel a new sense of hope, a chance for a fresh dawn.

[00:43:29] Let me caution you, now is not the time to relax. It's a time to press forward, to use this fresh opportunity to proclaim and learn how to apply truth to current issues. By the fact you're here, listening right now, that tells me that you recognize the vital role Point of View plays as a voice of truth. For more than 50 years, we've informed and equipped people who have made a real difference. And when you give to Point of

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[00:44:27] Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.