| Time | Text |
|---|---|
|
Dedication's Toll
00:04:53
|
|
| Hello, Mr. Prager. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | |
| It's an honor to speak with you, sir, as always. | |
| Thank you. | |
| I just wanted to ask, I'll try to be as concise as possible. | |
| I've been a police officer for 16 years. | |
| I've spoken to you a few times now. | |
| And my parents, they fled the Soviet Union, and I was born in Canada. | |
| I was always grateful to this country and to the West for the opportunities, and I wanted to serve my country. | |
| I served overseas twice, peacekeeping in Afghanistan and Ukraine. | |
| And I've dedicated my life to service and I'm having a very tough time right now. | |
| I lead about 22 officers on the job and we're all very fearful every day we come into work now. | |
| I've never been this bad. | |
| We're fearful that either we're going to lose our lives or that a 10-second clip will label us a racist and our lives will be ruined another way and probably another terrible fashion. | |
| And I'm struggling with my own family that they don't support me publicly. | |
| They support Black Lives Matter for the most part. | |
| And when I try to communicate to them the ideologies that they hold and the life experience that I have dealing with that organization, they tell me that we'll just have to agree to disagree. | |
| And I find myself feeling very distant from them and very hurt by that lack of support because... | |
| They know who I am. | |
| They know the character that I have and my colleagues have. | |
| And I'm just asking and reaching out to you. | |
| Are you married? | |
| I'm not. | |
| I have a girlfriend and her family and her are extremely supportive of me. | |
| And they're kind of like my lifeline, actually. | |
| So, okay. | |
| Them and you, sir. | |
| Well, thank you. | |
| I'm glad to be that. | |
| Is she marriageable material, to put it bluntly? | |
| She's divorced, has a 10-year-old child. | |
| We're both strong Christians. | |
| My father is Jewish, but at this time... | |
| What prevents you from getting married? | |
| Oh, she's afraid of getting married? | |
| She's afraid. | |
| I'm open to it. | |
| Wait, why is she afraid? | |
| Because of her past experience. | |
| Well, since you listen so avidly, you might know my response to that. | |
| The driving, the driving, right? | |
| Have you asked her that? | |
| Not yet, sir. | |
| We've only been together for about four months. | |
| She's been, again, a lifeline to me, but I'm finding it very difficult to actually be close to my family now. | |
| I find myself withdrawing, and I wear my heart on my sleeve. | |
| Well, but don't. | |
| See, this is interesting. | |
| I was blessed by God or nature with shock absorbers. | |
| These things, one of the things that I have always known, Is the unimportance of blood. | |
| And so that has protected me from any hurts that would be within family life. | |
| I'm not saying I have wonderful, many wonderful, obviously, family members. | |
| I want to make that clear. | |
| But I've had that as well. | |
| But I was prepared for it because I knew that blood doesn't mean a damn thing. | |
| Everything is values. | |
| And, you know, if you've seen my fireside chats, I did one on blood just a couple of weeks ago. | |
| And I think it's an eye-opener, especially to young people, that values are so much more important than blood. | |
| So just, yes, you could withdraw. | |
| What you should do now is just be, I don't want you ever to sever relations with family, obviously. | |
| Now what, in my opinion, For what it's worth, and apparently it's worth a lot to you, so I say this with some humility, but I would not raise these issues. | |
| I would be aware I am not that close to them as I would like to be. | |
| C'est la vie, as you folks would say in Canada. | |
| And then I find kindred spirits, which was the theme of my happiness hour, outside of my family. | |
| And it's unbelievably helpful. | |
| And I hope you get married. | |
| And that'll really answer the problem. | |
| Because imagine, just imagine, this should make your day. | |
| Imagine if you were married to somebody who had contempt for your views. | |
| Thank you, sir. | |
| My pleasure. | |
| Thank you. | |
| I hope we meet one day. | |
| It's unique. | |
| Talk Radio is unique. | |
| It's really something. | |
| I never lose sight of the good things of my life and of your life. | |