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June 23, 2024 - Stew Peters Show
57:27
Ever Had Your Defenses Shattered? Here's Who Broke Mine
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Sometimes, it feels like we're hard-pressed to find positive things that are happening around us in our communities today.
Unless you've been living under a rock, as I usually say, you can see it all around you, every day, almost everywhere you go.
Today I wanted to share with you all An experience that I had recently that was interesting and I'm extremely grateful.
And had it not been for the courage of the person that I am going to tell you about, it never would have happened to me because I never would have pursued it or at least even given it the time of day myself.
And so today, I want to share with you this experience that I had recently.
So please stick with us.
Don't go away.
We start now.
Hey everybody and welcome to another installment of the Richard Leonard Show podcast.
As always, I want to thank you for being here, for watching the show.
I really do appreciate it.
Every week it's extremely humbling to watch the participation in the comments.
Some days it's a little more interesting than others, and that's okay.
The whole point of this is to Spark discussion.
Whether you agree or disagree or you're indifferent, spark the discussion and let's talk about it.
We can't get anywhere on any topic in our communities, in this society, unless we at least start the conversation first.
So...
Thank you for participating.
I do appreciate it.
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Okay.
So, I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
And for many people, I think that it might be something that is trivial or minute.
But to be quite honest with you, for me, this experience I had came at exactly the right time.
And I don't say that because I feel like I was in a dark place or anything like that.
But for me, it was just...
It has been, not had been, it has been a difficult time to kind of make a decision about how you feel, about what's going on around you each and every day.
And we are hard-pressed to find...
Positivity happening around us from day to day.
And I'm not trying to say that we don't have any, that it's not out there, because it is.
But I would say that more often than not, there's negative things going on around us.
And so I had this amazing experience.
And it all started about...
I don't know, a month, a month and a half ago.
And at first I didn't know how to feel about it.
I didn't know...
Because pride gets in the way a little bit.
And being the big tough veteran or the big tough army guy or whatever that thing is...
that we carry with us gets in the way of things like this but I was at my local Lowe's hardware store picking up a couple things for some project around my house and I was leaving and I was walking to my truck And behind me,
I hear, I hear, sir?
Sir?
Hello?
And at this point, I was super hesitant, right?
I was hesitant to turn around.
I was hesitant to acknowledge it.
Everything inside of me said, just get in your truck and go.
Pretend like you didn't hear it.
Because of prior experiences.
Now, I say this because in the past, when I've had people approach me in parking lots, especially in parking lots of retail stores, it's never really anything positive.
They usually want to talk to you about How wrong you were for being in the military and doing the things that you did.
My vehicle has purple heart plates on it.
And so the people that disagree with the things that I may have done with my time in the military just by seeing a license plate and seeing some Oversized, now overweight man, most of the time limping to his vehicle.
They automatically think that of course you were thrust into combat.
And I guess I don't really know what their vision of my service looks like.
But they call you names, or they have snide remarks, or they ask you dumbass questions.
I've even been spit at before.
I've had a vehicle vandalized in the parking lot.
And so, at this time, everything inside of me said, just ignore it.
I really don't have the patience for a negative interaction.
Especially with what I perceive to be this little old lady.
The voice that I heard behind me, you know, sounded like an older lady.
But she was very ferocious and she was very tenacious is probably a better word.
And so, of course, I turned around and I said yes.
And she looked at me and she goes, Well, I see that you served in the military.
And I kind of looked at my truck and I said, Yep, yes I did.
What can I do for you?
Or something like that.
And she looked at me and very gently said, I just want to thank you for your service.
And so we've had discussions on this show in the past about What does thank you for your service actually mean?
And can you tell when people are being genuine?
Can you tell when people are saying thank you and they actually mean it?
Much like, you know, when you scold your children when they're teenagers and you ask them to apologize and they go, well, I'm sorry.
I'm really sorry that I did that.
You know, and it's not sincere.
Or even little kids.
Well, I'm sorry.
You can tell when people are being sincere and when they're not.
And so, as I was looking at this lady, I could feel that she was being sincere.
And so, my mood lightened a little, I think.
I guess maybe you'd have to ask her.
And hopefully someday I can get her on this show.
I don't know that...
She didn't seem too excited about it yet.
But it's maybe just a little apprehensiveness because of the unknown.
But she's also a person that doesn't want any recognition.
She doesn't want to take the limelight away...
From the people that she calls her heroes.
And so we're standing in the parking lot at Lowe's and she goes, well, my name is Mary and I'm retired and I make it a point to search out veterans And thank them.
And I thank them by making them what I call is a hero's blanket.
And I thought to myself, okay.
How much is it?
Is what I'm thinking.
But I didn't ask.
And so I said to her, oh, I said, well, that's fantastic.
Or something like that.
And maybe I did ask her how much it costs.
But then she just started asking me questions.
What branch of service were you in?
Was in the army?
When did you serve?
Where did you serve?
What did you do?
She asked questions that when people ask you about your service, and they really want to know what's what, They ask you questions that provide them somewhat of a storyline, in my opinion.
I guess is the best way to say it.
To try to help build a storyline about who you are and where you've been and what you've done.
And this is what Mary did.
And so, here's this little old lady.
She's decked out in red, white, and blue stuff.
You can't wipe the smile off her face with a scouring pad if you tried.
And she's just this electric ball of positivity and energy.
And I could, if I'm being honest, I could...
Literally feel my defenses dropping.
And the thought in my head was, uh-uh, don't do that.
Because you don't ever know what's coming next.
But you couldn't help it.
Like her, just her brightness and her positivity and her enthusiasm was contagious.
And before you know it, I was smiling and we were talking and I think that we had like this, maybe like 10 minute conversation standing outside of Lowe's.
And she took down my name and she took down my number and And she said, if you would allow me, I would like to honor you.
I would like to honor you with a hero's blanket, because to me, you are a hero.
And she stands very firmly on this idea that we the people, And I find it interesting that she uses that terminology.
And I love it.
We the people have failed veterans in this country.
We the people have failed veterans by not taking care of them.
We the people have failed veterans in this country by not remembering them.
We the people have failed veterans of this country By not knowing their stories.
And see, that's what hit home for me.
And I couldn't agree more.
Especially about not knowing veterans' stories.
You see, to me, that's the most important part.
The most important part is to know as many stories about as many men and women that sacrificed everything.
Some sacrificed all of it.
But everyone made that sacrifice to some extent.
You sacrifice your time away from your friends and family and home.
You sacrifice your youth.
You sacrifice your health.
you sacrifice your mental health.
For some people, they sacrifice their moral compass.
Just the mere fact that you serve is a sacrifice.
Because at any time in the course of your service, you can be told to go anywhere for the most part.
I mean, of course there's boundaries and there's different rules of this and that, but at any time you can be taken away from what you call home at that particular time.
And go anywhere in the world.
And so if you have kids, a spouse, your extended family, whoever, friends, for reserve component soldiers, you have civilian jobs, you might coach your kids little league teams, whatever that is, you gotta just drop it all.
You drop all of it to answer this call that our country And the great thing about storytelling is that you get to control the narrative.
You get to control, in some ways, you get to control the emotional response of the people, your audience, the people that you're talking to.
Imagine, if you will, that you're standing on this stage, right?
Like old school, back in the early 1900s, when they had these beautiful opera houses, and the stages were lit by candlelight in the floor, and there's lanterns everywhere, and there's all these people that are sitting in the audience, and they're all dressed up in suit and tie, and these big flowing dresses, right?
And there's candlelight everywhere to light up the joint.
The first thing I think of, off topic, the first thing I think of is everybody in there must be sweating their asses off.
There's no air conditioning.
Everyone's in this small space, seemingly small space for all these people.
And there's fire everywhere.
Everyone's sweating, for sure.
But I digress.
So you're on this stage.
And the whole house is lit by candles.
And you, as the storyteller, have the ability to control the emotions somewhat of the audience by the words that you use, by your inflection, by your descriptions, the tone of voice that you use, How sharp you are.
All these things.
The power of storytelling is, to me, in my opinion, is magical.
And you can tell this story and it's almost like you can look up into the rafters And there's like little trinkets of emotions up there, right?
So you got like fear and anger and elation and happiness and sorrow and all these different emotions.
And you can start a story and it's almost like you can reach up and you can pick sadness, right?
And release it on the crowd by the words that you use and the way that you tell the story.
And you work your way through the story.
And then you want to bring your audience back in, back around.
And you can grab the humor emotion.
And you can release it on your audience.
And you can create this almost seemingly like an emotional rollercoaster for your audience.
Just by the way that you speak the words and the way that you tell your story.
It's so powerful.
And when you're on a stage and you can see your audience and you can see the changes in their faces, you can see tears welling up in people's eyes, you can see anger on their face if you're telling a story that pisses people off.
You can see it happen.
People who sit in an audience, they don't know that they're showing their cards, so to speak.
Because all they think is, this person ain't looking at me.
But I think that they do.
At least the very few times I've been on a stage, I look at everybody.
Because you want to see the change.
You want to see those changes in their emotional response to the words that you say.
And it's so magical when it all works out.
And you have this plan in your head about how you're going to tell this story.
It's important.
And we as veterans have the ability to leave a legacy behind Of stories.
Where we've been, what we've done, how was it?
Not everything sucks.
Not everything sucks so bad that I don't ever want to do it again.
Some things do.
But there's a commitment made, there's sacrifice made.
And then by the time you get there, It's not just about you.
It's about the guy next to you and the guy next to you on the other side.
And so you can't just leave.
You can't just go away.
You can't just quit.
And all of those experiences, no matter who you are and what your military experience actually was, you got a story, man.
And these are the things that as veterans in this country, men and women who wore the uniform that said U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, and yes, even the U.S. Coast Guard.
You all have a story.
Okay.
Thank you.
Do not, please, I beg of you, do not one day leave this earth forever with your story in your chest and in your head.
The people that come after you deserve to hear this story.
Not because it's enthralling.
Not because it's a great story only.
But because this is the story.
This is the short story.
That's part of the big story.
That shaped who we are.
That shaped what this country is.
What it was.
Unfortunately what it is now.
And hopefully how great it will be in years to come.
Your story can teach a lot of people.
At some point, at some point in our existence, all these things that are happening around us are going to be memories.
At some point, the people that are walking this earth are going to have had enough And change is gonna come.
I urge you to be part of that change by contributing your story to the narrative of this ever-shaping country that we live in, that we fought for.
Our prosperity is Our way of life.
I would argue in some senses even our democracy.
And our sanity and the safety of everything we hold dear.
Depends on it.
Not just our stories, but it's part of the narrative that shapes all these things.
So, anyway, I got off in the weeds on that.
But I think it's extremely important.
It's extremely important.
And I guess I should take a second to just tell you, one of the things that I hope to do with one of my platforms is to start doing that.
Finding veterans who want to contribute their story and sit down with them and hear their story.
And record their story and catalog them.
Catalog them for the people that come after us.
The ones that are here that probably really need to hear it.
Especially our younger generation that has no idea what it's really like to struggle.
And of course everybody has their struggles.
Everybody has the things that really, really struggle.
They really give them trouble.
But none of us.
None of us are struggling like the folks did in the 20s, in the 30s.
None of us are struggling like the folks that were living in Europe during the war.
None of us are struggling like my grandmother did when she had to hide in a little hole in the floor under the kitchen in the house that she grew up in when the Nazis came through Poland and took people.
Her and her sisters.
We're not struggling like that.
We're struggling because we're too damn stupid to get out of our own way.
We're struggling because we're too effing ignorant to see what the actual problem is and then fix it and do something about it.
We're struggling because we have a very hard time being positive.
And that's where Mary comes in.
This beautiful soul.
This beautiful little old lady.
She broke me down as if she was a hundred feet tall.
Restored my faith.
The people out there actually give a shit.
We need to take a break.
Thank you.
When we come back, I'll finish telling you about my experience with Mary.
So stick with us.
Don't go away.
We'll be right back.
Our enemies have a plan.
Our enemy's leader has a plan.
We all have one common enemy.
His name is Satan and right now his minions are trying to run this country.
We're going to expose all the lies around the COVID bioweapons.
We're going to expose all the lies around our fake and stolen rig elections.
We're going to put the sexual depravity of our fake leaders on full display.
And then when the truth is known to the entire world, we are going to have extreme accountability.
We will be the plan.
We are never going to give up!
Hey folks, welcome back here to the second half of the show.
Excuse me while I adjust my microphone.
Welcome back here to the second half of the show.
I want to continue on the road down the road and tell you about Mary.
So, we left off with us standing in the parking lot having this conversation about my service.
About what I've done, where I've been, a little bit about where I'm at now.
And she said to me, I'm going to start on your gift, your blanket, and I'll get a hold of you.
And I thought...
Okay, great.
This is great.
I'll talk to you when I talk to you.
And I left there feeling energized.
I left there feeling as if there was just like this overpowering idea of positivity happening.
Just in my body at the time.
And so then you go on, man.
You go on with life as usual.
You go finish a project at home and you get up and you go to work in the morning and you do all these things.
And then one day she texts me.
It was a few weeks later.
And I just so happened to be out of town that week.
And I told her, well, I'm out of town.
I'll get back to you when I get home.
And we'll plan a time to meet up.
She wanted to present this gift to me.
So a couple more weeks go by.
You know, I got some medical things going on.
And, you know, life happens, you know.
Well, it was just the other day.
Mary and I were texting in the morning and she asked, you know, is today a good day?
I could stop by your house if you'd like.
What's your address?
And so I thought, well, yeah, today's a fine day.
We didn't have, my wife and I didn't really have anything going on in the morning.
And so come on by.
And she shows up.
And again, she is just this electric ball of tenacity.
Positivity.
And nothing's going to break her stride.
And so we're standing outside and we're chit-chatting and talking.
And we took a couple pictures.
And...
My wife invites her in, and we sit down around the table and just have a chat.
Well, before you know it, it's two hours later.
And a couple of the things that I learned about Mary during our conversation, and I hope that she doesn't get upset with me sharing a little bit about her story.
Mary went Her whole life up until the point where her father passed away, not knowing that he served in the military.
After her father passed away, her mother sat down her and her sisters and told them that their father had served in the military And that he landed on, It was either Utah or Omaha Beach.
And I was dumbfounded.
She went years.
I don't know how old she was when her father passed, but she went years.
Not knowing that her father was a veteran.
He never talked about it.
He never let their mother talk about it.
It seemed as if her mother was the only person that knew.
And she said something to me that was extremely interesting.
And she had said...
Once I found out that my dad was a veteran, a lot of things began to make sense about who he was.
About why he did the things that he did.
Why he said the things that he said.
Just the person that he was.
It all made sense.
And I thought to myself, I wonder what the reason is for a man to go almost his I wonder what the reason is for a man to go almost his whole life, assuming that her father was assuming that her father was
When he was in the military, you.
So he went most of his life Keeping this secret.
Not telling anybody that didn't already know.
Didn't tell his kids, which would lead me to believe that he didn't tell any of his friends, any of his co-workers, his neighbors, none of that.
That he served in the military and that he landed On one of these beaches that was for sure complete and utter chaos.
And the things that he must have seen when he was there.
And she told me a story, me and my wife, she told us a story about how her father would plan a family trip every year.
Where they would go, they would go to the lake.
They'd go up north to the lake, which in Minnesota is a pretty common thing for people to do in the summer with their families.
Go up to one of the many, many thousands of lakes that we have in Minnesota.
Find a cabin or camp or something and just hang out up north in the woods.
It's actually very peaceful if you've never done it.
And on the way up there, he would make stops.
He'd make stops to his old army buddies.
And he'd stop here and he'd stop there and spend a while visiting.
And she had said that every now and then, if I remember the story right, every now and then, that he'd come out of the house and get back in the that he'd come out of the house and get back in the car and it would seem as if he had And he would tell them that they were talking about old times as kids.
But now knowing what she knows about him, she knew better than that.
And so when we talk about the power of your story, that's a prime example of why it's important.
present.
Why is it important for your children and the people that are closest to you?
And maybe if you're not comfortable, maybe not your whole story.
You don't have to tell all of it.
But for her, it seems as if it would have really helped her to understand her dad when she was young, at a young age.
And so the conversation just went on.
For a while, we talked about so much stuff.
But let's rewind a little bit.
When we were outside talking and she handed me this bag...
And it had this blanket that she made for me.
And then inside there was a picture frame with almost like a scrapbooking page of military style emblems and things like that on it.
And when I opened it, she looked at me and she said, This frame I made as a reminder to you.
A reminder that you're a hero.
And see, that's a hard one.
That's a hard one for guys to swallow, right?
And we talked about that too.
I don't feel like a hero.
I know a lot of veterans, and I don't think that any of them would say that they're a hero.
But for people like Mary, maybe we are heroes.
And then I was asking myself, Do all the people that we see as heroes accept that label?
Or do they all fight it?
Because in my opinion, I signed up for a job.
I showed up to said job.
I performed my duties as assigned.
When my job was over, I got paid.
And then I went home.
That's how we see it.
I think.
I shouldn't speak for everybody.
That's how I see it.
And how do you go about...
Telling somebody, like little old Electric Mary, nah, you got the wrong guy.
I'm no hero.
Because when you talk to her and you look at her and you see in her eyes, she looks at you as if she really believes this.
And so maybe as veterans we have to just concede that for some people we are that.
Maybe we don't have to accept it all the time.
We certainly don't have to post the label on ourselves.
I will never introduce myself to anybody new and tell them that I'm some kind of hero.
But I'm also not going to tell some lady who is, in my opinion, genuinely thankful for the service of everybody who wore a uniform that she's genuinely thankful for the service of everybody who wore a uniform But I'm not going to tell you.
Because these are the types of people that we need in our communities.
And I'm not saying that we need a bunch of people to run around and start labeling others heroes.
But we need people in our communities that are positive.
That don't have time for bullshit and don't have time for negativity.
They don't have time for yelling at each other and cussing each other out and violence and all this crap that's going on.
Mary don't got time for none of that.
She's looking for veterans to talk to.
She's spending time with her family.
Mary lost her husband some years ago.
Mary lost her husband.
And she's also had to say goodbye to one of her children.
And I'm not going to go out and say that I believe Mary's had a tough life because I don't know enough about her.
We had an hour and a half or two hour long conversation, me and her and my wife.
But she's definitely had some times in her life that were a struggle.
She's had some times in her life that could have really defined who she is and taken her down.
And didn't get her.
She made the decision to go out and spread positivity.
And say thank you to the people that she believes are responsible for this proverbial blanket of freedom that we all rest comfortably under at night.
And it's refreshing.
I want to show you a picture of Mary.
Now, she didn't respond to...
I'd asked her if it's okay that I share our picture, and she didn't respond before we started recording today, so I blurred out her face.
But if she does get back to me and say it's okay that I share her identity in that way, I will re-share the picture with you because she is a beautiful soul, and I am extremely grateful to have met her.
But here's Mary right here.
This is on the front steps of my house.
This is the blanket that she made for me.
And it's amazing.
And she's decked out in her stars and stripes.
And she's just super happy.
Mary's a retired nurse.
She spent her whole career taking care of people.
It's amazing to me this day and age, and it shouldn't be.
It shouldn't be amazing to me.
But it's amazing to me that this day and age that people like Mary exist.
Because it'd be really easy for people like her to just sit back where she's comfortable, where she enjoys life, Be with her family.
Be with her kids.
Be with her grandkids.
And just chill out.
And enjoy her family.
And enjoy whatever it is that she loves to do.
It just so happens that what she loves to do...
Is this.
She loves it.
And so...
I guess what I would say about this is...
Maybe we all need to find...
Something.
Something that's positive that we can say that we love to do.
And maybe we don't even need to love it.
Maybe we just need to enjoy it enough to do it consistently.
Something to give back to the community in any way, shape, or form.
Do something.
Get involved.
There's more than enough opportunity in all of our communities to get involved with something.
Do you know that every single person I know That has a child in sports like baseball, for example.
Now that it's summer in baseball.
Every single person I know that has a child in baseball or softball if they have girls.
Every single person did not have a coach for their team.
No parents stepped up.
There's no, just nobody wants to do it.
There's an opportunity.
I mean, clean up the roadway, deliver meals, whatever it is.
We could probably list about 3,000 things.
Maybe, maybe for some of you, Your contribution to give back is to tell your story.
Maybe not all of it.
Maybe not all the details.
But just tell your story.
I think that we can find a place in this country today where we can start to build back A positive mindset.
And it doesn't help that every single time you log into your computer or you turn on your television or you unlock your cell phone There's another story of some kid being stolen or somebody getting killed or some celebrity or some politician or something doing something shady and getting caught.
There is never any stories on the front page news or a story on the nightly news about people like Mary.
Never.
It doesn't even have to be somebody who thinks veterans.
How about a little old man that walks dogs for elderly people because they can't walk their dogs, but they need their dogs, they love their dogs, they're attached to their dogs, that's their companions.
How about that?
I'd rather see a story about that for three minutes than about the police chase that ended in a cop being injured, the driver of the vehicle being shot and circling the drain, and then some kid dying because the asshole ran into her while she was playing on the sidewalk, drawing pictures with sidewalk chalk.
Because this guy was running from the police, lost control of the car.
That was last year or the year before.
You hear about it for a few minutes and then it goes away and off to the next negative story.
And then the next negative story.
And by the time they get through the news cycle, you're so pissed off.
You're so upset that you can't...
There's nothing positive.
And then you go through the rest of your day or the rest of your evening pissed.
Well, I don't know about you.
But being pissed off is getting a little old.
This is why, me personally, I do things like get on my Harley and go get lost in the back road somewhere.
My goal sometimes is to get lost and not understand how to get back or I gotta turn on my navigation to figure out how to get home.
And just go.
Turn here, turn there.
Go 25 miles, take a left.
Go another 40 miles, take a right, get gas, and then figure out how to get home.
I do not want to live out the rest of my days just hearing negative stuff.
And I know that even on this show, There's negativity around.
We talk about negative stuff.
We talk about heavy stuff.
We talk about deep stuff sometimes.
That's why, when given the opportunity, I really like to talk to you about beautiful souls like Mary.
And Mary, if you're watching this, if you see this show, which I hope you do, Thank you.
You are an amazing individual.
I am extremely grateful that you had the courage to continue to scream at me while I was building my defenses.
And then had the might to knock him down as if you were the hundred foot tall woman.
You, ma'am, were exactly what I needed that day.
And this blanket that you made for me will forever be a reminder of you.
It will forever be a reminder of your positivity, your tenacity, your smile.
You are the light.
So thank you for that.
Well, folks, we've run out of time today, so I want to thank you for joining us.
um And again, I want to thank Mary for her efforts.
I hope that you all have an amazing evening.
Take care of yourselves.
Take care of each other, of course.
And we will see you next week.
Have a great night.
Bye-bye.
There's a whole bunch of stories that have to be dug into, rethought, reconsidered, and in some cases completely discarded.
As modern Americans, we've been spoon-fed this dumbed-down, cartoonish, simplified version of history.
It's all fake.
It's all bullshit.
Everything that we have been taught is part of a self-serving narrative written by the people who will say and do anything to keep us on a leash.
Now, this version of history, some big-name corrupt families like the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds and their many associates are credited over and over and over again with propelling human development.
Throughout the late 18 and early 1900s, almost every major American city was burnt to the ground.
What if we really are quite literally living atop the ashes of an advanced civilization that's been hidden from us?
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