Issues And Ideas: News Commentary & Analysis With Chris DeBello May 24 2026

Join us for expert discussions and analysis on today's news, politics, space exploration, children's television and our members of the military who sacrificed their lives to protect freedom and liberty who we honor on Memorial Day.
 
(00:00) As Donald Trump and others want to award January 6 rioters taxpayer money what some of those rioters have done since Trump pardoned them are examined.

(04:47) Rainer Zitelmann discusses the past, present and future of space exploration, how private efforts have made achievements as well as innovations and how a clear path for capitalism will build the future for these private efforts.

(24:01) Joey Stewart, Director of the documentary What's The Story Wishbone, previews his film which tells the behind-the-scene story of this PBS show and explain why the TV show Wishbone is still loved by so many people of all ages.

(34:45) In recognition of Memorial Day the speech made by President Ronald Reagan on June 6, 1984 on the 40th anniversary of D-Day is presented with Reagan answering a question many have about those who serve and sacrifice all they have.

(47:37) Chris DeBello shares what the Bible teaches about those in the military who lost their lives in service and why they served.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello, welcome to Issues and Ideas. I'm Chris DeBello. An amazing thing took place this past week in Congress. Republicans found their spine. I'll explain. First, we had the $1 billion of taxpayer funding for Trump's ballroom. Not anymore. That bill was killed in the Senate with the help of votes by Senate Republicans. Oh, it doesn't stop there, though. Of course, you've been hearing about the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, which came about as part of a settlement between Trump and the IRS. Trump was suing the IRS for, I think it was like $20 billion, some astronomical fee like that. And as a settlement, he's going to accept one what's it not exactly $1.8 billion. That's a rounding off the number. The funds actual amount is $1,776,000,000. Symbolizing the year of the nation's founding as we approach the 250th anniversary. Trump's big on symbols. Did you know that ICE agents, they receive 47 days of training? Is that for some specific purpose? No, it's only because Trump is the 47th president. Another symbol, which uh that made me think of a George Carlin line. I leave symbols to the symbol-minded. Getting back to the anti-weaponization fund, otherwise known as the Trump Flush Fund. And this is only half of the deal, by the way. The other half is Trump, his businesses, his family receiving total immunity for past, present, and future tax information and returns. Which I don't know how long that's going to stand when the new administration comes in in 2028. But before we get to that point, this $1.8 billion Trump plus fund, that's on borrowed time as well, because at last count, 2510 Republicans have spoken out publicly against this. One of the main sparks for this fire was the fact that, according to Trump, uh acting Attorney General Todd Blanch, he's really auditioning for the job, and others, they refused to say that anyone involved with the January 6th riot would not receive a dime of the $1.8 billion Trump slush fund. Again, that being taxpayer money. Just to demonstrate just how toxic, how vile that refusal to exclude these people are, I'll tell you what, let's take January 6th out of the picture completely. It happened, but we're going to put it over there on the shelf. Let's take a look at some of those who were convicted of crimes that received pardons from Donald Trump, by the way, for what they did on January 6th and what they did in the following days. I want to do this because, like I said, the this whole $1.8 billion flux fund, it's going to go away. As soon as the Senate and the House come back, it's going to be you won't have to time it with a watch, a stopwatch, maybe. But what should stick is the fact that Donald Trump, Todd Blanche, and others refused to say that these people would not be eligible for any piece of that $1.8 billion. We have John Daniel Andres, assault of multiple people, including a police officer and violating a peace order in June of last year. We have Joshua Dillon Haynes, malicious bodily injury, strangling assault on a family member, destruction of property. There's Andrew Take soliciting a minor. David Daniel, possession of child pornography and sexual exploitation of a minor. Theodore Middendorf, sexual assault of a child, Kyle Travis Colton, receipt of child pornography, King Brian Lazo, aggravated sexual battery of a child under the age of 13. Emily Hernandez, DWI, causing death of another, Brian Bentonker Battisti, contempt of an anti-stalking order, Jared Lee Hawks, battering resisting an officer, Dylan Colby Harrington, first degree rape, Joseph Martin Pastucci, rape and sexual assault, and Edward Kelly, conspiracy to murder law enforcement officers. I have more here, but once this $1.8 billion fund goes away, my hope is the fact that Donald Trump, Tod Blanche, and others would not say that these people that I just mentioned would be exempt from getting a penny of the $1.8 billion from the so-called anti-weaponization fund. That we cannot forget about. Last week the long anticipated announcement finally arrived as it was announced that SpaceX would launch their public offering. It's going to be on June 12th, by the way. And while space exploration has always fascinated people as the Artemis Moon mission has reminded us, our first guest today with his soon-to-be-released book explores the capitalism that has flourished within private space exploration efforts, the roots of it, and what's needed for it to reach its full potential. His book, the latest of the 31 that he's authored, is New Space Capitalism: The Entrepreneurial Path to the Stars. His writings also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek Forbes, elsewhere. Rayners Edelman, how are you today, sir?

SPEAKER_03 5:28

I'm great. Here it's now um afternoon. I'm in Berlin, Germany. Now it's it's 12 p.m. here.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

And uh and through the wizardry of electronics, we're in the same place verbally at the same time, so that's always a wonderful thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

And uh, Mr. Zeitmann's website, we have at our homepage. I won't go through the spelling bee, but you'll find it at Rainerzeidelin.com. And again, we have the link over at our homepage. You think about, and you've done so much with your book, sir, with uh newspace capitalism, because you help us better understand the history, why a void was created, and what lies ahead, the potential and even the challenges and the risks, and what is in the process of coming becoming from an infancy industry into a one that could change a lot of things in a lot of ways. But uh starting with the history. You you look at NASA in the early 60s to the early 70s, they for all intents and purposes, they had a monopoly and they they lost it. Well, it was there a specific cause? Was it a collection of things going wrong in uh lack of response? What was the main catalyst for NASA to lose their way?

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Yes, first of all, uh of course the moon landing was a a huge success in 1969, but on the other hand, it costs $300 billion into in today in today's money, today's dollars. 400,000 employees were involved in 20,000 companies, so you can't do something like this for a long time. It was a mobilization, uh, like in war times. But in the end it was a success. But then what followed were 50 years of failure in government-led space travel. Uh, I write especially about the space shuttle, and this was a huge disaster. Uh they calculated with development cost of five billion, and for every flight it was like between five or ten billion. The reality was that in the end every flight cost one point five billion dollars. And uh it was an economic disaster. They calculated with um one hundred and thirty flights per year. In the end it was one hundred and thirty flights in thirty years. So and then they had two accidents, you know, four fourteen people died. And then they they had no no rocket to bring American astronauts from American soil to the International Space Station. In 2011, they uh I uh the the headline of this chapter is the end of the future, because the the United States were not able to bring their own astronauts to their own space station, and they had to um fly with uh very old Russian uh Soyuz rockets and the Russians uh of course they charged a lot of every flight was uh 10 or 20 million more than before because they had the monopoly. So this was a total disaster, and it was very, very expensive. And now let's go then from 2011, nine years later. 2020, the first time again uh the American rocket from American soil, American astronauts came to the International Space Station. But what was the difference? Now it was private. It was this Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk's SpaceX company, and a lot of things had changed. Uh uh because the space industry became private. This is what I mean with capitalism, and I give you only one number to show what what it means, really. Uh the the domination of capitalism. Uh last year we had worldwide 324 rocket launches. 165 out of them were from SpaceX. So it means if SpaceX were a country, they would be number one, far ahead of China with 88 flights. So you you see, and this is a private company. 165 successful flights, success rate 99%. This is, for example, 20 times more flights than Europe did last year. We had only eight. So this is space capitalism today, dominated by private companies. You see it also with uh with satellites from uh out of um uh from from in total 15,000 satellites, 10,000 are Starling satellites from SpaceX. But my book is not only about the history, but it's what what will happen tomorrow and what's the future of space capitalism.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

You also explain too, where economics brought about the downfall, so to speak, of NASA. Smart economics is what's compelling SpaceX and the other private industries. But even in light of that success, the uh the stats that you mentioned for SpaceX, you still have the status who are insisting, no, no, no, we need government oversight on this, we need the government to have a say in this. And that made me think back. I'm reading those uh th those insights from you about what uh the uh capital what the uh uh space private industry is facing. Uh made me think of a story that Jerry Lewis used to tell before he started his regular telephones. He went to then President John F. Kennedy to ask for $10 million from muscular dystrophy research. And he said, Yeah, if I can get you $20 million and probably give it to you before you get on the plane before you go home, but you don't want me to do that. And Jerry said, Why? Because if I give you government money, you'll your scientists will never ever be able to use it in the ways that they see best for the best results, because you'll be imprisoned by favored states, by committee chairs, and it would be totally ineffective and totally prohibitive. Same thing with with government money when it comes to space exploration. If it's coming from a source that wants control, the freedom of capitalism is not going to flourish.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

Absolutely. Yes, exactly. That that that's it. Uh for example, if you compare the the launch cost, launch cost means how much does it cost to bring one kilo to space. If you compare the space shuttle that I mentioned before with now Elon Musk's cost, he reduced it by 95%. 95%. One example, because he made rockets reusable. He used the same rocket now 34 times. And of course, uh, if it comes to cost, it's a it's a huge difference whether you can use a rocket only one time or whether you can use it 34 times. Imagine uh if you fly now maybe from from New York to LA, and for every flight you have to buy new aircraft. The ticket price would be, I don't know, $700,000 or something like this. And this is how how NASA works today. Even the last uh fly by to the moon with this Artemis II, it cost four billion dollars. It was the same. It's it's not not a difference what they did 50 years uh ago. And so this is the the reason is why why it is so expensive. You mentioned some points, but there there's there's something else. Uh the the cooperation between NASA and the private companies in the past, it was uh with so-called cost plus program. What does it mean? Uh the NASA themselves, of course, they were not able to build any rockets. Uh even in the past, they were built by private companies like Boeing or Rockwell. And then they had to declare, okay, what was your cost? Maybe our cost was three billion, and then you can add eight or ten percent profit, and this is your profit. So it means the more costs you have, the higher is your profit. And what happened? The cost became higher and higher. I spoke with uh one of the leading people who worked at this time in the uh space industry, and he he told me our best product by far was our overhead. Because uh if you have one million, uh one billion costs and you make one hundred million dollar, or if you have three billion and you make three hundred million, it's an incentive to increase the cost. And this is of course a totally crazy way of cooperation, and Musk did it does it uh in a very different way. He has fixed prices today, like he he charges them, he he doesn't sell them the NASA any rockets. He builds the rockets as he wanted, and he doesn't sell his rockets to NASA, but he sells the service. The same like UPS or FedEx. I deliver something from A to B, or he says, I bring satellites in orbit, or I bring your astronaut to the International Space Station, and then I charge you this amount of money. And so now Musk has every incentive to reduce costs, because if he reduces this cost, he makes small profit. And you see, so this was a total stupid way of cooperation in the past between uh NATO and private companies. And the only reason why they started to work together with SpaceX, because in the end, in 2011, what I mentioned, it was a total failure. It was like, you know, like you have it in the football, the the Hail Mary move uh to cooperate with SpaceX. They called it it was our mail uh Hail Mary move, because they were not able to bring their asteroids, and most politicians were against it, were very skeptical. Oh, this private companies, that's a bad idea, this will never work. But in the end, you see what happened. In the end, it was much better and much cheaper.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

We have to wrap up here with about a minute ago with uh Rainer Zeitlman and New Space Capitalism here in issues and ideas. Capitalists seek to do two things, innovate and make money. As you've pointed out, what needs to be what's one of the most important things that needs to be established for the money-making aspect for capitalists?

SPEAKER_03 16:31

This is a very good question. And the most important thing would be private property in space. Uh I I have to explain it. You have to have incentives, for example, this vision from Elon Musk. I go to Mars, I settle there, one million people. Great. I I really love this vision, and I think it it's it's possible to do it, but not without incentives, and of course not with taxpayers' money. I don't think that American citizens would be prepared to pay trillions and trillions to settle the Mars, for example. You have to find a way uh how to finance it. And here's my idea um it should be allowed to own private property, for example, on Mars, Moon, on asteroids. Today we have this situation. We have the so-called outer space treaty from 1967. And according to Article 2 of this space treaty, uh nations, it's it's uh it's uh for nations it's prohibited to own claimers uh uh ownership over celestial bodies. So it's not allowed for nations to claim ownership of uh celestial bodies. And this is not a bad idea if nations are not uh um uh allowed to do it. But how is it with private companies? And this is the problem. There's nothing in the contract because at this time, 1967, no one could imagine that there are private people like today, Il Mascot, Chef Bezos, who can do it. They thought only about the government. But I think this is the only way to finance it. For example, let's let's let's give you an uh example. Uh um uh I in my book I I asked the question: who should have the right to acquire property in space, like land on the moon or Mars? And the answer is straightforward. Those who have the financial means to reach, develop, and use it and to take the risk. Uh for example, if SpaceX succeeds reaching Mars and begins building permanent settlements, as Elon Musk has it now in his IPO prospectus for the for the IPO, then ownership of land should initially go to the company, uh, not of the entire planet, of course, but of a manageable area perhaps the size of Singapore. Given that Mars has a surface area roughly 200,000 times larger than Singapore, this would amount to just uh a very small fraction of the planet, enough to build multiple settlements without excluding uh others. And such a framework would also make financing possible. SpaceX, for example, could place martial land into a real estate investment trust and then allow market forces to determine its value. Anyone could be a shareholder, you, I, and everyone. And what is a little bit frustrating? Uh yesterday I read this new perspective from SpaceX, and it's 400 pages. Uh and and to say the channels, uh the the perspective is very good when it describes SpaceX's unique market position, and it's also good when it comes to risks. But one but I would have wished for, however, that in more that uh that uh is in more detail regarding the long-term opportunities where the prospectus remains too marked. So how to earn money in space, because money makes the world go round. And without the incentives that you have an opportunity to make money. And you know this uh how it is today that the Mars and Moon and asteroids belong to no one and there is no private property, this is space socialism. This is really space socialism that you have no private property. This is like North Korea, and socialism never worked in the history. In the last hundred years, there were more than 20 experiments with socialism all over the world, and they failed without any exception. And I don't understand why should something that never worked on Earth, in no country without exception, why should it work on Mars or on the moon? It's it's crazy. Of course, you need private property, private ownership. And I think uh SpaceX should uh say more about this, because some people are capitalist. They they read the prospectus and they ask now, yes, it's uh it sounds good, everything, but to go to Mars, it costs a lot of money, but how to make money? And and I think it is it is possible not only with this, there are fields like asteroid mining, I have in my book a lot about it, or space tourism, I have a lot in my book about it, or then real estate. But about all these things, there are only very few sentences from 400 pages, maybe it's half page. Uh and and so I I think it could be much more convincing if uh uh I I I think uh definitely Il Mask should read my book. And then for his next perspective because uh he he could add he should add something.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Well I think as he comes out further and further, we closer we get to the IPO release date, too, he's going to be asked these questions about okay, fine, we know what the business structure is, what is you're looking forward going to be involved with? How how how are you going to generate revenue, make money? What are your plans? What are your what are you looking at in your priorities? So that I I think the the perspectives was just to, because they want to do this on a fast timeline, and they wanted to do as much as they could without overloading people. But I think what you're discussing and want to f have him focus on too, that'll come about sooner versus later. What Rayner is saying about private ownership of space entities, it's not unusual if you look at American history. What's happened as America moved further? West, homesteading acts, homesteading laws, homesteading opportunities, exact same concept, just greatly expanded with what Rayner writes about in New Space Capitalism, The Entrepreneurial Path to the Stars, a fascinating book of space travel and exploration history, the present, the middle of what created the present, as well as what lies ahead should things go right. And there were points of concern as well of what could be preventative of true, genuine capitalism having its full opportunity in this whole new realm. Find out more about Rayner's work at Raynersidleman.com. Rayner, it it for someone who is a space fanatic as I am, you gave me so much to feed off of. And for those who want to learn, and that's always hope my hope that some way learns when they read, your book is definitely a go-to in what lies ahead. Thanks so much for being here today.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

Thanks a lot. I hope everyone can order it now on Amazon News Space Capitalism. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

If you're listening to us via your favorite podcast platform, make sure you follow and subscribe. The rule is that uh for a TV show to be remembered and be considered uh a success needs to have a lengthy run. Five years, that'll usually get you into that zone. And that's the rule. As we all know very well, there is an exception to every rule. Thirty years ago, a show that was designed for kids, debuted on public television, lasted for two seasons, total of fifty episodes, yet it's a show many remembers still turn to on YouTube elsewhere for a whole bunch of feel-good reasons. Not just kids either, by the way. I'm talking about the show Wishbone. Documentary is premiering this coming week on public television stations, which takes a look back at this very special, rather unique series. Documentary is What's the Story Wishbone? And here with a preview is the director, Joey Stewart. Thanks for being here today, Joey.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Thanks for having me. Pleasure talking to you.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

And website, we have the link at the homepage to What's the Storywishbone.com. You can watch the trailer, check it out, maybe take you back. Well, no, I was gonna say nostalgia, Joey, but in a way, and I even referred to it in the in the introduction. Wishbone, as far as people, a lot of people are concerned, never went away. There any place they could find it, they could watch it, the Internet Archive, YouTube. People still want this show.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Well, that's exactly why we made the documentary, you know, 30-year anniversary uh in October coming up our last year, and you know, over the years, it's the main thing that when I tell people I worked on in my life that they want to talk to me about, no matter where I go. When they realize I worked on a Witchphone, that's all they want to know about. So um we still kept in touch with the casting crew for the last 30 years, so we realized uh why not tell our story and and give the fans all the answers to these questions they've been asking all these years.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

I gave the snap before two seasons, a total of 50 episodes, and in in the world of television, that's that's a blip on the radar screen. Why why has this show hooked into so many people?

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Well, I think when you look back on it, it's a show that made learning fun without kids realizing it was uh teaching them the the love of literature. Um it changed their lives. Uh people I talk to and and they they become scholars, librarians, it just changed the course of their life, and you know, that's something that as a filmmaker, you don't get to work on something like that that often. You go in, you do a movie, you do a show, and that's two hours of entertainment, and they turn the TV off or they leave the theater, and that's the end of it. But Wi-Fi's a whole different story, so that's the story we're telling.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Also, an interesting fact, too, it was like I said, designed for kids, and parents would sit down with the kids to watch it with them, but then they were watching it for themselves. They they were getting into the show.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Well, as a kid, when you watch something or read something, you you imagine yourself as that lead character. And by having a dog as the lead character, I think that just made it more obvious to them and apparent that they could imagine themselves as the lead character, and and that's what they that's what they had got attached to.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

We gotta talk about the dog too. Soccer, I mean Wishbone is the character name, but uh soccer was the actual name of uh of the of the terrier. And this was before CGI or AI, maybe in its infancy of CGI back then. But talk about soccer because when it comes to working with animals, could you have had any greater gift than soccer?

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Soccer was was the key to making that show work. Um that's all there is to it. We had a talented casting crew, but if we didn't have soccer, we wouldn't have been able to make that show. And I was spoiled back then. I was real young in my career, and I didn't realize what we had at the time until later. Um, soccer was able to do three, four, five moves all in one shot. We wouldn't have to cut and break it up into little tiny things. He really was an amazing dog that made that show what it was.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Why why did the show win? I mean, I I was looking at the cost. It was a half a million dollars per show, which that's a fairly sizable budget for a public television show. And I I can imagine the the work it took just to do a 30-minute episode. I mean, thank God Soccer was the the the cooperative star that he was, but was it just uh the heavy load of a show like this, or what were the reasons why the run was so short?

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Well, like you said, it was the most expensive kid show ever made, as far as as my recollection is. I don't think it's ever been done since. Um, but you know, you're trying to turn one classic novel after another every week into a TV show. So on Monday you get a script, you have to prep it while another one is shooting, and by the end of that week you have to shoot that next episode. So you're building a whole new world every week. Those are sets, that's a brand new task, that's costumes, period, costumes, period, set, uh brand new action every every week. It was an enormous undertaking. We had about 350 cast and crew rotating throughout that uh two-year span. So it was an enormous task, and you know, at the time, I just don't think uh with with it becoming a show that was aired every day rather than every week. I just don't think they had the time to give it its run and and and be able to make it last longer. But um you know, like you said, it was an expensive kid show, expensive show to make, and it just is a it's a it's a show that ran its course and that's it.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

And and and planted quite the legacy too. We're talking with Joey Stewart, director of the released coming up this week documentary about the TV show Wishbone, what's the story wishbone? You can find out more, check out the trailer at what's the stor what's the storywishbone.com, and you were listening to Wissues and Ideas. What what was it that you wanted to do? I mean, in the documentary you're going to tell the history of the story. How deep did you want to go? How much did you want people to come further in? And is this a a what's a good word? Fishing expedition as to whether or not f uh Wishbone could make a return in the present day.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Well, that's a big that's a big question. Um I the I would hope that Wishbone could make a return in the present day. I mean, it you can uh the ability to tell a good story will never go away, and bridging that gap of learning and fun for kids would is timeless. So I think it's uh something can be done in literature there's there's an ultimate amount of literature out there. The classic novels we could have kept reading for years and years, so I think there's an opportunity to do it. Um I would hope that the live action realm would be the way to do it and not animation or CDI. But the big thing is can you find another soccer? Can you find another dog that can pull that off?

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Yeah, that's the trick. That's the trick.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Fingers crossed.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

During the show, I mean, what kind of reactions were you getting? Did you guys did you guys know what you had, or did that develop over time as far as the reactions?

SPEAKER_01 31:13

We were in a bubble. We were in a bubble just trying to knock out 40 episodes. You know, we thought we were gonna do five episodes and that was gonna be it. Um I I kind of got sidetracked by repeating your question.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

Did you did you guys really know what you had and how it was being received?

SPEAKER_01 31:41

We didn't until about a year in. And um what happened was is the creator Rick Duffel Duffield sent Larry the voice of Wishland and soccer on a media tour, just thinking that would be a fun thing for fans to enjoy. And Larry started reporting back. We didn't have email and text at the time, of course, and social media. He started reporting back on the huge crowds that were coming up to see him. You know, the Mall of America's had thousands and thousands of people. Um, I think it beat their record for the time. So he would report back and say, guys, I think we broke the demographic. We've got a thousand kids in line to see a little dog dressed in a costume, and it's old, it's uh people in their 70s, it's college kids, it's young kids. That's when it started to reel dawn on us that uh we had something special and something really popular.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

I mean, you had a dog that had his own security detail. That's how big a guy I heard.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Yeah, it's a security detail of about one, though, I will admit. Now, as far as soccer did get to fly first class, so that was good. Well, uh the voice of Wishbone was stuck back in coach.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

And this is not just the testimony to soccer the dog. I mean, this you you brought to light everyone who was involved with this production. I think that is that is always so important because you you want to share the success and you want people to understand the work that went into that success. So you really, I think, approach this multiple ways and present it in every way that the viewer needs to, if they're not enthralled with Wishbone already, are going to go hunting for every episode they can get to to their eyeballs on. You just help people, I think, with this documentary, you're gonna help people remember how unique, how special, and how much fun education can be through what Wishbone brought them into.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

That is exactly right. That's the goal. And I will tell you, making this documentary was uh was a was a joy, but day in and day out, there were parts of me that were sad because you had three hundred and fifty people Casting Cruise story to tell, and I really went in there thinking this was gonna be a twelve hour mini series and tell everybody's story and all kinds of threads and arts. But when you get into editorial and the documentary is shaping, it starts to tell you what it's gonna be. And that's what it came to be, the documentary you've seen, and I think it's gonna provide the answers to the questions that the fans have wanted all these years.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

And it's always good to go back when the going back is for fun things that take you into just happier times. And I think we all look for that and to re be reminded how we can learn and have fun in learning. That's also one of the lessons as well. It airs public television stations May 27th through June 9th. It'll be available for rent or purchase on June 10th and after on all major digital platforms. Website What's the StoryWishbone.com. We've been joined by the documentary director, Joey Stewart. Joey, thanks for taking us back to some special times, a special dog, a special show, and some very important work by you and so many others. Thanks for being here today.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Pleasure speaking with you.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

Monday being Memorial Day, here's President Ronald Reagan speaking in Normandy, France on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, which was June 6th, 1984, providing an answer to the question, why?

SPEAKER_00 34:59

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy, the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air was soft but 40 years ago at this moment. The air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these cheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here, and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance. The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers at the edge of the cliffs, shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one ranger fell, another would take its place. When one rope was cut, a ranger would grab another and begin its climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the rangers pulled themselves over the top. And in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred-five came here. After two days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms. Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there. These are the boys of Puenteho. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. And these are the heroes who helped end a war. Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You were men who in your, quote, lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor. I think I know what you may be thinking right now. Thinking we were just part of a bigger effort, everyone was brave that day. Well, everyone was. Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge waiting desperately for help. Suddenly they heard the sound of bagpipes. And some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren't. They looked up and saw Bill Millen with his bagpipes leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him. Lord Lovett was with him, Lord Lovett of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, sorry, I'm a few minutes late. As if he'd been delayed by a traffic jam. When in truth he'd just come from the bloody fighting on a stored beach which he and his men had just taken. There was the impossible valor of the Poles, who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold. And the unsurpassed courage of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back. All of these men were part of a roll call of honor, with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore. The Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland's 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England's Armored Divisions, the Forces of Free France, the Coast Guard's Matchbox Fleet, and you, the American Rangers. Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs. Some of you were hardly more than boys with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? Well, what impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love. The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge, and pray God we have not lost it. That there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer. And so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt. You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you. The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know, in fact, that in Georgia, they were filling the churches at 4 a.m. In Kansas, they were kneeling on their porches and praying. And in Philadelphia, they were ringing the liberty bell. Something else helped the men of D-Day. The rock-hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here, that God was an ally in this great cause. And so the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer, he told them, do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask his blessing in what we are about to do. Also that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua, I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. These are the things that impelled them. These are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies. When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together. There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part creating the Marshall Plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The Marshall Plan led to the Atlantic Alliance, a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace. In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happier planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. The Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave. When peace came. They're still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding almost 40 years after the war. Because of this, Allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as 40 years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose: to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest. We in America have learned bitter lessons from two world wars. It is better to be here ready to protect the peace than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent. But we try always to be prepared for peace, prepared to deter aggression, prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms, and yes, prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union. So together we can listen, lessen the risks of war now and forever. It's fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II. Twenty million perished. A terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action. We will pray forever that someday that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it. We're bound today by what bound us 40 years ago. The same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We're bound by reality. The strength of America's allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you then. We're with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny. Here in this place, where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value, and born by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died. Thank you very much, and God bless you all.

SPEAKER_02 47:37

Monday, as I mentioned, is Memorial Day. Quite a few people confuse Memorial Day with Veterans Day, which is of course in November. Veterans Day is when we honor and celebrate all of our veterans, those who are still with us, those who are not. Memorial Day is the time when we honor our veterans who lost their lives in battle or passed away after their time of service. At least that's the hope. While there will be many ceremonies across our country, too many will have a very small number attending them. I don't know whether this is a sign of some degree of disconnect on the part of those who never attend. Does make me think back to the Vietnam War POWMI bracelet I used to wear. You remember those, right? It would have the name, rank, serial number of a member of the military who was lost in that long war and whose remains hadn't been recovered. I gave up counting the number of times people would ask if I was wearing a medaler bracelet, and was there anything they needed to know about my health? I didn't consider those many times to be annoying, I saw them as reasons to teach people the meaning of the bracelet, and live up to what's written in first Peter chapter four, verse ten. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. All throughout our history, the men and women of the US military who gave up their lives in service, they were not suckers, they were not losers, they didn't serve seeking what was in it for them. The one word that best describes the men and women that we honor on this and every memorial day is sacrifice. These heroes truly lived the words of Jesus, who declares in Mark chapter ten, verse forty five, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And as I said, they weren't serving in search of something for themselves. They served in a way that placed these words of Jesus spoken in John chapter fifteen, verse thirteen, in front of everyone. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. We've recently seen the word of God being weaponized by some in military leadership. They seek to start fires with our Lord and Savior's word. Now I obviously can't speak for you, but I actually, even if just for a moment, pity them and hope they repent, because if they don't, their day of judgment will not be the one that they're expecting. This is the warning Jesus gives them in Revelation chapter twenty two verses eighteen and nineteen. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book, of this prophecy God shall take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. Paul adds to this morning in Galatians chapter one verse eight, but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Our men and women of the military have the valuable characteristics of courage, drive, determination, dedication engraved into them. Romans chapter five verses three through five reveals how these traits all come from God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us. And it's only through faith that those gifts are fully manifested, and this is how James chapter one verses two through four explains this. My brethren count at all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Once again I want to say that the men and women who we honor on Memorial Day did not serve seeking glory for themselves. They were living and are eternal examples of what we're told in Philippians chapter two verses three and four. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. These men and women sacrifice to save, restore, and preserve freedom for others, their call to this duty, is found in Psalm chapter eighty-two, verses three and four. Defend the poor and the fatherless, do justice to the afflicted and needy, deliver the poor and needy, free them from the hand of the wicked. Jesus in Matthew chapter twenty five tells a parable about a man giving three servants five, two, and one talents, that was ancient currency, respectively. The man went on a journey when he returned, and he asked each servant what they did with the talents that he gave to them. The one who was given five grew that into ten, one who was given two turned that into four talents, third who was given one talent did nothing. So he still had only one talent. What the man said to the first two servants, I believe we all need to say aloud to the spirits of those who sacrificed on the battlefield, reading from Matthew chapter twenty-five, verse twenty-one, his Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, you are faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things, enter into the joy of your Lord.