Latest / Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News / Hay convoys rush to save Nebraska ranchers after devastating wildfires

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Hay convoys rush to save Nebraska ranchers after devastating wildfires · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:06
  You're listening to The Hidden Lightness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
• 0:09
  I'm your host, Jimmy Hinton.
• 0:11
  In March, there was the biggest wildfires that ever hit Nebraska.
• 0:18
  Nearly 900,000 plus acres across western Nebraska destroyed property, displacing over 35,000 cattle, destroying critical pasture lands, fencing, hay, uh hay stocks, barns full of hay, leaving it impossible for people to feed their animals and to keep them alive.
• 0:44
  And we're talking a massive amount of money.
• 0:48
  The a massive amount of livestock, uh, people's livelihoods.
• 0:53
  Well, I say impossible, but and that would be true if this were in other countries, but in America, we made the impossible possible.
• 1:07
  People came together all across the United States, and this is a heartwarming story that it caught my attention.
• 1:13
  I you know, and here's the thing.
• 1:19
  This was a massive colossal wildfire.
• 1:26
  And you don't hear about it any.
• 1:27
  I I literally have not seen this anywhere on the news until just now.
• 1:32
  And I happened to be uh actually, I admit, I was doom scrolling, I was doom scrolling on on Facebook, and I came across a uh a very encouraging story that talked about people coming together across the United States and donating hundreds of thousands of tons of hay.
• 1:55
  Now, I used to work on a hay farm, and I know what it takes to gather hay.
• 2:01
  Uh, it is a hard job.
• 2:05
  And let me tell you, hay is precious, and especially right now with fuel costs the way that it is.
• 2:11
  Uh, diesel fuel is over six dollars a gallon.
• 2:16
  And you want to talk about very difficult for farmers because their entire livelihood really comes down to one thing the cost of diesel.
• 2:28
  The cost of diesel can make or break a farm.
• 2:33
  I say one thing, you know, obviously there are a lot of other factors, but diesel fuel, the cost of diesel fuel is the one of the highest costs facing farmers across America right now.
• 2:46
  And at a time with nearly all-time high fuel, farmers are really struggling.
• 2:53
  And people don't realize this.
• 2:55
  Uh you know, these diesel tractors run everything, every implement from raking, uh, raking hay to uh to plowing to disking to uh to sowing seeds, uh, everything in harvest, everything, everything runs off of diesel fuel shipping the the grain from one place to another.
• 3:22
  Uh everything runs off of diesel fuel on farms.
• 3:27
  And man, it is just farmers are in a really, really difficult position, uh, more so than they have been in a long, long time.
• 3:36
  And it's it's such a big challenge.
• 3:40
  And this is the thing.
• 3:41
  I talk about this so often.
• 3:43
  It's it's just it's true 100% of the time.
• 3:47
  Even in the midst of really difficult times, really hard times when other people are struggling.
• 3:54
  That does not limit their giving.
• 3:59
  People are giving just because they're giving.
• 4:03
  And now we have diesel at nearly an all-time high.
• 4:08
  We have farmers really struggling.
• 4:11
  We have price fluctuations in in every market known to man, making it really difficult for farmers to set an actual real price.
• 4:22
  You know, everything's so fluid right now.
• 4:25
  Uh the Fed the Fed just decided not to lower the the interest rates again.
• 4:32
  They're holding them high because inflation has spiked back up again because of the war.
• 4:38
  It's hands down, it's because of the war.
• 4:41
  So people are struggling.
• 4:43
  I they're really, really struggling.
• 4:45
  And uh, if you don't think this is a big expense, think of think of the amount of gallons that a farmer uses in a day, just an average farmer.
• 4:54
  I mean, we're talking gallons and gallons and gallons of fuel.
• 4:59
  Think about when you're plowing fields.
• 5:02
  Um, I mean, you you're running that diesel engine.
• 5:06
  I used to do it.
• 5:06
  It's you run the diesel engine wide open or three quarters, you know, you're at three quarters to to full throttle, and there's just smoke pouring out of the stack because that disc is in the ground, and think of all the thousands and thousands of pounds of resistance, and you're pulling the weight of that disc, you're it's it's down into the ground 12, 18 inches, it's pulling all that dirt.
• 5:35
  You are burning a mountain of fuel.
• 5:39
  And my goodness, it is it is costing farmers dearly.
• 5:45
  It is costing farmers dearly.
• 5:48
  And a lot of farmers are not going to make it this year.
• 5:52
  That's just that's a fact.
• 5:54
  So when I saw this story and I saw the level to which people are giving, it absolutely, I mean, it broke my heart first of all, but but most of all, it warmed my heart to know that people are doing this for complete strangers.
• 6:13
  They're giving, they're gifting hay.
• 6:20
  This is how they make it.
• 6:23
  They make it through the season by being able to sell their hay.
• 6:28
  Every single bale that they donate, every bale of hay that they donate is a bale that they cannot sell that cost them a lot of money to produce.
• 6:39
  So it's so cool.
• 6:41
  And the story I saw, it was um, it was the the show with Steve Hartman and Steve Hartman is fantastic.
• 6:48
  Uh his show is absolutely phenomenal.
• 6:52
  But he was he was highlighting these farmers in particular, it was a farmer where he and his wife have lost everything.
• 7:00
  Everything.
• 7:00
  Everything in a matter of minutes.
• 7:00
  Everything in a matter of minutes, everything was gone.
• 7:02
  Everything was gone.
• 7:05
  Mike and Kayla Wentz were the people featured on On the Road with Steve Hartman.
• 7:05
  Mike and Kayla Wentz were the people featured on On the Road with Steve Hartman, and they had an 11 or have an 11,000 acre farm.
• 7:11
  And they had an 11 or have an 11,000 acre farm.
• 7:17
  And when asked how much how much of that burned during the wildfires, Mike Wentz said, all of it.
• 7:17
  And when asked how much how much of that burned during the wildfires, Mike Wentz said all of it in a matter of two hours, all
• 7:27
  In a matter of two hours, all 11,000 acres were gone.
• 7:32
  Everything.
• 7:33
  And this really is a modern job story.
• 7:36
  It really is.
• 7:38
  Losing everything in a matter of hours, two hours.
• 7:42
  I mean, you could say losing everything in a matter of minutes.
• 7:46
  And uh, but he said the story didn't stop there.
• 7:49
  They were obviously in jeopardy of losing everything.
• 7:54
  They were about to lose the entire farm.
• 7:58
  And he said, all of a sudden, people started uh calling him and saying, hey, where do you want us to put the hay?
• 8:05
  And he's like, what are you talking about?
• 8:07
  They're like, oh, we we're drivers uh and we're volunteering our time, and people donated hay anonymously.
• 8:17
  The uh the Winces have gotten over $80,000 worth of hay, all free.
• 8:26
  All delivered completely for free by donors who most of whom want to remain anonymous.
• 8:33
  But the interesting thing is he's not alone.
• 8:36
  This is happening all across Western Nebraska.
• 8:39
  In fact, there's a woman featured on the show on the show, and I forget what her name is.
• 8:44
  Um, but she said that she receives 200 callers every single day, and they're delivering convoys of 20 plus trucks loaded with hay, coming from all across America, as far as far away as South Carolina.
• 9:01
  And she said that she keeps getting phone calls over and over and over every single day.
• 9:05
  She's gotten phone calls from across America of people saying, we want to donate hay, we want to donate, we want to donate a truckload or two truckloads.
• 9:13
  I I can't begin to tell you how phenomenal this is, how miraculous this is.
• 10:00
  We just know that they've been happening since the beginning of time.
• 10:04
  Uh, you know, like that's kind of an honest answer.
• 10:09
  Um, but I like when people focus on the blessings that come out of disaster.
• 10:17
  I mean, I I took a vacation and got to go to Chimney Rock, North Carolina just a few weeks ago.
• 10:23
  And seeing how this town still is coming together.
• 10:27
  And uh, I mean, there's a lot of damage still, a lot.
• 10:30
  But seeing how there's evidence of people who've come together from all across the nation and have helped these people rebuild an entire town, it's it's really incredible.
• 10:41
  And I was in awe.
• 10:42
  I mean, I kept stopping and taking pictures.
• 10:44
  I would pull over and I mean, I just took tons and tons of pictures, and I I just I was I was struck with all.
• 10:53
  I think it's marvelous.
• 10:54
  I think it's fantastic that a natural disaster that's so horrific can show the American spirit so brilliantly that there's evidence all around us that no matter what the economy's doing, no no matter, I mean, we could be in the heart of a recession or even a depression, and that would not slow down the heart that people have to give.
• 11:23
  It wouldn't slow it down.
• 11:25
  In fact, I would argue pretty consistently that the harder times are, the harder it is for people, the more giving they are.
• 11:37
  And I I think we've seen this evidenced over and over and over again.
• 11:41
  And right now, for farmers in America, it's it's not easy.
• 11:45
  It is not easy for farmers.
• 11:48
  And look at how they're pulling together.
• 11:50
  There, uh, you know, it really is a brotherhood.
• 11:54
  It's a brotherhood, sisterhood.
• 11:56
  These farmers coming together and saying, you know what?
• 11:59
  Like, we're not gonna watch our fellow farmers fail.
• 12:02
  It's not gonna happen on our watch.
• 12:05
  If these people, these farmers in in West Nebraska, I promise, if hell if help didn't come immediately, they uh they would be folding.
• 12:16
  These farmers would be folding.
• 12:18
  And a lot of these are generational uh farms.
• 12:21
  I mean, they've been around for over a hundred years.
• 12:26
  And the other American farmers are staying not on our watch.
• 12:33
  Now, I don't know what if any kind of federal aid that they've gotten.
• 12:39
  Well, I did just pull up very quickly, just kind of a snapshot.
• 12:43
  It does look like there is different federal aid that's available, federal and state, uh, but it's uh amounts aren't really given.
• 12:52
  Uh, I'm just kind of looking through this real briefly.
• 12:54
  So there is federal aid there, but uh, we all know how that goes.
• 12:58
  It's it's always slow going, and they're always strings attached, and uh it's always I I argue this every time.
• 13:05
  It's always better if the American people just help each other out.
• 13:09
  It's so much more efficient.
• 13:10
  I mean, look at this.
• 13:11
  You have convoys of trucks coming together, and these are all volunteers.
• 13:17
  The drivers, the CDL drivers of these tractor trailers, they're all volunteers, every one of them.
• 13:24
  And it's really hard to get volunteers.
• 13:26
  That's one of the things.
• 13:28
  I I was uh reading another interview with a truck driver, and he said, Yeah, they called me up and they were like, hey, uh, so you have your CDL, right?
• 13:35
  He said, Yeah.
• 13:36
  They said, Do you have time available to volunteer to drive in some of these convoys to Nebraska?
• 13:42
  We have hay to deliver.
• 13:43
  He's like, Sign me up.
• 13:45
  And uh, he said, it's just so cool to be a part of these convoys.
• 13:49
  And uh the cool thing is these convoys coming through has school kids that come out and they cheer them on.
• 13:56
  When they know the convoys come and they hear that the convoys coming through towns, all these kids will rush outside and they cheer the trucks on as they go by.
• 14:00
  All these kids will rush outside and they cheer the trucks on as they go by.
• 14:04
  And uh man, it's just what a picture of who we are as America.
• 14:04
  And uh man, it's just what a picture of who we are as America.
• 14:11
  You know, uh it's it's so heartwarming to know that when people struggle, they're always complete strangers willing to give their time and their money and their resources, always.
• 14:11
  You know, uh it's it's so heartwarming to know that when people struggle, they're always complete strangers willing to to give their time and their money and their resources, always.
• 14:26
  And we don't hear these stories on the news.
• 14:26
  And we don't hear these stories on the news.
• 14:28
  It breaks my heart.
• 14:29
  It breaks my heart.
• 14:30
  I mean, it's so sad to me that these stories don't make national news.
• 14:36
  I I haven't found any national news stories on this, except for Steve Hartman on the road with Steve Hartman.
• 14:44
  But other than that, I haven't seen any national news media cover this.
• 14:50
  It's always the outrage.
• 14:51
  They cover the outrage.
• 14:52
  They cover the there's pain at the pump, right?
• 14:55
  How many of those stories are covered?
• 14:57
  We all know that there's pain at the pump.
• 14:59
  We're we're not stupid.
• 15:02
  All of us know that when we go to fill our cars up, or especially pickup trucks, or especially especially your tractor trailers, your semi-trucks, or your farm tractors.
• 15:15
  We all know that there's pain at the pump.
• 15:18
  We don't need the media to tell us that.
• 15:21
  But yet there are obsessant stories out there.
• 15:24
  Pain at the pump.
• 15:25
  How much longer will the pain at the pump last?
• 15:29
  Well, instead of focusing on the pain at the pump, why don't we talk about the relief in the hayfields?
• 15:36
  Relief on the ranches.
• 15:39
  You know, this to me is the big story.
• 15:42
  It's that Americans are coming together, and our heart beats as one.
• 15:49
  And by the way, to my knowledge, none of the people who are donating hay are asking now what political party that do these people belong to.
• 16:01
  You know why?
• 16:02
  Because in the end, the vast majority of Americans don't care.
• 16:08
  It's really not that important to us.
• 16:10
  What political party people belong to.
• 16:13
  And that's what's lived out here in this nation.
• 16:17
  You know, but we always get the stories.
• 16:19
  It's like, oh, the you know, the the people on the right, uh, they're they're they're angry.
• 16:27
  People on the left, they're angry.
• 16:30
  That that to me is not the story.
• 16:33
  The story is the vast majority of Americans are very, very giving.
• 16:39
  Incredible people.
• 16:41
  Uh, we are so blessed to live in this great nation.
• 16:45
  And this story just proves it over and over again.
• 16:48
  Well, we are coming up on a break here.
• 16:51
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• 18:24
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• 18:28
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• 19:42
  Two additional fires.
• 19:44
  The road 203, which burned about 36,000 acres, and the Anderson Bridge fire, which burned approximately 17,000 acres, brought the combined statewide total to more than 824,000 acres as of late March.
• 20:06
  And we know since then it's it's more like 900 plus thousand acres.
• 20:13
  They're in a severe state of drought.
• 20:16
  Uh, it's really, really challenging.
• 20:18
  And this is something that is not talked about enough out west, uh, in Nevada, even uh the Hoover Dam is in jeopardy of not being able to produce enough electricity for California, Nevada, Arizona.
• 20:37
  Uh, it produces a massive amount of of um electricity.
• 20:44
  Now, I was there last year.
• 20:47
  We actually went to the Hoover Dam as part of our vacation, and uh it's such a cool place.
• 20:52
  And I I highly recommend if you ever get the time, even if you do what we did, we didn't get a tour or anything.
• 20:58
  We just uh walked across the bridge or the uh the dam, rather, and uh it's just it's really cool.
• 21:00
  The bridge or the uh the dam, rather, and uh it's just it's really cool.
• 21:05
  We ate our lunch overlooking the Hoover Dam and kind of messed around, played around, and it's it's really cool.
• 21:05
  We ate our lunch overlooking the Hoover Dam and kind of messed around, played around, and it's it's really cool.
• 21:11
  It's a lot of fun.
• 21:11
  It's a lot of fun.
• 21:12
  I I highly recommend it, but when you look, you can see how low the water level is.
• 21:12
  I I highly recommend it, but when you look, you can see how low the water level is.
• 21:18
  It it was astounding to me.
• 21:18
  It was astounding to me.
• 21:20
  Because I had been there back, oh goodness, 25 years ago, and I have pictures from 25 plus years.
• 21:20
  Because I had been there back, oh goodness, 25 years ago, and I have pictures from 25 plus years ago.
• 21:31
  And where it is now, it's just it's heartbreaking.
• 21:37
  There's a severe drought out west, and Nebraska is getting hit really, really hard.
• 21:46
  So this wildfire or wild fires, they start uh, you know, March, what was it, March 12th?
• 21:55
  Yeah, March 12th.
• 21:57
  All these major fires burn, and they just absolutely destroy West Nebraska.
• 22:04
  I mean, it takes everything in its path.
• 22:07
  And if you've ever experienced the winds out there, uh it's phenomenal.
• 22:12
  I used to drive truck coast to coast, and I gotta tell you, there are times uh I was traveling across the outwest, and you just gotta hold on for dear life.
• 22:22
  I mean, those winds are wicked.
• 22:26
  Uh, there's just nothing really to stop it.
• 22:28
  It's it's all wide open prairie land.
• 22:32
  So at any rate, uh, there's a story here.
• 22:36
  This is from Farm Progress, and it's talking about how people from Kansas are bringing hay to ranchers who've been impacted by the wildfires.
• 22:47
  Uh farm rescue activates Operation Haylift to deliver hay and hope to ranchers caught in flames.
• 22:57
  And this is a story I was talking about briefly before the break.
• 23:01
  Mark Cowderwood has a routine of safely strapping down semi-trailer load of hay and checking his rig before hitting the road.
• 23:09
  I'm reading from the article here.
• 23:11
  This is on farm progress.
• 23:13
  But the reason behind this load and his destination, those are anything but routine.
• 23:20
  Cowder Wood is one of several volunteers with farm rescue using their commercial driver's licenses and their time to haul donated hay to recent victims of wildfires in Kansas and Oklahoma and soon, Nebraska.
• 23:38
  Farmers, farm rescues Operation Haylift was activated to help ranchers who lost pasture and feed supplies in the Ranger Road fire.
• 23:48
  It's being supported by the fellowship of Christian farmers.
• 23:52
  I always love when there's a faith component to this too.
• 23:56
  Because let me tell you, churches get a bad rap.
• 24:00
  And it's it's unfortunate because there are bad churches out there.
• 24:04
  Don't get me wrong.
• 24:05
  There are definitely some bad churches out there.
• 24:09
  But when Christianity as a whole gets bad rap, it really kind of irritates me.
• 24:16
  Because it's almost always the Christians first who come together and raise just massive amounts of money, and it's the Christians first who usually send volunteers, and it's the Christians first who volunteer time, money, resources, trucks, fuel.
• 24:36
  Think of the amount of fuel to move all this hay.
• 24:39
  It's not just the hay that's donated, it's the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of fuel that it takes to relocate this hay from across America to outwest.
• 24:54
  And it's it's really incredible to me.
• 24:58
  You know, it's it's the Christians, the fellowship of Christian farmers, they're providing fuel reimbursement to help off offset transportation costs, and just to give you an idea of how much it costs to pedal a truck down the road, just for the fuel.
• 25:17
  You're looking at over a dollar per mile just for the fuel.
• 25:22
  That doesn't include the taxes.
• 25:24
  That doesn't include all your wear and tear, the insurance, all that stuff.
• 25:29
  So, and it's nothing.
• 25:30
  I mean, absolutely nothing to put three to five thousand miles round trip when for these people hauling the hay, and that's per truck.
• 25:40
  And keep in mind, these convoys are 20 plus trucks at a time.
• 25:44
  So you do the math.
• 25:46
  20 trucks, let's just say that they average, I don't know, 2,000 miles round trip.
• 25:53
  Just one round of a convoy, one round of 20 trucks coming from a thousand miles away, and that's very conservative.
• 26:03
  Then a thousand miles back home, you're looking at 40,000 per convoy just that's just in fuel.
• 26:11
  40,000 plus.
• 26:14
  All right.
• 26:14
  So uh you're talking a lot of money, and they're just from what I'm reading, they're just constant convoys.
• 26:21
  I mean, every day, 200 people every single day volunteering hay.
• 26:27
  200 people, and I imagine each one of the volunteers who's volunteering hay could probably load one semi-truck.
• 26:38
  So you're talking 200, well, uh, they they're probably not loading 200 a day, but let's just say that they're doing 100 a day.
• 26:46
  So do the math on that.
• 26:49
  You're now in the ballpark of about two uh what is it, 200,000 or somewhere there?
• 26:57
  Yeah, somewhere in the ballpark at 200,000.
• 27:01
  So uh you're talking astronomical amounts of money.
• 27:06
  And it's the fellowship of the Christian farmers who's providing fuel reimbursement to offset these costs.
• 27:14
  That's incredible.
• 27:15
  Yeah, I don't see the government coming in and giving that kind of money.
• 27:20
  Uh I don't see the state government coming in, but but yet they'll spend tons of money on lobbyists and everything else under the sun.
• 27:28
  So, like I say, it's always the volunteers.
• 27:31
  It's always the volunteers who provide efficiency, they provide uh speed, they snap their fingers and they pull all this together.
• 27:40
  I think that's really incredible.
• 27:43
  So at any rate, uh to date, as of this article, and this was back a couple weeks ago or a few weeks ago, 18 families in two states have signed up for assistance.
• 27:59
  More than 1,000 hay bales have been offered by donors.
• 28:00
  1,000 hay bales have been offered by donors.
• 28:03
  Well, that's uh dramatically increased ever since this article came out.
• 28:03
  Well, that's uh dramatically increased ever since this article came out.
• 28:07
  Uh, I've read other reports, and it's absolutely phenomenal.
• 28:07
  Uh, I've read other reports and it's absolutely phenomenal.
• 28:11
  But I'll just read from this article here.
• 28:11
  But I'll just read from this article here.
• 28:15
  More than a thousand hay bales have been offered by donors.
• 28:15
  More than a thousand hay bales have been offered by donors.
• 28:18
  Operation Haylift volunteer drivers include Jim Schnitzer from Wisconsin, Kenny Kreitz from Indiana, Mark Johnson from Illinois, Dave.
• 28:18
  Operation Haylift volunteer drivers include Jim Schnitzer from Wisconsin, Kenny Kreitz from Indiana, Mark Johnson from Illinois, Dave Endorf from Nebraska, Dean Isaacs from Indiana, and Calderwood.
• 28:38
  Calder Wood is a retired teacher living near Sterling, Kansas, and he works for a nearby farm.
• 28:44
  Last fall, he filled out an information sheet with farm rescue that detailed what skills he had to share.
• 28:51
  So I filled out an information sheet and they called me up, and the first thing they asked me was if I had if I was a CDL driver.
• 28:58
  I said yes, and they were really happy about that because it's still hard to get a volunteer with a CDL.
• 29:06
  So farm rescue has its own trucks, its own trailers.
• 29:11
  They just need the volunteer drivers, and of course, the funding.
• 29:16
  So Calderwood said we go to the collection points, load, and then the dispatcher for farm rescue looks through all the requests from ranchers, and we haul straight to the ranch and unload where they want it unloaded.
• 29:30
  Now, the really fascinating thing is uh with with the story with Steve Hartman.
• 29:39
  They said that every single, without question, it happens every time.
• 29:44
  Every single rancher, whenever the trucks show up at their place with with loads of hay, they ask to give it to their neighbors.
• 29:52
  Please deliver it to my neighbor first.
• 29:56
  That's incredible.
• 29:58
  I mean, again, this just shows the heart of the American people.
• 30:03
  And we're supposed to believe the narrative, right?
• 30:08
  The narrative.
• 30:09
  People are so selfish, so self-centered.
• 30:13
  People are so greedy.
• 30:15
  Americans are just spoiled.
• 30:17
  Americans are Americans this, Americans that.
• 30:20
  And then you got to kind of pinch your nose when you say it and sound nasally because you know, it's like when people complain, they think Americans are terrible.
• 30:28
  Americans are the worst.
• 30:30
  And then you look at stories like this, and you're like, yeah.
• 30:33
  So these people have lost everything.
• 30:36
  Everything.
• 30:38
  They have lost every thing.
• 30:43
  I don't know about you, but I've never in my life lost everything.
• 30:48
  And I hope and pray that I never do.
• 30:52
  But these people, I just I can't imagine.
• 30:56
  Everything's gone.
• 30:57
  Everything within minutes, everything gets wiped out in these fires.
• 31:04
  You come back home, and you're kind of assessing the damage, and you realize it's all gone.
• 31:12
  Homes gone, barns gone, fields gone.
• 31:17
  Livestock manages to survive.
• 31:21
  A lot of livestock.
• 31:23
  That's about all you have left.
• 31:26
  And now all of a sudden, people show up, and you're getting truck drivers showing up on your farm saying, where do you want us to unload the hay?
• 31:36
  Finally, a sign of relief.
• 31:40
  Finally, you realize my livestock can eat another day.
• 31:45
  I can keep my livestock alive.
• 31:48
  Maybe, just maybe I can keep the farm alive.
• 31:52
  If I can keep the livestock alive, maybe I can keep the farm alive.
• 31:56
  Maybe we can reignite it.
• 31:57
  Maybe we can replant the fields and maybe we'll get rain this year.
• 32:05
  Maybe the crops will take off.
• 32:07
  You know, these are all maybes.
• 32:09
  Everything's up in the air.
• 32:10
  Literally, everything is up in the air.
• 32:12
  It's all in question.
• 32:15
  And this truck shows up.
• 32:17
  And instead of saying, thank God and getting down and like kissing the ground because this miraculous truck of hay shows up at your farm.
• 32:27
  You know what the farmers do?
• 32:29
  They say, please bring it to my neighbor down the street.
• 32:35
  Bring it to the next farm over.
• 32:39
  Guys, this blows my mind.
• 32:42
  And it just always gives me so much hope for this nation.
• 32:47
  That's why I believe in America.
• 32:50
  That's why I will never stop singing her praises.
• 32:56
  I sing the praises of America because I see the American people do stuff like this on a daily basis.
• 33:03
  I see the heart of the American people.
• 33:06
  And I know, like, listen to me.
• 33:08
  I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna preach to you here for a minute.
• 33:11
  Not really.
• 33:13
  But I'm gonna talk to you as a Christian who constantly my entire life I've been told within the church that, well, people don't really want to volunteer.
• 33:26
  People are lazy.
• 33:27
  People, good luck.
• 33:29
  I've been told that so many times by by other Christians.
• 33:34
  Good luck.
• 33:34
  Good luck getting volunteers.
• 33:37
  Good luck getting people to actually contribute.
• 33:41
  Good luck.
• 33:42
  Good luck.
• 33:42
  And I hear that all the time.
• 33:43
  And I'm like, where's this coming from?
• 33:46
  This idea that and trust me, it's not by the majority of people.
• 33:52
  I want to make that clear.
• 33:54
  It's always a handful, it's always a handful of people.
• 33:57
  The negative people are always in the minority.
• 34:01
  But I've heard that my whole life.
• 34:03
  And I I, you know, I've heard, well, people, people in the church just don't like to volunteer.
• 34:09
  They just don't ask them too much because they work full-time jobs and people don't want to volunteer anyway.
• 34:17
  And so you're really asking them to do too much.
• 34:19
  And people don't like to, you know, people are on hard times, so don't ask them to kick in and to give extra.
• 34:26
  Don't, you know, don't burden people.
• 34:30
  And people are kind of greedy anyway, so they don't really want to give.
• 34:34
  You know what my experience has been?
• 34:37
  My experience has been the polar opposite.
• 34:41
  My experience has been that if you genuinely have a good cause.
• 34:46
  Now, I'm not talking to pressure people.
• 34:50
  I never am a believer in pressuring people to do anything.
• 34:54
  Anything.
• 34:56
  I don't like pressure.
• 34:57
  I think it's manipulative.
• 34:59
  I think it's awful.
• 35:00
  Uh I don't ask my congregation to give more money.
• 35:00
  Uh I don't ask my congregation to give more money.
• 35:06
  I just I think it feels sleazy.
• 35:06
  I just I think it feels sleazy.
• 35:09
  Uh what I found though is that when there's a good cause, when there's a reason for people to give, you don't even have to ask them.
• 35:09
  Uh what I found though is that when there's a good cause, when there's a reason for people to give, you don't even have to ask them, they just do it.
• 35:18
  They just do it.
• 35:19
  They just step up and they do it.
• 35:19
  They just step up and they do it.
• 35:21
  We'll volunteer our time.
• 35:21
  We'll volunteer our time.
• 35:22
  We'll tell me, tell me where to sign.
• 35:22
  Well tell me, tell me where to sign.
• 35:24
  Where do I bring the check?
• 35:24
  Where do I bring the check?
• 35:27
  I had an anonymous donor for.
• 35:27
  I had an anonymous donor for my friend.
• 35:31
  I talked about this back around December.
• 35:33
  My friend who died in in a car accident.
• 35:37
  He was hit by a drunk driver head on.
• 35:40
  Left behind a wife and a few beautiful kids.
• 35:46
  I had a $5,000 check show up at the church.
• 35:52
  It was an anonymous donor.
• 35:55
  I said, please give this to my my friend Travis's wife.
• 36:02
  Please give this money.
• 36:04
  Please keep it anonymous.
• 36:06
  We don't want any, we don't want a thank you card.
• 36:08
  We we don't want recognition.
• 36:10
  Just please send this.
• 36:13
  And I did.
• 36:16
  It's incredible.
• 36:17
  I see this all the time.
• 36:19
  Uh I love this nation.
• 36:20
  I love her people.
• 36:22
  Uh this story is just another reminder.
• 36:25
  We are coming up on another break here.
• 36:27
  All of our shows do go to podcasts the next day after the broadcast is heard on Talk Radio.
• 36:32
  You can hear them on Spotify, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeart Podcast, Apple Podcasts, many, many more.
• 36:37
  Be sure to subscribe, rate the show, share it, and when we come back, we'll talk more about the giving heart of the American people.
• 36:46
  We'll be right back.
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• 38:43
  The March 12, 2026 fires in Nebraska have uh absolutely just wiped out Western Nebraska.
• 38:52
  And it's really heartbreaking.
• 38:55
  Uh it's very devastating to see the amount of uh uh of just not just the damage to the environment, uh, but the livelihood of farmers, people who depend on the land.
• 39:08
  And the land hasn't exactly been generous to these farmers for the past couple years because there's been a severe drought.
• 39:16
  So the crops have already been terrible, I I guess is the only way to put it.
• 39:23
  And the farmers have been struggling for a long time.
• 39:26
  And to add insult to injury, you have the wildfires that just completely wipe out the rest of their crops.
• 39:33
  They they took barns, uh, all the hay that they had stored up and other grains to feed their animals, all gone.
• 39:45
  Completely wiped out in a matter of days, everything was gone.
• 39:52
  Over 900,000 acres across western Nebraska, displacing 35,000 cattle, destroying critical pastures, fencing, and haystocks.
• 40:07
  All gone.
• 40:09
  But the response from across the United States of America has been just a remarkable display of community and resilience.
• 40:19
  Farmers, ranchers, volunteers, all from multiple states across America, have rallied together to send hundreds of tons of donated hay, supplies, trucking assistance, uh making sure that livestock are gathered up and put into areas that that where fences survived.
• 40:44
  Uh this is very strategic, very coordinated, and very American.
• 40:52
  This is who we are.
• 40:54
  As America, in the face of adversity and trials and tribulations and stress and distress.
• 41:04
  Americans, time after time after time come together and they just make it work.
• 41:11
  We figure it out.
• 41:13
  And it's that figure it out ism.
• 41:16
  I just coined that term.
• 41:18
  Uh, but it's the figure it out ism of America that makes us so great.
• 41:24
  And that, in my opinion, is what separates us from other nations in the world.
• 41:30
  Now, I'm not saying that we're the best and you know everybody else sucks.
• 41:34
  I'm not I'm not saying that.
• 41:36
  But I'm saying there's something inherently beautiful about America that you don't see in many other countries.
• 41:46
  Where when times are tough, we just come together and figure it out.
• 41:52
  And don't figure it out to survive.
• 41:55
  We figure it out to make people thrive.
• 41:59
  And that, my friends, is the difference.
• 42:00
  Friends is the difference.
• 42:02
  Because I see a lot of places where people, people literally are in survival mode.
• 42:02
  Because I see a lot of places where people literally are in survival mode.
• 42:07
  And that's not a judgment.
• 42:07
  And that's not a judgment.
• 42:09
  That's just kind of where they are.
• 42:09
  That's just kind of where they are.
• 42:11
  They're in survival mode and they have to survive day by day.
• 42:11
  They're in survival mode, and they have to survive day by day.
• 42:16
  But in America, we've been so blessed.
• 42:17
  But in America, we've been so blessed.
• 42:18
  And that's why I I really don't like when I hear people complain about America.
• 42:18
  And that's why I really don't like when I hear people complain about America.
• 42:23
  And they talk about how bad we have it, and we're just, you know, it's just everything's awful.
• 42:23
  And they talk about how bad we have it, and we're just, you know, it's just everything's awful, everything's broken.
• 42:28
  Everything's broken.
• 42:31
  I don't buy that.
• 42:34
  We live in a country where we're blessed.
• 42:37
  We are very literally blessed beyond measure.
• 42:41
  And I love that about America.
• 42:43
  And that's not by accident.
• 42:45
  I mean, that's a thing.
• 42:46
  See, some people, they're like, oh, we're so we're just lucky.
• 42:50
  It's not luck.
• 42:52
  Our founding forefathers.
• 42:56
  They do you remember that they tried socialism when the pilgrims came, they tried socialism.
• 43:04
  They tried like giving everybody the same same amount of land and uh, you know, they like everybody, everybody's on equal playing field.
• 43:14
  And what they found is it failed miserably.
• 43:18
  It absolutely collapsed.
• 43:21
  I mean, virtually within minutes because it doesn't work.
• 43:26
  When people found that they had to work for their property, they had to work and barter and actually shake hands and strike deals with people.
• 43:39
  The system worked much better.
• 43:42
  And our founding forefathers realized this very, very quickly.
• 43:46
  So they designed an America where we could become abundantly wealthy, and where the wealthy people would voluntarily step in to help people who are in need.
• 44:01
  You see, that's the difference between capitalism and say socialism and even communism, where you force people, you force them, you steal money from people, you tax them into oblivion, and it's it's just so full of corruption, and nobody wants to voluntarily give because people are the government in particular is stealing the money from me anyway.
• 44:27
  And so it absolutely destroys that heart to give.
• 44:32
  But here in America, yeah, we're not naive.
• 44:36
  We know that there's poverty.
• 44:38
  We know that we have a homeless crisis here in America.
• 44:41
  We know these things.
• 44:44
  But then look at the stories that I've done on tiny villages, people doing tiny villages for homeless people, people who are literally coming together and solving the homelessness here in America.
• 44:59
  You know, we make it work.
• 45:01
  And we don't just build systems so that people can survive another day.
• 45:06
  We build systems so that people can thrive for the rest of their life.
• 45:12
  And that's what makes us great.
• 45:15
  And so when President Trump says it will make America great again, oh, I don't completely agree with that saying because I don't think we ever stopped being great.
• 45:26
  You know, to say make America great again assumes that we're not great.
• 45:33
  And I just don't, I don't buy it.
• 45:36
  I think we've always been great.
• 45:38
  Yeah, we've had some dark moments in our history.
• 45:42
  I mean, there's no question about that.
• 45:46
  But we are a great nation.
• 45:48
  And we're a nation who, when push comes to shove, we come together and we bless each other.
• 45:53
  We help each other out, and we do it willingly, we do it voluntarily.
• 45:58
  And that's why I would never praise people who stand in the way of success.
• 46:07
  The the newsoms and the Mamdanis and the people like that.
• 46:15
  That they just they tax the rich.
• 46:18
  They're so angry, uh, tax the rich.
• 46:22
  Why don't you start with yourself?
• 46:24
  Because most of these people who are saying tax the rich are loaded themselves.
• 46:31
  I've given example after example of that.
• 46:34
  Look at the Obamas.
• 46:37
  They're stupid rich.
• 46:40
  And there's nothing wrong with that.
• 46:42
  Like I would never look at that and be like, oh, we need to tax them.
• 46:47
  They're allowed to be rich, they're allowed to be wealthy, they're allowed to build wealth.
• 46:52
  I mean, that's what makes this nation so great is that you can you can come from nothing in this nation, and you can build a life for yourself.
• 47:04
  And I will I will always encourage people to do that to better yourself, to work your way up the ladder at your workplace to get more skills, learn more skills, learn a trade.
• 47:22
  Keep working your way up that ladder.
• 47:24
  And when you do that, there's ample opportunity.
• 47:27
  And when there's ample opportunity, there's wealth.
• 47:30
  And where there's wealth, there's blessing.
• 47:33
  People love to give.
• 47:34
  So here are a couple of them with the Nebraska fires.
• 47:38
  Here are a couple uh that uh different states and organizations and so forth that are helping out.
• 47:46
  So we already mentioned Operation Haylift.
• 47:49
  That's the nonprofit organization, uh, farm rescue, and they they activated Operation Haylift.
• 47:58
  That's to bring immediate relief to ranchers in Nebraska.
• 48:03
  Volunteer drivers with commercial driver's licenses have been traveling from states as far away as Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois to haul hay that's been donated to the disaster zones.
• 48:18
  The drivers volunteer their time, and donors have contributed thousands of hay bales towards this effort.
• 48:28
  All right, south South Dakota.
• 48:32
  Cattlemen in South Dakota have paid it forward, recognizing that livestock producers rarely ask for help.
• 48:41
  Their neighbors to the north stepped up completely unprompted.
• 48:46
  The Kingsbury County Cattlemen's Association.
• 48:50
  It's kind of a mouthful.
• 48:52
  But the Kingsbury County Cattlemen's association in South Dakota initially planned to send three truckloads of hay, which quickly grew to a massive 24-load convoy.
• 49:01
  Which quickly grew to a massive 24 load convoy.
• 49:07
  The South Dakota Cattlemen's Foundation also launched a fundraising drive, matching up to 10,000 to cover the enormous fuel cost of transporting hay to western Nebraska.
• 49:07
  The South Dakota Cattlemans Foundation also launched a fundraising drive, matching up to 10,000 to cover the enormous fuel cost of transporting hay to western Nebraska.
• 49:21
  Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska convoys.
• 49:21
  Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska convoys.
• 49:27
  Local farmers have organized massive.
• 49:27
  Local farmers have organized massive independent convoys.
• 49:32
  Justin Smith is a farmer from Craig, Nebraska.
• 49:36
  And he worked with this community to organize over 20 semi-trucks, hauling more than 700 bales, 400 tons of hay, straight to ranchers in the Gothenburg area.
• 49:52
  Similarly, local agricultural groups out of Western Iowa, they coordinated their own truckloads of feed.
• 50:00
  Saying that while many people who are eager to donate the hay, uh they find the trucks making the long haul was the biggest hurdle.
• 50:11
  But they overcame it.
• 50:13
  They found the trucks.
• 50:15
  And this is incredible to me because as somebody who was in the transportation industry, there was a saying, we always had a saying.
• 50:29
  Meaning, if you're driving for a company, if your truck sits for five minutes, your truck's not making money.
• 50:39
  If the truck is sitting for five minutes, the owner of the truck is not making money.
• 50:46
  Nobody's making money if these trucks sit still.
• 50:49
  Now, here's the other thing.
• 50:52
  If the trucks are being pulled off the loads that actually make money, and they're being used to donate the trucks really aren't making money.
• 51:02
  In fact, it's costing companies money.
• 51:06
  So the owners of the trucks who volunteered their trucks, not only are they missing out on the income, but they're also beating their trucks.
• 51:15
  They're putting miles on, it's the wear and tear, it's the uh the oil changes, the the tires, all that stuff.
• 51:25
  You're putting wear and tear on your truck, and you're putting miles on that you're not making a single penny off of that.
• 51:31
  It's costing the donors of these trucks money.
• 51:36
  And they're doing it anyway.
• 51:39
  So how do they manage these massive donations?
• 51:45
  Uh state organizations have stepped up and they've kind of streamlined the infrastructure.
• 51:51
  And this is one of those cool things too, where you have governments working together with individuals.
• 51:57
  And this is really cool.
• 52:00
  It can happen.
• 52:02
  It absolutely 100% can happen.
• 52:05
  A lot of times we resist government and we're like, oh, government, they they're terrible, they're awful.
• 52:11
  But when push comes to shut to shove, you'll find that those walls begin coming down.
• 52:19
  Right?
• 52:19
  The partisan walls, they begin to come down.
• 52:23
  And government officials actually begin to work together with private individuals, and they make this happen.
• 52:31
  Again, another reason for us to have hope in this nation.
• 52:35
  The Nebraska Department of Agriculture, the NDA, establish a dedicated hotline and an online portal to connect buyers and sellers of forage, and attract specific drop-off locations across towns like Arthur, Bridgeport, Gothenburg, and Oshkosh.
• 52:56
  And then the Nebraska Cattlemen.
• 52:59
  They maintain updated list of disaster resources, monetary relief funds, and local hay sellers who are discounting or donating feed.
• 53:10
  And then, not to mention all the nonprofit organizations, the Christian groups, churches, uh, just plain residents coming together and helping.
• 53:21
  It is a massive effort.
• 53:24
  And the amount of coordination and communication is really, really cool.
• 53:30
  This is not easy.
• 53:32
  And again, it's very similar to the founding of our nation.
• 53:36
  We're blessed today, not by accident.
• 53:39
  It's not that it just happened, and we're just lucky and we just happen to live in a time where uh the stars align and things just come together.
• 53:49
  That's not how this works.
• 53:52
  Our nation was set up with meticulous attention to detail.
• 53:58
  It was set up for the purpose of succeeding, and that's why the constitution matters.
• 54:05
  It should matter to all of us.
• 54:08
  And it's because of our great constitution that we have the freedom of ability in 2026, in May of 2026, we have the ability to bless other people.
• 54:22
  We can snap our fingers.
• 54:25
  And in a heartbeat, we have volunteers giving hay, we have volunteers giving their trucks, we have volunteers driving the trucks, we have volunteers giving money to fuel the trucks, just on and on and on.
• 54:40
  This is a massive effort.
• 54:43
  And I know that these farmers are going to be all right.
• 54:45
  In the end, farmers are very resilient.
• 54:49
  They're very smart.
• 54:51
  They're very, very good at making the world go round.
• 54:58
  We need our American farmers.
• 55:02
  And that's again why this ought to be front page story on every single major news network.
• 55:09
  This ought to be the story of 2026.
• 55:15
  And nobody's covering it.
• 55:19
  So just a reminder that the world is not exactly the same as what you see.
• 55:29
  So a lot of people, they they they read the news and they're like, oh, the world's falling apart, we're we're at war, the pain at the pump.
• 55:37
  The world is not always as it seems.
• 55:42
  And I promise you, if you dig a little bit deeper, move beyond the the major headlines.
• 55:50
  You know, I just saw in just uh um Jessica Alba wears the bikini and sizzles on her birthday.
• 55:57
  That was that was a mainline media front page story.
• 56:00
  Mainline media front page story.
• 56:03
  When we move beyond the dumb headlines and we dig a little bit deeper, we find that after all, America is doing quite well.
• 56:03
  When we move beyond the dumb headlines and we dig a little bit deeper, we find that after all, America is doing quite well.
• 56:13
  That, my friends, is the hidden lightness.
• 56:13
  That, my friends, is the hidden lightness.
• 56:15
  You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the Mendy Navigation Bar at America Outloud.news under our shows or schedule.
• 56:15
  You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu navigation bar at AmericaOutLoud.news under our shows or schedule.
• 56:23
  You'll be in the know.
• 56:23
  You'll be in the know.
• 56:24
  There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
• 56:24
  There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
• 56:27
  When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember.
• 56:27
  When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
• 56:35
  Join me in being a light.