Memorial Day Special

This is Logan Sekulow.

America is reopening a hopeful nation this Memorial Day weekend. Live from Washington, D.C. Sekulow live. Phone lines are open for your questions right now.

Call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to the one and only flag waving, God praising, trailblazing, heck raising radio show. It's Sekulow. I'm Logan Sekulow. I'm here hosting the show today.

Kick it off your Memorial Day weekend. Correct. I'm with Will Haynes. We've got a great show coming up for you. We're premiering a brand new song.

That's right. My first single, Freedom Lives Beyond My Backyard, has released today. New music video, which you got to watch the music video. Will's in it.

I am. You're going to see a lot of familiar faces in it. It's also available on Spotify, Apple Music, whoever gets your music, you can find it there. But I encourage you really to watch the video because it is better as a visual experience.

So it's available now. Few thousand of you have already watched it. We did a little premiere last night for our supporters.

So, again, that's our new song. But we are here to talk about Memorial Day in general. We're going to cover some news.

Mike Pompeo is going to be joining us in just a couple of segments. So we've got a lot to cover today, but mainly we're here to to really kick off summer correctly. Have a little bit more fun. I hope you enjoy this show today. If you do want to be on the air and give us a call at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. Yeah, I think I think people enjoy it.

Yeah. And I want to hear from people to hear what it's like where they are across the country. We're on radio stations literally across the country in every state and as well on Sirius and XM. So give us a call at one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero and let us know what is it like where you are as we head into Memorial Day weekend? Are things reopen? Is that sense of hope that we feel where we are happening, where you are as well? We want to hear about it.

So give us a call. It is happening. I feel like where we are specifically has gone through an area of time of we had a time of lockdown. But really, we've been blessed to live in a state that has, you know, specific government control.

That's a little a little less. And they've they've done a good job here. And we've had months of what I feel like back to somewhat normal.

We are seeing things like concerts and arenas return a lot of that not till the fall, but not because of lack of restriction, more getting the infrastructure ready. But I would look I went to an NHL playoff game a week ago or so. There are things happening in an arena inside. What was that? What was that like? Amazing.

We haven't been in an arena setting in over a year. Amazing. Back to that, you know, that was packed, you know, 15000 people screaming and yelling.

It was we needed to double overtime and the home team won. It was great. It was a fantastic reminder. And very quickly, you realize how much you can fall right back into it.

I was a little nervous in that, not just me personally, but in general, that people were going to be hesitant and you weren't going to have that same level of fun or energy. But I feel like the exact opposite happened, which is we're just forgetting the last year happened going forward as quick as we can. And look, we've even seen this today. I know in Florida, they've been primarily reopened for a while now, but even travel has gotten crazy. We know that the airports this week are having historically high levels of travel.

And even theme parks, you know, some of the Universal Studios just announced right before we went on the air that the mask mandates have been fully lifted inside, outside. So I think that kind of positive movement is really going to shape at least the southeastern portion of this country. I am curious, as Will said, what's it like in California?

What's it like even Texas or or in the East Coast, in New Jersey, New York? I'm curious on if you're seeing similar things. We're hearing a lot of that rhetoric that they're reopening. But is it actually happening? Are you seeing the restrictions lighten up again?

I think this is in stages, but I know some people are calling again 1-800-684-3110. When we get back from the break, we're going to play you a segment of our new song, Freedom Lives Beyond My Backyard. It is available right now. If you go to just BackyardSong.com, it takes you straight to the YouTube channel. You can watch it there. Again, if you stream your music on Spotify or Apple Music, it's available there as well. Just type in Freedom Lives Beyond My Backyard or Logan Sekula. You'll find it. Some of them are just starting to populate. Some may take some time.

The easiest way, what it says right down here, BackyardSong.com. Some have already called this the Song of Summer. Yeah, I mean, it's a big summer patriotic anthem and it's a lot of fun. And we don't take ourselves too seriously when we do this show here. And you're going to see, we don't take ourselves too seriously when we release music as well. But what we've learned is that people seem to enjoy it. And go on there, comment, share it with your friends. It's a great way to kick off your weekend, add it to your playlists. And we're going to be back with, we're going to show you a clip from the song, but also back in just about another segment with Mike Pompeo.

So we're going to have a lot coming up on Sekula. We'll be right back. But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work.

Become a member today. ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Freedom lives beyond the backyard.

I need to race cars in Louisiana. Welcome back to secular. That was a little tease. Well, we're going to play a little bit of the video, but there you go. That's what my beautiful tones sound like. You know, singing. Did you have this vocal revelation naturally or is that auto tune? How did what's your what's your artist process here?

Look, I don't know if any of its auto tune, but, you know, I mean, maybe it doesn't sound exactly how it did when I sent it in. But, you know, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Honestly, what happened was we wrote this song. I thought of it. I wanted to be create a big patriotic anthem. I was recently at a party where both John Rich hosted. John Rich hosted it.

There's a lot of conservative kind of voices there. Lee Greenwood got up and saying, God bless the USA. And I was like, I kind of want to make a rock and roll patriotic anthem, maybe a little bit more southern rock, if you will. So pinned this song. So they've got a little bit of Texas country and it's got a little bit of blues and rock and roll in it, a little Elvis. And we decided to put this together and I was going to save it.

We were just kind of kicking it around that I got my buddy Derek, Derek Frank, and he started helping me out with the music. And it just came out really great. And we said, let's not hold this. Let's put this out, because this is the ultimate way to kick off summer. And again, you can watch it at BackyardSong.com, the whole thing. But are we ready for a clip?

Yeah, I think we're going to roll this now. This isn't going to be the full song. We still encourage you to go to BackyardSong.com, see the full thing. It was a lot of fun to produce the music video that was kind of one of the first times I'd been a part of something like that. But as you'll see, you'll see some familiar faces on the stage.

Look for the guitar player. He's shredding. Yeah. All right. Let's go ahead and roll that. There we go.

So that's a little sample of Freedom Lives Beyond My Backyard. I won't give you too much because I need you to go to the website. I need you to go watch it on YouTube or stream it and share it with your friends.

Again, I hope you liked it. There are a lot of people commenting with all of their support and love, and I appreciate that. If you're watching on Facebook, if you're watching on where else we broadcast? YouTube? YouTube on ACLJ.org. We're everywhere.

Later in the day, it'll be on Rumble, on a lot of other platforms as well. Someone said, nice hat, Will. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it.

Yeah. I mean, that's the good parts of the video. I hope you guys like it. Again, it's a big song. It's about getting out beyond your backyard, if you will, and seeing the country as the country reopens, which is the theme of today's show, as the country reopens. I implore you, and as my family's planning, we're about to go on a big trip, to go explore what this nation has to offer, because there's some amazing things that you may have never seen. There's stuff I haven't seen. Even say that in the song, there's places I want to visit that I've never gone.

We have a little bit of everything in the United States of America. You can go from the snowy mountains to the beaches, and go anywhere, and everything in between. That was the big moment in the song, is to go check out what's going on outside of your own lot of land, because it's been very easy for a lot of us to get stuck in our ways, and to get all of our food delivered, and to enjoy ourselves.

There's nothing wrong with that, being with our families the last year, within four walls. Now, it's time not only for America to reopen, but for us to get out there, and explore. That's the theme of Freedom Lives Beyond Our Backyard. We heard a few weeks ago, months ago probably now, when the Biden administration did that first big push, and said, if we all just follow the rules, we may be able to have a barbecue on the 4th of July.

Now, thankfully, and because of the vaccine, and efforts, and- And look, the CDC saying, hey, you know what, he was a little late to the game here. But that was kind of, really I would say, our mindset was kind of like, wait a second. You're saying that our freedom is going to be, follow the rules so you can go hang out in your backyard. Now, obviously, the great American backyard barbecue on the 4th of July is an American institution. That's not something that we take lightly. We love that. But that's not the pinnacle of getting back to normal. That's what we should be able, and knew then, that's what we should be able to do currently even. And we've thankfully seen a big shift, and the CDC guidelines, and all those things are now coming to reality. But that's kind of where I see the basis of this song, is that freedom isn't just in your backyard.

It lives beyond your backyard. It's exploring this nation, and seeing your fellow Americans, and being with them, and learning more about the history, and the landscape of this country. And that's what we're looking, that's what we want to get back to.

That's the normal. All right, let's take a phone call, because I think it's important. We want to know what's going on around the country. Let's go to Scott, who's calling in South Carolina, Line 4. Scott, we throw a Myrtle Beach reference in there for you, but Scott, you're on the air. Oh, I don't think we got Scott. Let's put him back on hold, see if we can talk to him. I didn't even hear the phone go up, so I'm not sure if the lines went live. Let us know if we have Scott or not.

Scott was talking about what's going on in South Carolina. Let's switch it up, then let's go to Teresa on Line 2. You're on the air, Teresa. Hi. Hey, where are you calling from?

I'm calling from Novinoy, Michigan. All right, so how are things in Michigan? We're feeling a little freer. Good, good.

Just starting to, or you feel like it's something that's been ongoing? Well, we're getting there. We're suffering under Governor Whitmer, but we live quite a ways from the Capitol. So, we're across the Mackinac Bridge, and in a small little fishing village.

If you look at Chicago on the map, and then you run your finger all the way up Lake Michigan, we're at the other end of Lake Michigan. All right, so, but things feel a little, like you said, things are feeling better. Things are feeling better, but the American Legion Hall is still having takeout for their fish fry tonight. Yeah, I think you're going to see those kind of things roll out, and look, I mean, there are schools, there are people who are going to still have issues. I think in the next 12 months, you're always going to have, not always, you're going to have some restrictions or people, like you said, doing only to go. For the most part, where we are, that's all gone.

You can still obviously get to go if you want, but it's gone in terms of being required. I think those are positive movements. And Theresa, are things like mask mandates in the state, are those still enforced by the governor, or are they starting to follow the CDC guidelines up there? They're starting to follow CDC, especially since the governor got busted not wearing a mask at a public event. That's right, she was in a restaurant, and they're very close together, and her even response to that was like, Her apology was hilarious. She was like, I mean, we weren't even thinking about it. It's like, well, you're forcing this on your citizens every single day, and you're like, oh, we have vaccines, we didn't even think about it. We just pulled up another table, as you do.

I can't necessarily in some restaurants still sit with my entire family, but you can pull up a table and do whatever you want. But Theresa, that's a good point. If you call out that kind of hypocrisy, that's what happens. Is Scott available? Theresa, thank you for calling. Let's go to Scott, because the next segment we're going to have Mike Pompeo on, and then later on we're going to take some more calls. So give us a call, 1-800-684-3110. Let us know how things are going in your area, how you're feeling, the good and the bad. We want to hear about it. Scott in South Carolina, you're on the air. I'm there.

Yes. Yes, my question is, what are we going to do to get this economy going again if our government don't stop giving money away? Look, Scott, I understand. This is a problem that's happening nationwide, and it's happening with every sort of service industry, and I'm seeing this continually.

Look, I was on a call. I manage a vacation rental property. I was on a call with the management company, and they said, look, the problem isn't demand. We have thousands and thousands of guests each night. The problem is we can't get a staff to clean the houses.

We can't get a staff to come in and do any sort of maintenance because a lot of these people have just opted. And look, I'm not saying that they're wrong because they're just doing what the government is allowing. And if the government wants to give you money, it's sadly, you know, I understand, but they're just taking what they can until some of these handouts really run out. Well, and that was I told you about an Uber driver that I spoke with that he works as an Uber driver full time, but a part of the thing that has become the gig economy, right, that people have side jobs. They can pick up a little bit of extra money here and there that the supply of drivers, it's not the demand for the rides, the supply of individuals that are using their vehicle for a side gig, a little bit of extra money. They're not doing that because they don't want to potentially jeopardize their entire benefit of unemployment if they lost their job or things like that. They're not needing that right now, but they also don't want to be like, well, I am working, so the government isn't going to be paying me anymore. And that's caused a shortage of drivers, even in things like Uber and Lyft. And when you look at it, part of the whole unemployment issue is they also have to be continually looking for jobs and getting job interviews. Well, guess what's happening across the board? It's happening. Look, I just heard it from the vacation writer.

I've heard it from my friend who's who's a nurse here. People are putting in interview times and then no showing by the masses because all they have to do is prove they have an interview on the books, not that they showed up. Look, when we get back, we're going to hear from Secretary Mike Pompeo. He is currently in Israel. Talk about the current status, what's going on over there, why he's there, but also some of the other topics. And he has a brand new blog that's available on ACLJ.org you should check out about the founders called Revisiting the Wisdom of Our Founders.

Take a look at that great read this Memorial Day weekend. Again, Backyardsong.com for our brand new song, Freedom Lives Beyond My Backyard, available now. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, playing parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today.

ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Secula. We are joined live by Secretary Mike Pompeo, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs here at the ACLJ. And you are live from Israel, so why don't you give us a little update of why you're over there and how things are going. Obviously, in a time where, in our own country, anti-Semitism is on the rise and, obviously, just coming out of the recent conflict, and really still in the conflict going on currently in Israel. Well, it's great to be with you all today. It's great to do this conversation from Tel Aviv. It's been great to see, too, when we arrived yesterday, we could see that life was very normal. People are out, people are going to restaurants, enjoying their families, all the things that Israelis know and love in the same way that other democracies like the United States does.

They've been through an awful lot over the last couple of weeks, but they are tough and resilient people. I came here for a very special celebration, the retirement of one of my former counterparts, the director of Mossad, who will be retiring. And I wanted to be here to thank him for the service that he did, the things that he worked alongside the CIA on for the years that I was the CIA director, where we worked to make our relationship strong and both nations more secure. Secretary Pompeo, we saw this week Secretary Blinken announced the more aid for the Palestinians, including in Gaza, not just to the Palestinian Authority, but also the reopening of the consulate in Jerusalem, which many have pointed out may run afoul of U.S. law doing this. But do these actions fresh off the attacks by Hamas and the following conflict, does it almost come across as rewarding the Palestinians for the continued hostilities towards Israel?

That's a great question. The bad guys, the Iranians, the folks who underwrite most of the instability and the reason, right? The supporters who finance, provide the military assistance to Hamas, the same thing for Hezbollah in the north that threatened Israel. They watch every single move.

You've described some of them, right? One of this, the return funding to the Palestinians, some of that money will end up in the hands of the bad guys of Hamas, of Iranian actors in the region. And they can see it for what it is. They understood that the Trump administration wasn't going to do that. They understood that we had an unambiguous support for the Jewish homeland and the right of the Israelis to defend themselves everywhere and always, whether that was the decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem, which was the law, what the law required. And now, essentially, the decision to move the consular, which violates U.S. law, I don't think there will be any other place in the world where they have a consulate and an embassy in the same city. It makes literally no sense.

Yes. Actors around the world will see this for weakness. It's unfortunate. It will present greater risk to American interests throughout the world. Secretary Pompeo, we've had we're going to take things a little domestically and take it to the domestic side. You have a brand new piece up on our Web site, a blog, an article called Revisiting the Wisdom of Our Founders, where obviously Memorial Day weekend kind of kicks off today for a lot of people.

A lot of people are celebrating having extra days off work. But really, we know the reason why we have this Memorial Day. But I wanted us to get your thoughts on on this piece and what prompted you to to write this and kind of explore some of what our founders had in mind at this time.

You know, I spent the last a great question. I spent the last four years working on many things that were outside of our borders, but that had an enormous impact on our lives at home. And I want to take this moment around Memorial Day weekend to write about it. I wrote about Federals 10 and how it's applicable to the lives that we lead today. So our founders talked about our republic, a virtuous republic where people worked hard and the rule of law mattered. And we allowed people to speak their minds.

We didn't have a culture that canceled out voices that we disagreed with. This idea that that freedom and liberty are deeply part of who we are as Americans. Our founders knew it.

I think most Americans know it today. We've got to make sure that that remains the epicenter at the ethos at the very heart of who we are as a nation. If we do that, none of the adversaries that I was working against these last four years, none of them have a prayer. If we get it right at home, America will be stronger, our nation will be more secure and our adversaries will see it for that. Well, and you bring up the timing of this with Memorial Day, where we are remembering those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect those freedoms. But we also see within our country, you mentioned cancel culture and things like that, where it goes against, to some degree, the very foundations of what the founders had in mind and envisioned with the freedom of expression of thought and of association and things of that nature. So we see the left trying to centralize, control more the rule of the Democrat Party in two branches of government now, and we see them pushing for less freedom of expression and freedom of religion and freedom of thought.

How can we continue to pursue what the founders had in mind when the left is so antagonistic against that? Every individual has a responsibility to be clear and articulate and fearless. I think about parents who have kids that are in schools where they're trying to teach them these ideas, these racist ideas. Parents have a responsibility to say, no, not in my school, not with my children in our PPA meetings, in the school board meetings. Parents need to be out talking about this.

These are the kind of things I get asked all the time, what can I do? I'm just one person. These are the kind of things every citizen could do. Our founders knew this. You know, I had a chance to serve as a soldier a long time ago. Our military depends on the capacity for Americans to stand up.

When we're trying to deny our military the capacity to speak about things they care about, those are things that run hardcore against what I think most Americans know to be true and what our founders believed mattered most to the United States of America. If we each get that right, if we don't rely on government or political leaders or others to do this work, if we work in our schools and with our families and in our churches, I have great confidence that the next century will be the American century as well. Absolutely, Secretary Pompeo. And look, before we wrap up, I know you're in Israel right now. We've touched on Israel. We've touched on what's going on here stateside. But there is something that I want you to at least comment on, which is over the last few days, we've seen a pretty major walk back and a push forward for the Biden administration to finally say that maybe the origins of COVID and the coronavirus maybe weren't as simple as they thought. We've even seen Facebook, you know, we talk about this, Facebook saying, OK, we're no longer going to flag people who say it was developed in a lab.

We're not going to flag those as false news. So we're seeing that movement, though it's been something that has been very important to you to at least say we need to investigate this. And it looks like out of an enormous amount of pressure, it's happening.

Oh, my goodness. You know, I can't tell you how many times I was talking to someone and they wanted to hand me a tin hat because I talked about the fact that this virus came through on and may well have come from that nasty virology laboratory. It's good to see, not for vindication. Vindication is not important. It's good to see because it matters to figure out how this happened, is the way that we have the best chance of preventing this from happening again.

You know, I've talked about this before. That virology lab is still operating. It is still conducting research. And next time it might not be three million dead.

It might be 30 million dead. We have a responsibility to impose real costs on the Chinese Communist Party until they come clean about both the cover up and who patient zero was and how it is this got out of this laboratory or wherever it emanated from. And I think that's what's really important. You touched on it and I appreciate you calling it, is when you have the American people, you have our listeners and people from around the world say, you know what, this is not something that we know is cut and dry. Then all of a sudden you have Fauci and these people all starting to slowly say, well, we don't know as well.

That's because of this pressure. There's people who are not just going to take things on face value, who are not going to just be called conspiracy theorists when there are at least real things to look at. Secretary Pompeo, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

Live from Israel. You all have a good day. Thank you. And you can find it on ACLJ.org. It's a brand new blog. It's really great.

Great Memorial Day. We can read about our founders, like I said, about Federalist 10. You can find that at ACLJ.org. When we get back, if you don't get the second half hour of Sekulow on your local radio station, a number of them do not carry the full hour. One, they should.

Two, if they don't, guess what? We're broadcasting live right now for an additional half hour on ACLJ.org. Facebook.com slash JSekulow. YouTube, search for the ACLJ channel. We are broadcasting live there right now. When we get back, I'm going to take some phone calls about how things are reopening in your area.

We'll be right back. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today.

ACLJ.org. Live from Washington, D.C., Sekulow Live. And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow.

Thanks for watching. We have a great second half hour of the show built for you today. We are talking about America reopening this Memorial Day weekend. We know this was a big day for a lot of people. We know for some of your states, you've got a couple more weeks, maybe mid-June is when those dates are. And some of you guys, Fourth of July may be when things start to finally start kicking in.

But I want to hear from you. How are things around the country? I think we can get a little jaded on how things are doing in our area. We are right now pretty much we're at 100 percent reopen mass, very, very much no mass mandates, very light amount of places that are even requiring it anymore, other than maybe a doctor's office here and there and those kind of places, which is fine.

And other than that, though, things are getting very much back to normal. Arenas are going full capacity. Your stadiums, baseball stadiums are going full capacity this weekend for Memorial Day.

There's a lot happening. I want to know what it's like in your area. So give me a call.

1-800-684-3110. As Will said, this station or this show is heard on stations around the country and online around the world. So I'd love to hear how things are for you at 1-800-684-3110, as well as we're promoting our brand new song, Freedom Lives Beyond My Backyard, about getting out and exploring this nation this summer. It's a big summer rock country, Southern rock anthem, and I hope you love it. You can find that at backyard song dot com.

We're going to play a little bit of it in the next segment. Well, you mentioned around the world, Penelope on Facebook. She's watching from Athens, Greece, and she said no lockdowns anymore. And we've been open since May 14th. So that is kind of interesting when you start to hear of other nations as well that are starting to reopen. But we know that in Canada, it's still very strict lockdown. So there is a very big difference between how the United States is operating with our numbers going down and the vaccination numbers going up and people getting back to normal there.

Our neighbor to the north is still very much locked down. A lot of people can't even leave their homes without very specific reasons. It's easy to get in your own mind and say, well, this is how it is everywhere. But look, if you're a sports fan, I've been watching the NHL playoffs and when they would show games happening in Canada.

I would turn to my wife and go, thank God that this isn't us. I mean, this is not where we just were at an arena with twenty thousand, fifteen thousand people cheering our heads off and loving this big sports moment and communal event. And then you turn and you watch what's going on in Canada and the stadium is still boarded up.

It looks like it did early last year, mid last year. It's sad to see. Hopefully, I mean, I don't know what's going on specifically in Canada, how their rates are, what's happening there. Obviously, they're a different country. We like to to kind of lump them in sometimes with us, but they're being run very differently. And I think I think the pressure from the American people, which is kind of a uniquely American experiment, is the pressure from the American people to not accept authoritarian control is a big part of this, which is we're going to look. Look, it's not unlike we just said with the labs or what we're saying when it comes to reopening and things happening. Eventually, our government does listen to the people. And when the people say enough is enough, things actually start happening.

And that's what we've seen in the last few weeks. Like I said, from whether that's from theme parks, not only fully opening and happening while pulling their mask mandates today in Florida. Obviously, Florida is has done is probably the best we could say that Florida has after a few speed bumps maybe early on that everyone had. We've had a great, great experiment in Florida. And I think we're going to see Florida get get a lot of love in the next. We have Nancy on Facebook who said Orlando is open, open, open.

Oh, I know. As someone who rents out a property there, who has people that comes and stays in Orlando, I will tell you it is open, open, open. And we've been sold out for months because people are getting out there and getting out and experiencing the world once again.

And Florida is a great place to go. And there's a lot of people around the country who are watching. A lot of you are calling in. Those are on hold. We'll get to you coming up in the next segment. Next segment or two. We've got two more segments.

We'll do it. Again, you can give us a call. We've got people in Missouri and Washington calling right now. I'd love to hear from other areas.

1-800-684-3110. Again, we're here obviously in celebration of kicking off summer. It's Memorial Day weekend, which we all know why that is important. We need to always remember that as well as we support everyone in the military, in the service, and make sure that we are there for them as well as they are for us. And again, check out ACLJ.org. A lot of content, great content that will be put out over the weekend.

Follow us on all social media. And if you want to hear what Will said, I'm going to quote him, the summer anthem of the year. It's not a direct quote. I said some have called it the song of summer. Well, I put the dot, dot, dot in front of it. So it just says summer anthem of the year.

It's available on BackyardSong.com. We'll be right back. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work.

Become a member today. ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift.

Welcome back to secular. That's a little bit of our new song, Freedom Lives Beyond My Backyard. It's available on BackyardSong.com will take you straight to the YouTube link, but it's also now as of today available on Spotify.

Apple Music, however, get your music is available there. So take a look at it. It's under my name, Logan Sekulow. Music video features Will Haines, whole cast of our North degrees. Bart Scott, Matt Lott. Everybody's in.

It's a lot of fun. And my wife, you may be able to see her in the background. You may find her.

You may find Cowboy James Storm, professional wrestler. And make sure not to tease it too much. Just stay until the very end. It's like a Marvel movie. It is. You don't leave when the credits roll.

You know, something else is there. You have to sit through 45 minutes of, you know, here's Robert Downey Jr.'s 18 assistants. You just go right into it. Stay till the end.

Trust me. One, I appreciate it just purely for me having to do what was what happens in that scene. I appreciate you watching it because I need to take some credit for it. So again, BackyardSong.com are on YouTube. Subscribe to my channel.

You'll find it there on YouTube's dot com slash Logan Sekulow reprogram. Let's take some phone calls and then we will play a little bit of the music video in just a bit. But Jule's been a hold for about 20 minutes. Jule in Washington, you're on the air. Thanks for calling. Thank you for taking my call. You're on the air.

Thank you so much for calling. OK, so I'm in the state of Washington, but I'm actually on the border between Washington and Oregon and I work in Oregon. And of course, you know that we have Governor Jay Inslee and Governor Brown, which are keeping things pretty much closed up. Still, people are still wearing masks. I work for a large retail company that pretty much everybody would know. And they had announced that they would all of their stores. Employees would be able to go without masks as long as you were vaccinated and could show proof of vaccination, which I'm obviously opposed to. Plus, there's a lot of people at my store like myself who already had covid. And they're saying that even if you had covid, if you're not taking the vaccine, that you still have to continue to wear your mask.

Go ahead. And they and they doubled down on it at first. They said, you know, that that would be how it was. But then they turned around and said, OSHA said that they were requiring all of us to still continue to wear our masks.

I think this is precisely not to cut you off, but we do have some calls. Precisely sort of the problem and some of the solutions that is happening is that for a year we were told, listen to the CDC, trust the CDC. Well, now when the CDC all of a sudden seems to be on, I don't want to say our side, but it feels like on our side saying, hey, you can loosen up now.

You can take out the mask. All of a sudden we're pulling out all these other sources. And that is where the American people do stand up and say, you know what? No. And even big corporations like NBC Universal, which announced today Comcast, Xfinity, those day their theme parks.

No more mask requirements. Those aren't small little changes. Those are taking not necessarily what a lot of people are wanting or doing what a lot of people are wanting, not what the media is purporting. Well, and the proof of that is the governor of Texas and the the leadership of the state of Texas. President Biden said they were participating in Neanderthal thinking, right?

That was the President of the United States calling a governor of a state participating in Neanderthal thinking when they started to roll back a lot of their restrictions because they knew things were going in the right direction. The people of their state were getting vaccinated. There were people that had already had it that they started to roll back. They opened the state back up because businesses were dying. Families were losing their jobs and their livelihoods. And they said enough is enough. We understand what we're doing in this way.

There's going to be personal responsibility. The numbers are going in the right direction. And they were blasted across the media and by liberals as they are going to destroy their entire state.

But what happened? They were reporting last week they had zero covid deaths for the first time since the previous year that it was working. They were doing the right things for their people, reopening the state, and they were blasted for it. But now they were proven right.

They did the right thing. And there's a lot of states that aren't going to follow that method, as we just heard. Yeah, we're going to take some more calls about that as well. 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. Specifically in the next segment, we usually like to end the show with as many calls as we can. So if you want to tell us how things are going in your area, if you have a question or comment related to anything like that, give us a call.

1-800-684-3110. I now want to play you, though, a clip from our brand new music video and song that's available now on all your favorite streaming platforms. It's also available on YouTube as the music video. And it is called Freedom Lives Beyond My Backyard. And here is a clip of just the beginning of the song because we need you to go and watch it. And again, you're going to want to stay till the end because there's maybe an unforgettable ending. And if this does well, I think we'll do something else.

So hopefully share this with your friends. Add it to your playlists this summer. So here's the ultimate summer anthem, as Will called it. Here is Freedom Lives Beyond My Backyard.

Just a small clip. I'll watch wrestling down in Georgia in Kentucky taste some whiskey from a jar. Have a party out in California, but they'll probably try to warn you because freedom lives beyond my backyard. Freedom lives beyond my backyard. These adventures come with bruises and with scars. So let's raise one to the grave once lands a big ol' open bar.

Freedom lives beyond my backyard. That is just a small clip of our song. Look, on YouTube right now, there's a whole conversation breaking out. If you're watching this, you know, I wear a headband often. And, you know, a lot of people come at first it started with negatives, with people like, who dresses this man, Jerry Garcia?

And now the comments, which, yes, yes, he does. And now the comments are, you know, we should call it the headband of truth, the headband of liberty and freedom. So I think people are getting on the headband craze. Well, someone was asking. I'm wearing the headband from the music video. You know, this is a collector's item.

You could make it an NFT or something. I mean, there's so much sweat stored in this thing right now from that video shoot, because I don't know, I decided that in the middle of summer, when we're about to record this, or right at the beginning of summer, I'm going to wear a hoodie jean jacket. And, you know, right in, it was hot. So Veronica on Facebook said Texas Neanderthal here. So I'm wondering.

Oh, it's like the deplorable. Because when, when Hillary Clinton said a basket of deplorables about these, she was referring to conservatives when she said that, is this going to be the new thing? Are we going to be Neanderthals?

Those of us that followed the real science? Yeah, there are people will also asking if we're going to be playing at, you know, conservative rallies around the country. You know what?

Available for bookings. I don't know. I mean, we got one song, but you know, I can play it two or three times. We had a question from Leanne earlier that said she was on YouTube asking, what's the band's name?

So have you come up with that yet? I know it's just Logan Sekulow right now. It's just me. I'm a solo, Will. Sorry. Could we be the headband of truth? The headband of truth. Headband. And the headband. Right. That's what I mean. Just headband.

Oh, yeah, we could do that. I don't know. Yeah. It feels a little. Logan Sekulow and the headbands. Yeah.

I have a big stack of them. Yeah, we could all wear them. You all have to wear it.

I don't think that this noggin is shaped for a headband. I don't know. It covers up a lot of forehead. It'll be good. That's why I do it, you know.

Shortens up the forehead. Let's take some phone calls. We only have two minutes, but let's take, quickly, I'll take Nancy in Missouri on line one. Nancy, you're on the air. Thank you for taking my call.

I did want to make a couple of little comments about the opening up. I live in McDonald County, Missouri, which is the most Southwest County in Missouri. And it's a very rural area, so I don't live in a town. But my library is open. I don't have to wear a mask there anymore. Don't have to put the books up to be cleaned.

And I can go grocery shopping without a mask. And since we live so close to the Arkansas state line and we do get a lot of news from Arkansas. The University of Arkansas has opened the girls softball.

They are posting. Yeah, they've opened it up. The girls soft regional, super regional is open.

The whole. It's packed. It's at capacity. I think I know what you're saying here.

We are running out of time here, but Nancy, thank you so much. And that is happening. And I think there are people like Nancy who are a little frustrated with their states. Because they're not necessarily in the capital. They're not necessarily maybe in the only liberal spot in their country or in their state.

And they're controlled by that. And we've seen certain states be like, you know what? We need to start being annexed. I was the western or eastern part of Oregon, actually.

The five counties voted to become a part of Greater Idaho. Yeah, I mean, look, we'll not spend some time in southern Illinois and southern Illinois is more southern than Tennessee. I mean, it's I love it there. It's great.

But you don't believe that you're being ruled ruled ruled by what's going on in Chicago. Right. When you were there. Hey, we'll be back with the last segment of the show for today. Thank you all for listening. Give me a call right now.

One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. And even one of our friends was outside of Atlanta in Buford, Georgia. It's against how like we know Georgia's turned blue. They decided a boiled peanut stand and said, Biden, enough is enough.

Do something about the crisis. That was a boiled peanut stand. And now we're outside of Atlanta. Look, we'll be back in just a second. Give us a call.

One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Check out all the work on aclj.org. And our new song available at BackyardSong.com or all of your favorite streaming services. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected.

Is there any hope for that culture to survive? And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, playing Parenthood's role in the abortion industry and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at aclj.org slash gift. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice for decades now. The ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at aclj.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today.

aclj.org. And I'm excited to hear maybe things are going to happen. Karen in New York, you're on the air.

Hi there. I'm in western New York, aren't we? Between Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

And I can now go into quite a few stores and restaurants without a mask on. I can't go to every place I want to. And the one thing that I really have complained about is I have two grandchildren in Buffalo City schools. One is a sophomore in high school. The other is an eighth grader. And the eighth grader just went back to school two weeks ago.

The sophomore went back about a month ago. And they are so losing out on education. And the superintendent of schools gets on TV and oh, he's all excited about how they're going to open completely next year. But they've destroyed the kids education here. It's been a rough year. I think it's been a rough year for around the country. I was blessed that our kids were in school for the mass majority of the year here.

But, you know, they were masked. There was definitely a decline. I think Will said there are reports that in the future we know there's going to be potentially an economic impact. The fact that the kids were were really the ones who suffered the consequences of a lot of this.

And look, a lot of us obviously had had dealing with it. But when it comes to kids and schools, there's a lot of people who agree with you. Look, we're headed now. A lot of kids are off already for summer. I know North it may take it's a few more weeks, maybe even a month or so of schooling left. I know for us here, we're we're done for the summer. And we are already seeing schools here in the south saying specifically, hey, we're not going to require masks next year. We're going to start.

We're already seeing them say that. I think that's a good sign for you in New York. I think there's a lot of people who are like, we're wanting to get to New York. I love New York. I live there for a good portion of my dad's from there. It's been a lot of time there. I lived there for a year of my life.

I miss it. I it's a place we go at least once a year for a couple of weeks. I look forward to getting back to the state of New York all over, whether it's Manhattan or or where you are or go see Niagara Falls, wherever it is. There are a lot of people that want to get back to those states. And I'm glad things are happening there specifically, because I think there was a big concern that California, New York were going to be the ones who were going to be the holdouts. But we're seeing Broadway reopen. We're seeing sort of the culture start to get back going in those areas.

And and that's a positive sign. And hopefully, like I know specifically in California, there's a lot of push to at least alleviate somehow what happened to their kids schooling for the last year. Well, and you referenced this, but it was from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. They did a study on what the cost of learning loss was from the school closures. And they, through their economic analysis, predicted that it will reduce the United States GDP by three point six percent and hourly wages by three point five percent by the year 2050. And the researchers actually were suggesting that they add another month of school to the this upcoming school year, the twenty twenty one twenty two school year because of that loss of learning. So the cost that you and I, I know we're very concerned about the entire time. It was one of the reasons that we did a lot about school choice during the pandemic and tried to help students and parents in any way we could through the school choice initiative at the ACLJ was because we were concerned about that loss of learning and what that would do. How would it affect children, their future and also the nation as a whole?

And when you look at these percentages, those are pretty drastic numbers of an effect on our economy of three point six percent and hourly wages of three point five percent over the next several decades as the children that are school age now enter the workforce and are having to cope with of essentially having a missing year of schooling. That's a big deal. And I think it's something that we will start to see more of people talking about as we go forward. And the impact of that really starts to come out.

Yeah. And I think that and I said the Zoom schooling, all of that, I think a lot of it's coming to an end. I know there are certain schools in this area who already said, hey, next year, we're not even going to offer it.

If you get sick or you're quarantined, sure, maybe we'll give you a link. But unless that happens, no, you're not going to have the option. I think that's the right move as the year progresses, because they know they've seen the grades, they've seen the issues kids have had. We can't do this another year for our kids. Let's move on. Take another call. Let's go to Teresa, who's calling in Kansas online to Teresa.

Hi, I want to first thank you for taking my call. And I wanted to say that the Democratic governor here in Kansas has restricted travel to Colorado and I believe a few other states unless you've been vaccinated. And it's all driven because there's a lot of people in Kansas that don't believe in the vaccination at this point. And it's just their way of trying to manipulate us and control us, just like we're seeing across the whole United States.

Yeah, I think that that's going to be true here. They're going to see places they've done this. A lot have gone into this sort of you'll see a lot of businesses saying this right now.

They're almost saying, hey, you self-police yourself. We're going to say we'd like you to be fully vaccinated, but we're not going to be there saying show us your card, show us these things. A lot of these places don't have the staff to do it.

I mean, that's the big problem. They don't have the staff to even mandate these things because how are they going to even have they can't get a workforce right now. So hopefully, as we know, a lot of the states and specifically, I think a half dozen or so or a dozen states, specifically in the southeast, as it seems to be, because, you know, Florida does well with it, Tennessee, those states have said, hey, we're going to get rid of the pandemic unemployment benefits and start going back to normal when it comes to those situations with that. Hopefully we see the workforce increase and maybe they can.

But for right now, they don't have that ability. So, Teresa, I know that there are places where they are still trying to restrict. They're still trying to take hold of power. And hopefully we'll see that end because a lot of people are speaking out against it around the country. So I've been seeing California, New York, those places reopen, places that were as most locked down as you can and also hit maybe the hardest because of it. Look, there's two minutes left in the show and in this show saying, I hope you guys have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend as we think about and and talk about and pray for our soldiers and those who have lost their lives. As we have people who are currently in war, people that are are going to be and people that have and have served and people who sadly obviously passed away.

So we want to make sure that we we celebrate that, celebrate the freedoms we have. I know it's a holiday for a lot of people and I hope you have a good weekend as summer gets kicked off, hopefully the right way. You know, last year around this time, it did. It was pretty grim. And things were not looking good in terms of what our summer could look like and end up being an interesting year, to say the least.

Now, we're a year past that. Was there good? Yes.

Was there bad? Absolutely. But now hopefully this starts a new chapter of America and we can be a part of it this summer as you go and explore and and get back out there, see your families, go to destinations, travel restrictions are loosening up. And that is a great thing. And obviously, as we've been promoting all day long, there is a brand new song that specifically touches on that topic called Freedom Lives Beyond My Backyard.

I wrote it. I hope you like it. It's available at BackyardSong.com or just find it on YouTube and watch it, enjoy it, share it with your friends and family. Have a good party with it. Laugh with it. There's definitely some humor in there.

And again, I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, really a wonderful summer, because it's time to get back out there and explore what this nation has to provide. You can find it on Spotify. You can find it on Apple Music. Again, the YouTube.

You can find the music video at all our social media outlets. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Again, new blog by Mike Pompeo up there. It's a great read for this weekend.

And Will, anything else? Just go to BackyardSong.com. We're going to play a little bit of the music here as we end this show today. But go watch it now.

BackyardSong.com. Yeah, as this show wraps up, just immediately. That's what I'm going to tell you to do. Just go right over there. Watch it and then share it with your friends.

We'll be back next week with more on Sekulow. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today. ACLJ.org.