What matters in Life.... - Political Ravings Forum

jamwadmag · #1 03.21.2008

Blue-collar comedian Jeff Foxworthy ('You might be a Redneck..'), a former IBM Engineer, and Glenn Beck, a recovering alcoholic, had a great conversation on Glenn's Mar. 21 show about 'what things are important in life.' Here is partial transcript plus link:

[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Political Forum Link.

Honest Questions with Jeff Foxworthy

Aired March 21, 2008 - 19:00:00 ET

...................

BECK: Jeff -- first of all, welcome. I just have to go over this. Think it`s fantastic. You`ve been married for 23 years.

FOXWORTHY: Twenty-three years.

BECK: Congratulations on that.

...................

BECK: But you can`t -- I mean, at least here (NY), I mean... <let your kids outside on their own in your neighborhood>

FOXWORTHY: My granddad worked at the fire station. You`d stop by and hang out with him, and you know, you came home when the street lights came on.

BECK: That`s what my mom used to say. I remember her saying, in my memory serves me right, come home before dark. She may have -- she may have just been like whatever.

FOXWORTHY: Whatever.

BECK: But I mean, that was it, you know. Come home -- come home before dark.

FOXWORTHY: And we`ve lost that.

BECK: We have.

FOXWORTHY: I don`t know where it went. But we did lose it.

BECK: How do we -- how do we find it again? Do we find it again? Because America, you know, I just read the president -- no, not the president of France, the foreign minister of France, who I follow closely, just said 'the magic of America is over.'

Is it?

FOXWORTHY: You know, I don`t know that. I mean, when I think about - - like I`m real interested in Africa. And I went over there we daughter a year or so ago. But I had somebody from Africa say, "At one point in the United States you must have had great leadership, because you were able to take all these different people from different origins and ethnicity and unite them towards a common cause." And he said, "We`ve never been able to do that in Africa. You have all these different tribes that won`t talk to each other."

And I thought, you know, that`s what America was. It was...

BECK: Melting pot.

FOXWORTHY: Was a melting pot that we all were, like, headed in the same direction, and it`s -- and now, it`s like the cattle drive have started to break up. You know?

BECK: Do you think that`s true or do you think it`s -- see, I used to think that was true. But I think -- I think -- I think the regular forgotten man America -- you know, just kind of the regular American that, you know, we all used to be. I think they`re more of us than the crazies, and we surround them. They don`t surround us.

I think people are sick of -- I don`t mean Democrat or Republican, you hate them both.

FOXWORTHY: Yes. You`re sick of it. You know, it`s like when I started doing the redneck jokes. And early on somebody said, "Well, you can`t do that. You`re talking about the lowest common denominator."

And I said, "I`m not. I`ve been to all 50 states. I`ve been to part of all 50 states. It is the most common denominator. It is the backbone of the country. These are the people that get up and go to work every day, that go to church. If you`ve got to go to war, they go do that. That`s what this country is."

For some reason, we`re silent. We let the ones on the outside make all the hoopla and we just kind of keep...

............

FOXWORTHY: I remember as a child, my mom would leave me, my brother and my sister in the car while she ran into the grocery store. If you did that to a poodle now, they would fry you on the 6 o`clock news.

And I tell you something else. Now that I`m grown and have kids of my own, I understand why my mother didn`t want to take three younguns in the grocery store. I would rather take a beating with a brick stick than take kids in the grocery store. Because soon as those doors slide open, those kids start begging like homeless people at Christmas time.

.................

FOXWORTHY: You got your theories. I`ll tell you one of the -- I think there`s too much going on. You know, it`s like the old thing, be still and know that I`m God. We never have be still moments anymore because we filled them up with -- used to be you in your car and go to wherever you`re car and somebody need you, call ahead and now we filled up everywhere moment of time. It`s like with the microwave making potatoes in six minutes and saved you an hour. What happened to that hour? I ain`t sitting around going I have an hour to kill. It is why we`re all ADD. There`s too many things to do and you don`t have those be still moments. You don`t -- you know, with your family. I mean, there`s always something going on.

And I don`t think we were intended to live that way.

BECK: No, we weren`t. We weren`t. I mean, you know what we did that changed our whole family is honor the Sabbath.

FOXWORTHY: A day off.

BECK: But really do it. My wife and I, we thought, um, when we first started honoring the Sabbath, we thought, OK, that`s cool and first started going to church and really starting to honor the Sabbath and after church we would go to the Taco Bell and sit an read the scriptures there in the parking lot and about halfway through I went, we probably shouldn`t be making the people at Taco Bell work. You know? But now, so now all we do is we only watch things that are spiritually uplifting. We only read things like that on Sunday. We take a day and shut it all off. Nothing.

FOXWORTHY: I think the whole idea -- was god going, you know what? I`ll take care of you every day. I`ll provide the manna every day. Take a day off from you putting out the effort and just trust me for one day. Just trust me one day and I`ll take care of you. We`ve lost that. We are like so do oriented now.

BECK: Yeah.

FOXWORTHY: We can`t just sit -- be still for a minute. I think it`s terrible. I think it`s -- it`s -- you know, to me, the older I get, life is all relationships. Life is about relationships with your family, with your friends and with your God. And it`s -- and the rest of it does not matter. I`ve been as poor as you can be. I`ve made money than I ever dreamed and the money doesn`t do it. It doesn`t.

BECK: The money is -- you know what? I think if you have the right perspective, money is just a by-product.

FOXWORTHY: But it really is. And I found that from being in L.A. because every day I went to work and around some of the most famous, some of the richest people in the world and some of them were some of the miserable human beings I had ever met and I was like, that`s not it. That ain`t the key.

BECK: This is a theory. I can`t get anybody in Hollywood to agree with me. I wouldn`t expect them to. I think the people in Hollywood -- I mean, the real -- you know, are some of the most miserable people on the face of the Earth. Because they have put everything into fame, beauty, money, stardom, sex, everything else all of the stuff that`s really totally meaningless. I think they`re empty inside. And .

FOXWORTHY: But when -- I think what`s happened to people is if I`m famous I`ll be happy or if I get rich I`ll be happy and when it doesn`t fill that empty space, you have nowhere to go and now you have no hope and that`s a real bad place.

BECK: That`s for me for alcoholism is what it was. I tried to fill it with -- every time I accomplish something, I think maybe it`s the next thing. I got to have this. Then I`ll be happy. Then I`ve got to have this. So what did you -- were you always filled? Did you -- what role does God play in your life?

FOXWORTHY: It`s a huge role in my life. I mean, since I was a little kid. Well, I mean, you know, my mother goes to church three times a week. Sings in the Baptist Church choir.

....................

BECK: Yeah. Do you know -- you don`t believe in a vengeful God?

FOXWORTHY: No, not at all. Not at all.

BECK: I think he is just like -- I think he is just like that. He`s a dad who`s just like, come on, man. I just had this conversation with my .

FOXWORTHY: I think that`s what God gives us children. I want to give you a little bit of how I feel about you. And the reason it`s perfect love is you can`t ever do anything to earn it. It`s just -- I just love you. I just love you all the time. And that`s the way you feel about your kids.

BECK: If you really -- my eldest daughter and I were just talking about this the other night that if you really -- if you understand God you really do understand how to be a parent. Because you never -- you never punish them to hurt them. You never do it with vengeance. You never take something away for any -- you want to give your kids everything.

FOXWORTHY: Absolutely.

BECK: You want to but you don`t because .

FOXWORTHY: But to me the key to why it`s a perfect love, when you do things because you have to, it`s not a perfect -- when you do things because you want to and I say that all the time at my house. I said if everybody in this house would act like I am third, we would never have a problem. You have God, family and friends and then you got yourself. If you put yourself third and do things because you -- I love you. I want to do this stuff for you, it would be a better place to live.

.......................

BECK: Do you think that that -- I think it partly -- you can answer policy or whatever. Talk politics if you want. No big deal if you don`t want. To I think that`s part of the thing that Barack Obama is appealing to Barack Obama. That guy`s policies make blood shoot out of my eyes but the idea what he says, we can be better. We can be better. I don`t think he`s going to make us better but we can be. But we've allowed ourselves to become something that we're not. We are that shining city on the hill and I think people really -- they want it with everything in them. It`s not deep down. They want it with everything in them.

FOXWORTHY: I always tell my kids, be kind and try. You have to try. And be kind. But -- but it`s all tied together, too. You know, that`s my frustration and I have always avoided political humor because I thought, I`m trying to make everybody in the room laugh. When you do political humor, you have half the room that hates you right off the bat but it`s -- you know, sometimes you have to go a little deeper. It is like, nobody wants to be at war right now. I mean, nobody. And the people that get up and go do this .

BECK: God bless them.

FOXWORTHY: Heroes, heroes, heroes and their families. But on the other hand, you got to have a plan. You can`t just say, we`re avoiding this because to me, if you think back to 9/11, one of the greatest tragedies -- horrible that all these people died and happened in New York City, but what happened was the airline industry and the hotel industry was almost destroyed in this country and the economy went right down the tank. They almost brought us to our knees and so to me I`m thinking, OK, right now as bad as we hate this, it`s in their backyard. If we just get up and go away, do you think it`s going to go away? To me that`s really naive.

BECK: Jeff, I have to tell you something. I think the frustration -- you saw the war numbers plummet. And that is only because I believe in -- I can`t find anybody to agree with me in New York City but I truly believe those war numbers plummet because America doesn`t mind fighting a war. They don`t want to but they don`t mind fighting a war but they know we can fight it and we can fight it fast and we can kick anybody`s ### and we can win. That`s the problem. It was kind of like for a while there, we were kind of like, what are we doing right now? Stop tying peoples` hands. Get `em!

You know what I mean?

FOXWORTHY: But when you`re going to sit here in an election and talk about the economy, and at the same time talk about, OK, we`re going to abandon this <Iraq War> and they`re not two separate issues. They're tied together.

...................

BECK: Got to go. A pleasure, sir. Pleasure. Jeff Foxworthy. America, from New York, good night.

END

jff.law · #2 04.11.2008

Foxworthy gave a big lesson for me. In my life what matters for me are my relationship with other (family, kids, neighbors, friends).

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes	Rate This Thread
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode	Rate This Thread:

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Political Forum	Replies	Last Post
Size matters condom experts told!	Cybergal	Everything Else	15	04.17.2008 07.52 PM
Ahmadinejad Says Israel Cannot Continue Its Life	WiseOne	World News & Politics	2	09.13.2007 02.19 PM

Political Ravings Forum - A Forum For Political Junkies
Sponsored Links