'Glenn Beck': Find the American Spirit Within You

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," August 17, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: Last night, people watched the show and I got some mail. I want to talk to you about it because there were people calling, "Hey, Glenn Beck. Why are you turning to God? You're giving up."

What? What are you talking about? Turning to God is a bad thing? That thought process flies in the face of everything this country has always been about.

Are we not — see if I have any money on me. Yes, there it is — "One nation under God" — right there. Isn't that what it says, "In God we trust"? Right there on the back of our money. We were founded on the notion of God.

To me, the mail that I got last night and people saying, "You are turning to God —" we should be turning to God as our first resort, not our last resort.

I mean, I can't tell you how many people were complaining to me, "Glenn, it's not time for that." It's not time? Really? Our Founders certainly turned to them long before now. We turned — at the very beginning.

Prayer is not a sign of throwing in the towel and saying, "OK, well, I'll let you do it this time." You know, you don't lay there in bed and say, "OK, you let me know — I'm going to take a nap — when things are straightened out."

That's not what that is. You pray as if everything depends on God, but you act as if everything depends on you. This is more evidence that our faith has been perverted and corrupted.

Let me tell you something: There is nothing Americans cannot do. We are the people that changed the world. We brought hope and liberty to a planet that had never seen those things, never had experienced liberty before. That was us. That was us. Don't you know who we are?

We are the ones who always arrive on the scene of tragedies everywhere else in the world first. We're the ones. Oh, they hate us until they have a problem. Then they're the ones — they're like, "Oh, America, we love you so much."

Back in the 1970s, President Ronald Reagan reminded us — he reminded us — I love that guy — when we were at one of our lowest points as a nation, right after the mess in Vietnam, just a few examples of what America and Americans had accomplished. I read this speech. I think it was from 1975. I read this speech the other night. Wow! I think we need a reminder again on who we really are, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: All right. We're just talking about Ronald Reagan here for a second because I want you to know we face huge problems, massive problems, problems we've never faced as a nation before.

But who are we? That is what we have to decide. It told you Reagan, spoke of all the things that we have accomplished. And I'm not as eloquent as Ronald Reagan. I'm going to steal some of his lines, paraphrase some of his lines.

But this is what he said in 1970s. He said, let me remind you we have increased our life expectancy by eradicating diseases that still wipe people out in other parts to of the world. We have more doctors per thousand people than any other nation in the world. We have more hospitals than any other nation in world.

Americans worked less hours for a higher standard of living than anywhere else in the world. The majority of Americans have televisions and equal number have telephones and cell phones. There are millions of cars on our streets and our highways. And you want to know how I know that? When you turn off the show and go home, look at the traffic.

Now, there are people that are cynical about America, who hate America. And look, we've made problems — all the decadence in America.

Really? That's what you find to talk about, about America? That's what you want to brag about, our decadence. Paraphrasing Reagan again — we also have more churches, more libraries. We support voluntarily more non-profit theaters, publish more books than all of the other nations in the world combined.

Somehow, America has bred a kindness into our people unmatched anywhere. We give more than any other country on Earth. We have always had a can-do attitude, not a "where is the government to do it for me" attitude.

What the heck is wrong with us? What have we turned into? Stop listening to the clowns in Washington and listen to yourself. Listen to your neighbors. You know what is right. Now, get out and do it.

Man, we are never going to make it if we just continue to whine and take it and just let some bureaucrat in Washington tell us what we're exactly supposed to do.

You know who can dig us out of this hole? Us. You know who can't? Washington.

Believe in the individual and the power inside of you. You have untapped, unrealized potential. Every single person on Earth does. But Americans have a way into it.

Well, it used to be just us, but let me tell you a story of a 10-year-old Chinese boy. He was playing hide-and-seek when he came in contact with a high voltage power line. He lost both of his arms. Did he cry "poor me"? Maybe. Probably, but not for long. Oh, poor me.

Whenever you think you are down and out and you can't do it, whenever you think the United States of America is down and out, go ask yourself — who are we losing to? China?

If it is, it's not because they have a better system in place. We just have a more corrupt system in place right now. But our system minus the corruption — far superior. But besides corruption, what has happened to us? If they beat us it will be because we have lost something that, somehow or another, the Chinese have gained.

And you know what they gained? Never, ever give up. Find your way around it. There is a TV show over in China and it's kind of our, you know, "America's Got Talent" thing. It's — I don't know "China Has Talent." It's clever.

I want you to watch the kid who has no arms and the talent that he has. Here it is.

I don't know about you — I'm not excited about the toe jam on the piano keys— but that is not the point. The point is, this kid found it inside — nobody's feeding him. He picks up a fork with his foot and eats. He's typing E-mail. He's using the mouse.

It's the triumph of the human spirit. That's what we had in spades. It's what helped Americans conquer the strongest army in the world. We were a bunch of farmers. It helped us conquer the Great Plains, the mountain peaks, the seas.

We went to the moon.

Why? Why? Not because we're Americans, but because we're Americans and that used to mean something. Find it inside of yourself.

We don't need to explore outer space. We need to explore inner space. Find it again inside of yourself and we are going to be fine. We need it now more than ever.

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