we're closing down shop. thank you for being with us tonight. see you again on monday. make sure you follow us on twitter, twitter.com slash gretawire. until then, keep it right here, the o'reilly factor is next. i'm putting news up on greta wire. go there now and check it out. book news. up in about five minutes. gretawire. [applause] >> hello, america. all this week i have talked to you about some pretty spooky things and some uplifting things. i want you to know that my wife actually told me one time, we went to a friend's birthday party, and swear to you, this is exactly what she said, she looked at me and said don't you

dare make anybody cry. i have a tendency of bumming people out. but i tell you there are great, great, powerful things coming our way. but we have to get into shape. we have to be ready for it, because miracles come when we expect them, when we deserve them, and when we understand that we are the maker's hand, we are the instruments that he performs miracles with. all this week i've talked to you downsizing, getting rid of the crap in your life. i don't know about you, but i've got a lot of crap in my life. i've got a lot of stuff -- my wife and i were walking around the house, how did we gather all of this stuff? i want to talk to you about turning that unneeded clutter into resources that will help

either you be prepared for what may be a very tough road ahead of us by taking that money and buying food storage, getting extra supplies on your shelf, making sure that you're prepared, or joining me in another project. there's a great benefit to going through the purging process. a, money at the other end. but what my wife and i found out, tanya and i, we went through the house this weekend, and we were sifting through the stuff, and some of it has been packed away in boxes for years. and we looked at some of the stuff, and some of the stuff we argued over. for instance, she insists that i sell the woodrow wilson doll. no, i'm not selling it. why do we need a woodrow wilson doll? are you kidding me? the woodrow wilson doll is the best. >> what is it that america stands for? >> he talks, too.

this is the greatest. it scares the neighbors. we sewed a discussion on a few things, but it was fun. there was a flood of memories. everything that we looked at. we're, like, oh, my gosh, remember when we got that, or do you remember this? it will remind you about the good times and bad times, all the ups and downs in your life, and remind you even in the bad times we are so incredibly blessed. we are blessed to live in a country that provides freedom of choice, freedom to choose your own path, to self-determination, the ability to gather our own unique set of memories, if you will -- i mean, i don't know how long it sat on the shelf before i came into the store. we gather our memories in whatever shape or size we choose.

it has been said that you never really fully appreciate something until you lose it. i'm a recovering alcoholic. and i will tell you that i guess the under-- is the understatement of a lifetime. i didn't understand, i didn't value my own word. i didn't value honor or integrity as an alcoholic. any alcoholic tell you, man, we're good at lying, because we've lied most of our lives. if you can fool yourself, you can certainly fool systems you never full -- physical somebodyu fully understand yourself. until i realized i didn't have honor or integrity, i wanted it back. it's been a long, hard road to

get it back. i don't know if many of us appreciate what this country means, what freedom means, the freedom unmatched anywhere else in the world. i'm sorry, but we're not like the rest of the world. we do not want to lose it to appreciate it. ronald reagan said this -- those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again. it is true. if we're lucky, our children will taste it again. but have we done enough to even teach them that it's worth something? our children will not mourn for something they didn't even understand. what is our freedom about? stuff? we don't even know our own history. millions have died for what most of us now take for granted.

countless treasure has been spent to further the cause that i hope we hold dear. a greater amount has been -- has been wagered all around the globe to destroy it. you've heard me tell this story a million times before. it's about ben franklin. he walked out of the constitutional convention in philadelphia, and a woman approached him and said, what have you given us, mr. franklin? he said, a republic, if you can keep it. can we? that statement looms larger today than perhaps any other time in our history, maybe with the exception of the civil war. take the time to consider the values and the principles and the history of this country, what we were founded on. the values and the principles, the role they play, not only in our country, but they play in

our own life. it is my goal, i really truly believe with everything in me that this audience will change the course of the nation, and thus change the course of the world, if we are our highest self. if we have -- if we've done the hard work. and it's hard, especially before the problem really hits. i ask you tonight, take an inventory of your own life. take the 40-day and 40-night challenge, a blueprint for national survival. i ask you, in 40 days, please, with a firm reliance, we mutually pledge to each other our sacred honor, it's a four-step process, all outlined on the website. please take that. take a moment to find and center

yourself, take a moment to be thankful for the blessings that is the united states of america. at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it is also time to learn our own history and share it with your family. talk to your children about the real story of the first thanksgiving. do you even know the story? it was 1621. pilgrims had come to this country in search of freedom, freedom to worship god from tyranny. they had a reason to be miserable, not thankful. 102 of them had made the trip to the new world, and on this day only 53 of them remained. by all accounts, their stay up to that had been a disaster, and yet they all gathered to give thanks. they thanked god for sparing those who remained, and for bringing them to this new land.

half of them had died. yet they thanked god. they thanked him for the indian friends who provided much of that day's feast. what have we turned thanksgiving into? football, overeating, and sleeping on the couch like that. so we're homer simpson sometimes. at least i am. i challenge you to change this habit this year. make thanksgiving 2010 a return to the first thanksgiving, a return to reflection, a return to appreciation for what we have, a return to thanks, thanks for the blessings. we all may die -- you know, they sat at that table, and somebody had to look each other in the eyes and think, you could be dead next week.

we've lost half of them. but they found inside of themselves to say, man, aren't we blessed. christmas is the next holiday. and christmas is another holiday that is strayed a million miles away from where it began. early americans weren't sure how to do the holiday. i mean, they didn't know what to make of it. it was actually in boston, did you know this, outlawed in boston in the late 1600s. congress was on session on december 25th, 1789. they were working. they didn't close anything down. the churches back then thought celebration of christmas was tawdry and demeaned the sankity of religion. only if they could see it now. do you kno christmas became a federal holiday and everything

changed? 1870. 1870. and even then things were so much different. there was no black friday. there was certainly no cyber monday. and if gifts were exchanged, they were almost always made of the homemade variety. if you were a kid in the typical american family, you might get one gift. sometimes it was just sugar. it would be the highlight of the entire year. thanksgiving and then christmas are part of what i call the trilogy of holidays, the third being new year's, the reason why we always fail on new year's resolutions is because we haven't been grateful enough to get down on our knees and be humble enough, and then see the little baby jesus and realize, holy cow, he's here to give me a second chance. i break these holidays down like this. thanksgiving, fall on your knees and give thanks. in the process, realize -- again, thanksgiving.

don't make it a compound word. separate it. give thanks. the best way to give thanks is to give. give back. christmas celebrating the birth of christ, the symbol of redemption, slate wiped clean. we can start all over again. the past space time. there's no space and time. it's space time. it's a point in a map. what's past is past. that's where we were. great. where are you going today? new year's is the one that we think gives us a fresh start, but it really doesn't. the new year is just the starting line. these two are the ones that give us the opportunity to start fresh. i'm in the process of doing research for a new project that i'm working on for next year.

i'll tell you about it next year. and it's pretty ambitious. i don't think anybody's ever tried it on television before, at least not on a show like this, not on cable news. and i don't know if anybody's going to watch. and that's okay. but in the process of doing research for this, i stumbled across a story of a little town in ohio called wilmington that not very long ago it was named one of the top places to live in america. it was a "dream town." it was right out of an norman rockwell painting. it's a great town. in the course of 24 hours in november of 2008, wilmington went from dream town to american nightmare when dhl, the shipping company, announced they were closing their facility and they were laying off 9500 people in a town of 12,000. short time later, "60 minutes" dubbed wilmington ground zero

for the nation's economic crisis, pronouncing this town dead on arrival. i grew up in a small town that everybody pronounced dead. i love small town america. it is the heart of us. let me tell you something right now, i don't care what "60 minutes" says, wilmington is not dead. it's not, thanks to gritty and determined citizens. they have come to embody and represent the true american spirit. they look out for one another. they're working together. they're rebuilding a little town they call home. and the government isn't involved. the churches are. there's a woman named molly. she's a nurse. she's married to a firefighter. she couldn't stand to see the historic denver hotel shut its doors. well, molly's never run a hotel. i mean, look at this little hotel.

she didn't know what to do. she didn't even have the money to buy it. so she went up to the owner and said, you can't close the doors. how can i help? what can be done to keep it open? the seller was so impressed with her passion that he sold her the place, not with a contract, but on a handshake. he agreed to even finance the purchase himself. he said, you know what, molly, i'll sell it to you. oh, i don't know if -- no, no. you can do it. they shook hands on the deal. molly has a very long way to go to make sure this hotel is a success, but so far she hasn't missed a payment. then there's the story of the local fire marshal who went to inspect a place called the sugar tree ministry, an outreach to those in wilmington, and there's need now. upon finding several code violations, he wrote out a ticket, gave them a warning notice. then he went back to the firehouse. and he said, guys, come on, grab

your stuff. all the firemen came and they made the needed repairs. so this could keep its doors open. that's who we are. that's america. no, that's not who america is right now, but that's who wilmington is. wilmington is a city fighting to be bedford falls, not pottersville. and i personally plan to roll up my sleeves and help. if they will have us, i'm going to pay a visit next month, and i'm going to do the show from that little street, and i'm going to ask all the folks in nearby dayton and columbus and cincinnati and cleveland, wherever else you might be to join me, kind of a mini 8/28. not extravagant or big. i'm going to do a show in the local theatre that last year

they did a show in, because they do it every year, they do a show about the history of their town, and the furnace went out. and people came, but they were sitting in jackets. but they still came. i'm going to do a show there. i invite you to come. i'll give you more information. we're going to celebrate america's first christmas. we're going to find real hope, where everyone else has found despair. what i'm asking the people in wilmington -- they're hearing this announcement for the first time -- i'd like you to make christmas presents for people, but things that my kid would want or i would want that would remind me of a better time, something that has value. if you happen to be watching this show, you're like my grandmother, you're making a quilt. will you bring it? will you sell your wares, your goods, because i'd like to invite my friends and the people that watch this show to come on that day. and maybe we can open up some of the closed storefronts and we can sell things for christmas.

will you help us? i can't think of a more meaningful christmas present to buy for somebody than something that has the circle of giving in it. i'll give you more details on it this week. if you can join us in wilmington, great. but wherever you are, make a difference this holiday season, the three holidays. strip away the very near of empty traditions we've -- veneer of the empty traditions we've pasted over the real meaning, and look for the light, the real reason behind these holidays. it's not about stuff. can we together celebrate america's first thanksgiving and america's first christmas again as we prepare ourselves to

become the people we were sent here at this time to be? you're here for a reason. on monday, i'm going to start selling some of the stuff in my house. i'm downsizing my life. my wife and i went through the -- i woodrow wilson doll stays with me. i said, it's either woody or you. but we're selling stuff, cutting our life in half really. i'm selling it up on a website called youpillar.com. look for it on monday. look for ways to join me on this quest, whether you keep the money and shore yourself up or you donate it to charity, either in your own town, or you join me in wilmington, ohio. final dales at glennbeck.com. i brought somebody in from wilmington, ohio, that i think embodies the spirit of america, not just wilmington.

i'm going to introduce you to him next. pç

[applause] >> as we approach the trilogy of

holidays we need to reflect on how fortunate we are. i want you to take stock of your own life. one city that recognizes this lesson is wilmington, ohio. i love this little town, and i have not been there yet. i've been watching it from afar. i can't really go out anymore, because it's either really good or really bad. and so my staff has been out several times to wilmington, and just talking to people. and the guy you're going to meet, he's a director of sugar tree ministries in wilmington. his name is allen willoughby. allen, you're the guy that when i heard this story, after all the things -- i heard the story of my staff saying, we just like to loo look at the theatre. and there was nobody there. the lady a couple doors down, i know where they hide the key, come with me, i'll let you in. i mean, it's really a great, loving town. but when i heard your story that

every morning you go in with the other people that work at the pantry -- what do you call it? >> we're a street ministry. many things. >> okay. but you look at the pantry shelves. >> uh-huh. >> you are seeing an enormous amount of people come through. >> yeah. >> there's real need there. >> yes. >> and every morning you put your hands on the shelves, right? >> yes, we do. we pray. >> and you pray that the lord will fill the shelves. when i heard that, i thought that's our town. you don't take money from the government. why? >> god is our source. he's our lord. and promised to take care of us. >> how did you start this? >> my wife and i, about 12 years

ago. many of the skateboard kids and the mohawk kids in our town, and some of the alcoholics and drug addicts, we wanted to build a place that they could come to a safe place, get off the streets and we could talk to them. >> right. >> that was our first intent. then we saw that they were hungry, that they needed shoes, that they needed groceries, things that we never imagined. it all started growing. >> how many meals do you serve a day? >> now, we're serving six days a week, about 150-200 people a day. >> and where is the food coming from. >> >> we have 32 churches involved with us, which is amazing. they provide the hot meals. 8,000 cans of food come in a month from the city, boy scouts, girl scouts. >> what's amazing, the more i looked into this town, the more i saw the spirit of independence

and the spirit of the way it really is supposed to happen is through the churches. all of the churches just seem to be working side by side on -- like everything. right? >> right. >> i mean, because that's an enormous safety net here. when you have, in a town of 12,000 -- >> yes. >> right, 12,000? and you had 9500 jobs lost in that town. >> yes. >> what was that blow like? >> it was unbelievable. >> staggering. >> uh-huh. >> you went from one of the best towns in america to live to now what has been dubbed a -- you know, what? the ground zero i think they named it. what i would like to do -- you're the first citizen i've actually spoken to -- is to highlight -- because america is about to get punched in the face. and we need to learn how to do it. we invade to learn and see

examples of people who are, like, well, wear not out, this is just changing temporarily, but we're not out. would it be -- what do the people in town -- what is it that's driving them? what is it that's pushing -- what was -- the hotel. no, it's not going to close. well, what is this? what's going on there? >> they're pulling together. we're realizing that there is strength in numbers, that we have faith. god has showed up. and we have a very unique thing going on. we have a group of people who have been praying for one year, 24/7. about 10 or 12 churches involved in that. it's been awesome. a tribute a lot of that to prayer. >> oh, yeah. >> our city does care about the poor, about broken people. >> sure. >> now, it goes beyond that and

our shoes. it's now the unemployed and underunemployed. >> you're a recovering alcoholic? >> i would have been an alcoholic at a young age if i would have continued in my ways. >> god bless. you stopped. how did you stop? i just liked it too much. you've been around enough to know that the thing that i think -- this is where we'll get into next -- i've got a couple of -- i've got a doctor and rabbi on the z. is there a rabbi and doctor in the house? yes, as a matter of fact, there is. that people get supplies -- and i did it -- where you think you're too broken, you can't be fixed, and it's not worth fixing. >> correct. >> you see the people firsthand, and, america, i'm about to show you the town that is not beyond repair and can pick itself up. and more importantly will pick itself back up, and quite possibly lead the way to teach

the rest of us how to do it. thank you. >> thank you.

other apparently candidates at the top of the hour. now back to glenn. [applause] >> america, let me tell you something, i'm going to make you a promise. let's start with the good news or the bad news? start with the bad news. things are going to get worse in america. they're going to. here's the good news. we win in the end. the good news is freedom doesn't belong to us. it's his. we're just stewards of it. and as long as we're good stewards, get behind him,

because he'll protect it, and he'll protect you. he will provide. we just have to be in a position to where god's not on our side, we have to be on his side, on his side. so i am -- i'm starting on a venture next year that i don't know where it's going to take me. i don't know where it's going to take you, other than good places, but i'm asking if you've ever given me an ounce of credibility, if you've ever trusted me on anything, i've never asked for your trust. i am on this one. because it's hard for people to do things before they feel they absolutely have to. please, trust me on this. come with me. downsize your life. start to appreciate right now what you have. this is a preparation for what i'm planning for next year.

use thanksgiving and christmas to humble you, prepare you, prepare yourself to celebrate thanksgiving. don't worry about whose house we're going to do, who's going to cook and everything. prepare yourself to be really truly grateful and thankful, and then prepare yourself to be humble enough to say, man, i've been given all of these gifts, and i see that i do have another chance. christmas. celebrate the holidays the way they were meant to be celebrated. my two guests are not under oath, but they're both friends of mine. i'm just saying, they can deny it all they want, but that's the truth. i'm glad you guys are here. keith, you've been working with me on this project for a while.

and let's start with gratitude. >> sure. >> what is gratitude and why is it important? >> it's tremendously important, because in fact gratitude allows you to bear witness to your life. you know, people don't tend to pause and think of their lives as they're written day by day, page by page. we tend to be visual almost watching it as a film, but in fact if you slow down and you think, what in my life am i really grateful for, and you may have to invoke loss to do this, by the way, it's a little bit like breathing, gratitude, you don't notice the things in your life that you're really grateful for until there's not enough oxygen in the room, right? >> yes. i had a test, the doctor stuck something down my wind pipe the other day. only eight second. i just need eight seconds. he puts it down my windpipe. that's the longest eight seconds of my life. you can't breathe.

whoa! you start to appreciate it when you start to again. >> correct. when you're asking people to do, to appreciate in advance -- >> yeah, i know. >> -- it's a journey. >> can it be done? >> it can be done, because in fact people can bear witness to their own lives. they have to be free to do that. they have to be individuals. they have to know who they are. and then you can be thankful, because you can say, boy, thanks for another day on my journey, mine. nobody else's. even if it's a tough day, it's your day and tomorrow again. >> rabbi, i want to talk to you a little bit he about -- because i'm not -- i'm not going to wilmington -- i'm going to get more -- i think this is the secret of giving. you get more out of giving than you give. >> yes. >> i'm going to wilmington, because just the stories that i told tonight restore me, give me hope, know that good people do exist. this little town exists. >> makes you fall in love with

america all over again. >> i don't want to appear as we're giving this town charity, because we're not. i see it honestly as the end of "it's a wonderful life," where everybody came and george was, like, wow, i didn't think it mattered. we have to take a break. when we come back, would you talk a little bit about the problem with charity, what it can turn into. >> yes, of course. >> wale do that next. [applause]ñ÷

♪ fare thee well ♪ farewell ♪ mr. gloom be on your way ♪ ♪ though you haven't any money you can still be bright and sunny ♪ ♪ sing polly wolly doodle all the day ♪

♪ hah

[applause] >> all right. back with keith ablow, a psychiatrist and fox news contributor. i feel like i should be dying down a count. and rabbi daniel lapin of the american alliance for jews and christians. rabbi, we're talking about gratitude and using the trilogy of holidays here. >> sure. >> humbling ourselves and

becoming grateful, because if you separate thanks from giving, don't make it a compound word, giving. >> yes. >> but giving has a dark side possibly to it. explain. >> well, very easily. in the sense that the torah depicts a blueprint for how the world really works. the way god built us is that it is very easy for us to corrode our souls, and receiving something for nothing is one of the surest ways of doing that. so in a divine high arca of giving, the highest way of giving is to enable somebody to earn his own living, because in so doing you give him something much more valuable than merely an income, you give him dignity and self-respect, precisely. it's interesting again in ancient jewish wisdom it is more important to give something to somebody who needs clothing than to someone who needs food, because food is just merely

physical survival. clothing is spiritual dignity. >> there's a problem that we see, and this is why oprah didn't build her school in america. she built it over in africa. when i read an interview with her -- i think it was oprah. it may have been gail that said there's a level of expectation in america. there's not real gratitude. if you give -- for instance, look at many, not all -- i mean, i've worked at soup kitchens before. you can see the people who have gratitude. you can see it in their eyes. >> yes. >> then you can see the others that are milking the system. there is something about being able to say -- to say thank you, to give back. explain, for instance, kids, kids in beverly hills versus kids that are working on the farm in oklahoma. >> yes. well, i sometimes think of what a sociologist would say arriving on this planet for the first

time. well, one thing he'd say for sure is one of the worst government words ever introduced is the word "indictment." a really bad word. another thing he'd notice is those two families you described. look, you've got this family in beverly hills where the children have one primary responsibility in life, to accept the keys to a bmw on their 16th birthday. and then you've got another family in, shall we say, a small town in ohio perhaps, where the children are expected to help, and think do chores around the house. and they ask mother and fath if there's anything you need us for before we go out and play. you say to your sociologist will have a better relationship with their children, surely not the one that just gives their children thing. in the real world, receiving with no opportunity to reciprocate corrodes the soul. >> and so it's those children that have an opportunity to do chores, an opportunity to respect mother and father. they are taught to honor and

their mother and father. those children love their parents more. >> when we come back, i want to talk to you about that, because that's in many ways -- there are people that need to be helped. there are people that need to be helped by our government that, you know, individuals can't, etc., etc., but how do we know -- where is that line? do you have any idea -- maybe you have some idea -- of is there a point, is there something that happens to people? we'll get to that next. [applause]

[applause] >> we're talking a little bit about gratitude. back with us is rabbi daniel lapin, dr. keith ablow, and allen willoughby running a mostly sunniry in wilmington, ohio. i'm going to be there in december. i ask you to come with me. just watch the show and you'll get more details. magic is going to happen again. we were talking, before we broke, about there's a turning point of giving somebody food

and they are so grateful. then it becomes an indictment. what? we had this last night. have you seen that happen? have you seen the transition and do you have any thoughts on what happens to people? >> we experience both sides of that story. >> right. >> many, many more than the negative side. >> sure. >> we have people come back, after they get back on their feet, say thank you so much for helping us, or come back and pitch in with us. that's a neverending story in our situation. >> have you ever seen anybody turn, where they were really grateful, and then all of a sudden they turn? >> oh, yeah. >> what happens to a man? >> i'm not sure. sometimes greed comes out of giving if you don't do it with the heart heart. it's strange, because we have experienced that before. >> rabbi, you said that it's the inability to payback, it makes you resentful that you can't -- that you can't give back. >> very much so, yes, because it

turns you into a -- a charity recipient, and heaven forbid the worst thing for a man or a woman is to be forced into a position where they view themselves no longer capable of being givers and makers, but just become takers. >> right. >> it gets back to love. really we're talking about the drama of conditional love versus unconditional love. right? if you can give someone something because you know that person has or what she will need to remake his or her life, that person will receive it differently, because they know you're not trying to induce dependency, not saying you're broken and beyond repair, you're merely giving in the expectation that, yes, they will give back. that expectation allows them to do it. >> it is pay it forward. you are required, you know, like those -- i'm so glad to hear that people who, you know, were

helped come back and help. they pitch in, they're the ones pulling others out of the gutter, you know, because that's -- that is what it's all about. i mean, and i don't think it ever ends. there are some people -- here are. there are broken souls out there who do turn a hand into a handout, because maybe they've had that experience of conditional love in their lives before. you have to be willing, as allen is, to say, listen, this isn't good for you anymore, because i love you. that's why you can't have more. rabbi, i'm sure you have, because you counsel people and -- >> that's exactly right. and to turn it into an entitlement means you've removed the obligation of appreciation and gratitude, because you're simply giving me what i'm entitled to. when you rob people of the opportunity to say thanks, you really are depriving people of the avenue to hope and optimism and the future. >> i had a bishop -- this is really hard. i had a bishop call me one time, somebody in my church had approached me and said, can you

help? and i could. the bishop called me at night, and said you're going to be approached, i think, by this individual. i said, oh, they already called. he said, please, i'm begging you, you don't. i said, but i can. he said don't, don't. he is not doing the things that he can do to take the next step. and until he takes that next step, don't. you will crush his spirit. it's amazing. okay. back in just a second.