Ben Berkwam (28:02)
Well, you know, it's something I. I think about again almost every day, and I pray about it. Lord, show. Give me the wisdom to know where to go and where not to go and what to say and what not to say. And there are many times where I'm in a position and it's only God's hand. There's a covering that I've felt that I can only describe as God's hand, God's angel armies going with me. And so I believe that everywhere I go, God leads my steps. And I also believe God has a time. And, you know, this life is finite. And so we are called for a certain number of days in this life. And within that time, the most important thing is that we get right with the Lord. And thank God Charlie was. And I thank God I know where he is tonight and we'll see him again. And so I go with that perspective. But I also do pray about is this the place to go? Because not to be stupid, you know, you don't just run, jump off a cliff and say, God protect me, you know, you follow his wisdom. And I do, I do think about that. And in particular as this, the violence, the rhetoric on the left increases. I get death threats. I don't talk about them, but I get death threats. You know, I consider it, I pray about it. I speak to law enforcement. I wear my vest when I'm in places. I carry my gun as often as I can. Unfortunately, come to a place like Chicago and you can't, only the bad guys do. And it's it. But it's definitely something, especially today. I mean, you can't not think about it even more. This is what the enemy wants. They want to kill us. And I've, you know, I hear it when I'm out at a protest multiple times a day. You can't not think about it. But I said it earlier today, there's a picture, and I don't know if the studio has it, but I started my journey after God turned my life around. And actually, I want to preface this real quick. So I was a drug addict, alcoholic that wasn't sure if I was going to end up in prison or dead. I was addicted to crack at a point in my life almost 10 years ago, and God set me free. He broke my chains. And as soon as he did that, the fear of man, the fear of what I'm walking into, it's not gone. There's a lot of times where I'm still afraid. But God has Given it's this weird feeling like, man, God gave me a second chance at life. I was going towards death, and he gave me new life. And that idea, and also knowing where I'm going, it really empowered me to just say, okay, I'm going to continue walking down this path, but still understanding that we're not called to be stupid. But when God turned my life around, I was back in Berkeley in 2017. The battles of Berkeley. And it was the first time I went out there with my MAGA hat on. I walked out, actually. My wife was eight months pregnant at the time. We had our first daughter, Chloe, who was six years old at the time. I dropped them off to go shopping. I said, hey, girls, I'm just gonna go, you know, interview some of these people and I'll come, I'll call you when I'm ready to get picked up. And two or an hour and a half later, my. I had to call them on somebody else's phone because I had been attacked. And I got attacked by Antifa. They stole my hat. They went running into the crowd. I ended up getting hit over the top of the head with a stick, the side of my ear. And the worst part about it was my daughter had to pick me up and see me with my bloody head. And I went home that weekend and I thought about it and I prayed about it after getting stitches and going home. And I thought, man, is this even worth it? Is it worth taking the risk with these evil, evil people? Because I know I knew who they were then. Antifa. These guys, they're evil. They're demons. They're led by demons. They're people that are led by demons. And what I ended up deciding was, if I don't do this, they're going to have to do this. My children and my wife are going to have to do this. And as the husband and the father, the leader of my household, I can't not do this. I can't not stand up for them and for this community and for this nation. And so, no, it doesn't dissuade me at all. If anything, it just shows me how much more we need strong men to stand up in this generation who aren't cowards, who aren't afraid, who aren't cowards. Like the coward that hid on top of that building while Charlie Kirk engaged this generation to change hearts and minds. And this scumbag took that away. That evil and that cowardice has to be defeated, and it will only be defeated by brave men. And so I think about it. But if anything, it just drives me to say, okay, now we stand up even more and we're going to defeat this enemy. And this is the enemy that's very, very clear right now.