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That I thought I've just got to take Some time off and think about why I was So unbelievably wrong so I went pheasant Hunting not that it was the pheasants Fault but that is kind of a way to clear Your head and I um And I wound up because bird hunting Really is again not good for the birds But very good for you and I wound up uh In South Dakota with Kevin among other People including a couple of my college Roommates and I was just I was so Impressed by him as a person and really Having spent my life in Washington I can Tell you if you're not from here the key Question about anybody who runs any Institution in Washington is how false Is this person Messages we can't immediately translate All of them so I I can't tell you what That meant there clearly is meaning The point is uh The man who runs Heritage is not false At all in fact my assessment of him was He's completely real he's a complete He's an honest person he means it he's Not playing a role and that was so Thrilling To me to see that and by the way it was Confirmed by one of Heritage security People who was standing backstage with Me and I asked him because the security Guys always know they're all former cops You know they've seen everything they

Have seen Humanity in various states of Drunken undressed like you can't shock Them and they know who's real and who's Not and I asked you know what do you What do you think And One of them said to me to my face I Would go to war for him And I thought and and these are the kind Of people who will tell you the truth I Mean like I don't even know his name but he meant It Um and so to see a leader a real leader At the helm of an institution that Matters that has the kind of throwaway That Heritage does was thrilling was Absolutely thrilling for me because the Story of the last decade is the collapse Of leadership not of the population the People remain Noble and decent so far as I can tell I still live here I'm never Leaving we have good people we have Terrible people in charge And not just of our government but of The institutions that I grew up in the Episcopal Church my high school you know I could just go on and on and on they're All run by weak people And you know it's the same in marriage You know weak husband causes angry wife Weak leaders cause an angry country That's true and to see someone who's not A weak leader at the helm of Heritage

Just thrilled me um so I wanted to come For that reason just being totally blunt With you and the second reason is to pay Homage and to give some measure of Thanks to Ed fulner for giving me my First job Which changed my life And I was To say I was not a promising hire would Be an understatement it's not false Modesty in fact if anything I'm Underplaying it but I was leaving College without a degree or a job and Attempting to marry my girlfriend which I subsequently did and ran into this Giant roadblock in the form of a Episcopal priest father who said no you Know job first Um and not only did I not have a job I Had like no idea what I wanted to do and So I applied to a couple of different Places the CIA if you can even imagine Um some boarding school in robot because I thought you know Morocco lower Standards maybe they'll hire me no and I I wound up at Heritage as you heard uh As a fact Checker copy editor Um at policy review the quarterly Magazine of the Heritage Foundation and That job absolutely changed my life I Was paid fourteen thousand dollars a Year plus a hundred dollar bill for Christmas which Dr fulner gave out Personally to the entire staff at least

Half of whom went downstairs and bought Liquor with it at the liquor store which I think is now part of the intern Housing Um but it was a long time ago it was so Long ago I smoked in my office that's How long ago it was that's like that's Like riding a mule to work just to put It in the context of American History Smoke in your office yeah it did Um in fact Matt Spaulding told me to Stop one day and I thought wow Uh This modernization program is moving too Fast for me I can't deal with it I've Always been conservative in the truest Sense but Matt you were right and I quit And anyway Um But yes it was a long a long long time Ago and in the course of that job though I didn't get rich to be honest with you Um I did learn what I wanted to do with The rest of my life which was become a Journalist and that was really under the Guidance of a man called Adam Meyerson Who ran it Who was On that was 32 years ago And to this day he really is the kindest Person I've ever worked for just kind And patient and exactly he thought I was Completely Nazi thought I was a lunatic And I could tell he thought that

But he was patient with me through my Entire year and a half there helped me Get my next job at a newspaper in Arkansas because no one else would hire Me but he set me up with this job he Walks into my cubicle and said do you Want to move to Arkansas And so I called my bride Who was a religion teacher at the local Episcopal school and I said do you want To move to Arkansas and what a wonderful Woman she's turned out to be and she Said of course is that near Colorado Quote quote Very much she was willing to go there Um very much in northeastern or at heart But uh and we did and we loved it but I Got there because Adam Meyerson felt That it was his job to help me get my Next job because his job was to train up Reasonable people and put them in Journalism even if it meant sending them To Arkansas Um And and I was thinking about Heritage This morning in the shower not a place I Think about it but I did today and what Makes it great and one of the best Things about Heritage over time Longitudinally 50 years say is that Heritage has always hired a lot of People And that is an underrated thing it Really is

Giving people a job even if it's 14 Grand a year plus a hundred dollar bill For liquor You change someone's life you put them On a trajectory at least that's true for Me I mean I had not succeeded in school To put it mildly and I did not feel I Was I always felt like I was smart not One other person felt that way Until I got to Heritage I'm not sure They were super impressed but they treat Him like an adult Because they had Heist they had high Intellectual standards they were Standards of honesty And you know the idea at Heritage when I Worked there wasn't just that you know We're fighting this war against the Other side of course but it did not Logically fall from that at Heritage That you could say whatever you wanted Because rotten didn't mean you could be Rotten They really huge to the highest Standards of factual accuracy Intellectual honesty they really meant It they did and even if you didn't agree With them they were very serious about They were intellectually serious people Every single person I worked with The receptionist in the office at policy Review was going to school at night to Learn Russian And then the week I started at policy

Review the Soviet Union collapsed Which was an amazing thing the coup Against Gorbachev in the third week of August 1991 was the week I started at Heritage and in retrospect of course you Never appreciate the significance of Things as they happen to you Can't really know what the movie's about Until it ends but at the time we didn't Really appreciate how well two things One our entire political orientation was Based on this war Between the United States and the Soviet Union this cold war but very much a war And every part of our politics as you Well remember those of you my age and Older remember every part of our Politics revolved around that central Conflict