PragerU’s Commencement — Glenn Beck Urges Grads to Preserve History as They Look to the Future: ‘You’re History Keepers’

It is crucial to preserve history as one looks to the future, Glenn Beck said in PragerU’s special commencement address video for America’s graduates, titled “Saving History: The Case for Clay Pots.”

Beck took a different approach in speaking to America’s graduates, discussing the importance of the past rather than only looking ahead to the future.

“Graduates, congrats on making it here, but I have some tough news. Your future, it’s not guaranteed,” Beck stated starkly, straying from the traditional commencement speech.

“I know that’s not the usual ‘go chase your dreams’ spiel that you usually hear at a commencement. I’m not here to fluff reality. I’m here to give it to you straight, and the straight truth involves clay pots — clay pots, and what someone found inside of those clay pots,” he said, detailing the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, as a herder in the Judean desert threw a rock into a cave and heard pottery shatter.

Ultimately, this resulted in the discovery of what is now known as the oldest surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible, from 300 BC.

“But think about this. For centuries, the Jewish people faced invasions and atrocities — the Babylonians, the Romans, the Nazis, you name it — scattered worldwide. And what kept them going faith in their God and their texts,” he said, noting that this discovery in 1947, “right after the Holocaust and just before Israel’s rebirth,” surfaced, proving their story was not myth at all.

“All because someone over 2,000 years ago, hid those pots in a cave. That hits me hard. History isn’t just there. It has to be kept — physical stuff, scrolls, letters, objects. It grounds us in what’s real,” he said, making an example out of George Washington crossing the Delaware.

“It’s a defining American moment, right? But imagine if some skeptic says, ‘Nah, never happened.’ How do you push back? Well, paintings, diaries, eyewitness accounts, stuff preserved from the time,” he said, explaining to graduates that we all assume that history is safe, or we assume someone else will ensure it. He said he believed that way too for a while, but his eyes have been opened the harsh reality over the past two decades. History is under attack.

“George Orwell nailed it in 1984 who controls the past controls the future,” he said, giving an example by pointing to the completely false, revisionist history of the leftist 1619 project, which the New York Times actively promoted.

“It claims America’s true founding wasn’t 1776 with the Declaration of Independence, but instead, in 1619, with the arrival of the first African slaves. Historians left and right say that’s way off base, but now it is taught in over 4,500 schools,” Beck said.

It did not end there, either, Beck continued, pointing to the mobs in 2020 who tore down statues of the Founding Fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and even Abraham Lincoln.

“They slapped warnings on the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, calling them triggering and harmful. What is happening? People are rewriting history that they don’t like. If this keeps up, the truth could vanish, replaced by whatever fits the loudest narrative,” Beck cautioned.

This led Beck to act to his own, collecting American artifacts in a museum and research library in Dallas, Texas, with “250,000 pieces and counting” in the American Journey Experience.

“History is not someone else’s job. It’s ours. It’s yours, It’s mine. It’s everybody’s. We have got to preserve it, the highs and the lows, all of it in our own clay pots,” Beck told graduates, reminding them that they are at the perfect place to begin doing this as 20 and 30-somethings who are “tech savvy” and “scrappy.”

“But this isn’t just for you teens. You’re building your own stories. Older folks, you’ve lived history. Your memories matter. We all have a stake. But start small. Grab a book from a used book shop about the founding or snag a vintage flag on eBay. Write your own life. Journal it. Post it. Whatever works. Record your grandparents’ stories on your phone. Those are gold,” he said, listing off a range of ideas to help graduates preserve their own stories and that of their family and country.

“Every piece you save is a thread to the past and a lifeline to the future. I hope it doesn’t get grim out there, but if it does, we need to be ready,” Beck said, urging them to imagine someone 1,000 years down the line “finding your clay pot, your journal, your artifact, your voice.”

“They’d see what America was and what it could be. Again, that is how we keep the story alive. You’re not just graduates. You’re history keepers. Don’t let that slip away. Your future is not handed to you. It’s built by you. So, get out there, collect the truth and stash it somewhere safe, your own clay pot. Because if we don’t, who will,” he said. “I’m counting on you.”

WATCH below: