IN DEENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
# 291
February 18, 2021
“The Task at Hand”
In many ways this is the easiest column I have written, in other ways, the hardest. Life is like that vine that wraps itself about the limbs of rural Indiana trees, bittersweet.
In 1989 I bought my then 70-year-old mother radio. It was a small table model, not of the type I knew as a child. Those wonderful radios were pieces of art-deco furniture. Fine wood, ours was at least four feet tall and sported a multi-piece dial that could switch bands with the flick of your fingers. Some far-away stations broadcast a strong signal easily picked up hundreds of miles away. One was the famous “THREE W E,” Cleveland, Ohio.
Radio was key to American entertainment through the Second World War. Most Americans heard of Pearl Harbor by radio. FDR’s famous “Fireside Chats” commanded attention in homes from coast to coast. Dramas like “The Shadow” and “Inner Sanctum” held rapt listeners in — to put in another plug — “Suspense.” Comedy also held a place in the lineup. “Fibber McGee and Molly,” along with “Our Miss Brooks” inspired laughter with good, clean fun. “The Jack Benny Show” and that familiar entreaty “Rochester…” brings back memories to a lot of us. Those shows had no nasty, vulgar words or insulting jabs so common today. Lines were funny and clean. Evenings gathered around the radio was commonplace for families decades ago and; for many of us, awaken fond memories.
Soap operas brought in a daytime audience. I still remember my grandmother sitting at her sewing machine listening to “The Romance of Helen Trent.” Hearing the cars shift gears is comical now, but oh so familiar then. That the names of those radio shows come to mind so easily gives you an idea of how important they were in family life and highlight an important aspect of their influence — their lasting ability.
A few years shy of eighty, I realize that over the years I have lost people in my life that I consider highly influential. One was my father. I was 38 when he died, but my formative years were awash with his wit and wisdom. He had a keen sense of humor and loved a good joke. Like my husband, it didn’t take a lot to trigger one from his deep repertoire of material. He laughed a lot as I recall and was always very good in emergencies. He kept his head.
I can trace his loss more to habit than years. He was just 64 when he died. Far too young. At this point I have already outlived him by thirteen years. Having been born on the 13th of the month, he poked fun at superstition. Such was his attitude toward my thirteenth birthday. September 13, 1957 was the 256th day of the year 1957 in the Gregorian calendar. There were 109 days
remaining until the end of the year. The day of the week was Friday. If you are trying to learn Spanish then this day of the week in Spanish is viernes.
Papa loved anything mechanical and cameras certainly fell into that genre. I wish I had the picture he took of me that day. I was standing under a ladder holding a black cat. My mother always had cats, so it wasn’t a hard prop to find at our house. Again, the humor element….
Although there were attendant causes for his death, smoking certainly fit into the picture. While the habit still beckons to people worldwide, it is probably more difficult to explain to the younger generations. Big tobacco had a wide reach in the 1920s and 1930s. Advertising was left to ingenuity. Oh, there were magazine ads, yes; but the real customer was Hollywood. Tobacco companies paid for actors and actresses to smoke in the movies. Considered chic and glamorous, it exerted a lot of influence on audiences.
Who can forget the final scene of Bette Davis and Claude Rains in the final scene of 1942’s “Now Voyager.” Even the dialogue sticks with avid movie fans.
“Don’t ask for the moon. We have the stars.”
How does this fit with today? Stars are beacons and command attention. Yesterday, I, along with millions of other listeners, lost just such a presence with the death of a radio icon. If you are a listener even for a short time, you will have heard the familiar line, “… from my formerly nicotine-stained fingers.” Yes, Rush smoked and joked about it. Yet, smoking is no laughing matter. It probably contributed to his losing his life. Back to him….
A little research gives us his biography. Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was an American radio personality, conservative political commentator, author, and television show host. Best known as the host of his radio show The Rush Limbaugh Show, he was nationally syndicated on 600 AM and FM radio stations.
It should come as no surprise, I am a “Ditto Head” and proud of it. I have a sweatshirt from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies and a greeting card emblazoned “Rush for President, ‘96” in my office. Back to Rush….
Born Rush Hudson Limbaugh III, January 12, 1951, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, he
Died February 17, 2021, in Palm Beach, Florida, home of the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, “E.I.B.” and its “Golden Microphone.”
Many of the Limbaugh men were lawyers. His brother David is an accomplished lawyer and writer. His books are amazing. Talent, while “on loan from God” was not limited to Rush. Long-time listeners would hear him laud the example set by his family and the values deeply instilled in him by generations of forebears.
Anyone who has ever walked into my woodshop has seen “Ditto” on my dry erase board. A listener for well over thirty years, I seldom missed a show unless life and responsibilities drew me away from an available radio. I downloaded a chart of Rush stations so that I could listen in the vehicle when traveling. With the advent of “I (Heart) Radio,” I could pick up his show on my Mac. (He was a big supporter of Steve Jobs and anything Apple. We had that in common!)
In short, his show was a daily routine for me.. Like the theme from “M.A.S.H,” those first few notes of “My city was gone” by the Pretenders guitar heralded another edition of Rush. The 1982 song now has a life of its own.
Over all those years, I gleaned more than I could ever have expected the first time I listened. My passion is history — American and world — so I fully appreciated his attention to detail and his amazing way of putting really difficult happenings in lay terms that anyone could understand. As a former teacher, I can say that takes real talent and background.
I laugh when I remember “Dan’s Bake Sale” in Colorado. Long-time listeners will know just what I mean by this. The entire story links to our 45th president and a call that Rush took from a listener on “Open Line Friday.” Let me quote just some of it to provide a proper context. It gives weight to the fact that Rush Limbaugh inspired virtually millions of his listeners.
CALLER: “Mega dittos, Rush. I listened to you since 1987 before you had that bake sale for Dan up in Colorado. I was calling to know that we have a president who’s a street fighter. He’s not gonna back down because of the fact that he was raised and brought up being for God, home and country. Plus, he came up earning his way. He’s won and he lost lots of money. He knows the inside of running a business and everything, and he’s gonna run the country the same way. So that’s why I voted for him, and I would still vote for him.
RUSH: You don’t have any regrets about voting for him?
CALLER: Not at all. And the thing is, usually when I answer a questionnaire that I go apply a job, I skip over what my ethnicity is, because I am Afro-American. I consider myself an American. That’s all I am is an American, and that’s why I’m for America ’cause I was raised up the same way.
RUSH: Wow. That’s incredible. So you’re not hyphenated at all. You just call yourself a flat-out American?
CALLER: I’m an American. I am an American. I believe in our country. I believe in God, home and country. This country has given us many opportunities. Even when we fail, it allows us to be able to take it back on our feet if we’re willing to work, and we can achieve despite whatever else is going on. That’s why I like Trump. Because Trump is a fighter. He will not quit. He’s using the tools he has at hand and he’s gonna succeed because of that. He’s not gonna allow his party to beat him, he’s not gonna allow the Democrats to beat him, he’s not gonna allow the media to beat him.
RUSH: Let me ask you a quick question. Is there anything that the mainstream media has reported or tried to report that’s made you stop and think for a minute? Has there been a single instance where they’ve made you doubt your support for Trump?
CALLER: Never. Remember, I listened to you since before 1987, just about. I know the fact that you said the media lies and cannot be trusted and it’s been proven time and time and time again.
RUSH: Oh.
CALLER: They never tell the truth. Why would I believe them?
RUSH: There you go. There you go. Dan’s Bake Sale. That was like in 1989.
(This conversation is from Rush’s website. If you haven’t checked out the site, you should. I hope it continues in some form. It is a treasure trove of information and entertainment.)
This exchange echoes a theme we know all too well. The power of truth over the mainstream garbage fueling hate. I never met Rush, but neither did nearly all of his listeners. He digested very complex subjects into “down home” language. He never failed to credit his parents and family for bringing him up with solid values. He was the first to recount how he had failed as a young man. At one point he lived out of his car. He was fired. He rebounded. It took until he was 37 years
From there, the show rescued a dying AM Radio business and spawned an avid following that continues to this day. And what of the future? If anyone believes that his physical death means the end of his impact on us, that person is sorely mistaken.
At a time when our educators are removing William Shakespeare from curricula, editing history to fit their narrative, and inserting the fallacy of racism into virtually every corner of life, it has never been more important than to continue Rush’s pivotal push for patriotism and teaching accurate history — mistakes and all. Every society makes mistakes, but rewriting history denies wisdom to our students. It hobbles them to recognize missteps in our culture and learn from the past. The left decries the Founding Fathers because they held slaves. But so did the African people who sold their very own people into slavery. Yes, their form of slavery took a different form, yet they did not hesitate to sell their own. Their people were no more than chattel.
It should not be lost on any of us that those amazing men of 1775 brought forth a nation with three operative words, “We the people.” Never before had such a document come forth. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was to be bestowed on all people. It is as true today as it was then.
Why else would hordes of people from around the world want to come here? If, as the left claims, America is such a horrible place, why would they clamor to come? What amazes me and so many others is how one man with deep Midwestern roots — from the “Show Me” state of Missouri — could have ignited a flame likened to that of Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton 214 years later!
It took faith, honesty, integrity, courage and perseverance — qualities we need today more than ever.
From its beginning decades ago, this column has defended common sense. Hence, its title. It does no less now.
Our loss was inevitable. As Rush said two weeks ago, “…we all have an expiration date.” And so it was for him.
To continue his work is noble. To persist in that effort is critical — not only to the morals and values of our country — but to its very survival. This is not the time to be faint of heart. Now is the time to rekindle the flame that Rush lit in his millions of listeners.
An optimist to the core, Rush saw struggle against the leftists as his calling. What’s more, he took harsh criticism in stride and laughed at it in the process.
I have written this line before. Americans need to be able to laugh again. Cancel culture cannot win. We need to stop it in its tracks. Rush knew that. He fought for the ideals that we hold dear and he fought for them each and every day. Those who knew him well said that he worked up to ten hours a day just to prepare for this three-hour marathon, five day a week broadcast. I believe it. He was a wellhouse of information and if he didn’t know the details a caller wanted, he would get them. He loved his listeners and we loved him.
He was not bashful about his religious beliefs. He was unabashed in discussing it. His easily professed, personal relationship with Jesus Christ armed him with the inner strength to face cancer. He knew a better life awaited him. He never wavered in his faith. Our goodbye was God’s welcome.
This is not the time to be faint of heart. This is the time to rekindle the flame that Rush lit in us. This is the time to come together. As my grandmother said, “Many hands make light work.” To continue his work is noble, of course. To persist is crucial to America’s survival.
To do less is to ignore his contribution. He gave us so much. We owe him no less.
Think about.
God’s speed, Rush.
30