Happy Anniversary, Rush

I will always remember where I was the first time I heard that voice. It was so distinctive, and I still have never heard another quite like it. I was beside the Morley family garage in Mifflinburg, PA in mid-August 1993. Gabriel and Hoshea Morley had told us about this Rush Limbaugh fellow when they had visited us in Taiwan a couple years prior and they had tried to explain what he did, which took some creativity since I had never heard a talk show before because I grew up without TV and we rarely listened to the radio, either.

I had bought Rush's book and liked it (his first, The Way Things Ought to Be), but didn't know how to find him on the radio dial. So, I told Gabriel that I'd like to listen to Rush. A switch was flipped....and my whole world changed forever.

I can still recall a few things that Rush said that day, which is saying something, since that is now 15 years ago, and I have listened to countless Limbaugh hours since then. I know that he asked for people who supported President Clinton's policies to please call in, followed by that famous laugh that we Dittoheads have all grown to love.

There are a lot of things I could say about Rush Limbaugh, but many of them have already been said over the course of this last week, as a host of celebrities (including, on Friday, August 1, President Bush, President Bush 41 and Jeb Bush all on one conference call!!) paid homage to his genius. "Human Events" did us all a service by posting articles all week in a tribute to Rush, from Sean Hannity, Ted Nugent, Rush's brother David and Mark Levin, among many others. I'm sure many of them are still up if you haven't yet had a chance to peruse the gallery.

Rush will never read these words, but that is not the point. Listening to his wisdom, espoused in a wickedly funny manner every day across the airwaves, has made me a different man than I would have been had he never graced my consciousness.

Rush has proved that being wealthy isn't necessarily a vice, but being small-minded and peevish always is. Rush has shown the world that you can smile in the face of adversity. Rush demonstrates every day that if you can't stand up for your principles, then the cause of truth, even its very definition, becomes meaningless.

From the way economics affects the world to a good book recommendation to fearless advocacy for his conservative beliefs, for all this and so, SO much more, Rush Limbaugh deserves the thanks of 20 million listeners, a club of which I am proud to count myself a charter member.

I will freely admit that I cannot imagine a world without Rush Limbaugh and I hope that I am a very old man before I have to live in one!