I have spent some time today thinking about something I rarely think of, unless I hear something in the news on accident or if there is an incident that requires me to pay my attention in this particular direction. The subject, Rush Limbaugh. In the past few weeks, I have heard the name mentioned more than I usually do, so perhaps that is the reason why he comes to mind. The most likely reason would be the SNL Weekend Update in which Seth Meyers commented on Rush being added as a judge to the Miss America Pageant, or better yet Bill Hader’s James Carville impersonation. The impersonation, I must admit, I REALLY enjoyed. “The only place he’s rushing to is a Quizno’s”, I love it. “He should win the Nobel Piece of Pie.” He could have gone on and on, and I could have kept laughing for the rest of the night. I don’t feel too bad for laughing at the expense of Rush Limbaugh, I know he doesn’t feel any guilt for laughing at people and certainly has no regard for attacking groups of people who I identify with or support. And I find myself still feeling sympathy for the people of Rio Linda, California. People who have been targeted as being grossly uneducated, tragically poor and prone to hoarding, all of this by a native of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, parts of which, I am sure, could be easily compared to his portrayal of Rio Linda.
I also heard Rush’s name surface recently as a potential buyer of the St. Louis Rams football team. Not a football fan myself, (and so far this season who could be?) I haven’t paid much mind to his pursuit of ownership, until today. Today, I have come to the conclusion that I am decidedly against the idea of any role he might have with team ownership. Were he to pay for such a role, I would lose any little bit of allegiance I could scrape together for the St. Louis team. I would never think of buying a ticket or a piece of merchandise of any kind for the team for the duration of his affiliation. I would not watch any televised games including any Super Bowl games that might be in the team’s future.
To hear the voice of Rush today, it just reaffirms my knowledge that he is really just a ridiculous human being. Sadly, I have spent far more than my fair share of time listening to him. Specifically, the majority of my childhood was spent listening to him rant and rave and belittle people. He was live, he was recorded on countless cassette tapes and he was listened to even if it was a previously recorded repeat. I often found myself wondering what the draw was to his program, which even as a youngster, I found ridiculous. Someone is making money to sit and talk like this on the radio? Really? I really had no grasp of exactly what his problem was with the people he targeted, whether he was right or wrong and what his authority was to take such a stance. I remember car trips being held hostage, listening to Rush for hours at a time, travelling through the very part of the country that produced him. A place where he was embraced, at least by most people. It is a distinct possibility that the sound of his voice alone can still make me feel car-sick. I can still hear the echoes of him touting the EIB Network, Excellence In Broadcasting. Really? Excellence? I don’t think so. I really don’t. “With talent on loan from God”. Another of his greatest hits. Really? How can you be a functioning human being in the world today and see eye to eye with anything that this man has to say? How can anything he says be taken as a truth and something absolute? I listened for a long time (against my will) and I can tell that what he says is not ok. His speaking did not persuade me to think like him, my mind developed on its own and told me that what he was saying and how he was saying it is wrong, very wrong. Looking back, the best part to me now, is that I listened to him for a long time, I heard everything he had to say, and guess what…I didn’t turn out to be a follower, I turned out gay. So ha! Take that Rush Limbaugh. Take that and smoke it in your cigar! Now hopefully I have purged myself of any further thoughts of Rush. Hopefully.
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