Rush Limbaugh - Talent on Loan From God
- Joe Hayes
- Feb 17, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 30, 2021
Being upfront with you, this is an extremely tough piece for me to write. I in large part started this blog because of Rush Limbaugh, as he and my parents laid the foundation I have chosen to try and build upon. To many he was a hero, a voice, a leader - to me he was all of those things, but above all he was a friend. A friend I had never met, but knew who I was.
When I was growing up my father would always have talk radio on in the car. Whenever we were traveling somewhere he would have the darn AM radio playing. Normally, we were going to hockey practice or a game, and I would have my head phones in trying to get pumped up. I would complain about the radio being boring, but my father insisted. Overtime I said to myself, "well if my father enjoys listening to these people, I may as well hear what they have to say." Often we would have the local station on during the morning commute to school or post three PM, as Rush was on from noon to three everyday. I caught his show sometimes, but I began seeing his name everywhere. I remember thinking to myself, if this is the largest voice in radio, he must be saying something worth hearing. So those car rides to hockey practice gave birth to a curious thinker.
At first glance Rush didn't look like the man who would pioneer AM radio to what it is today, as he was deaf, at one point had to overcome a drug addiction, and lacked a college degree. How does a deaf man become the king of radio? The answer is quite simple, he never let his disability define him, in the same way he never let stage four terminal lung cancer diminish his abilities. For over thirty years the main stream media impugned and slandered him, yet he somehow always rose above and maintained the largest radio audience for the last three decades.
I can see some people sighing right now, "You like Rush Limbaugh? You must be a far right kook. You disgust me!" These people on the far left and establishment right are in large part not patrons of the program. Rush had once said how those in the media think we worship him and would tune into the program to get our marching orders and be told how we should think and act. They could not be more wrong. Rush has been a beacon for curious thinkers across the world. He's asked the questions the mainstream media has refused to, called out venomous politics, and given a political voice to what Trump coined the "forgotten man." Regular everyday people diminished by the massive political machine were given a voice by a deaf man who everyday for thirty years spoke on the radio for three hours.
In explaining liberalism to people, Rush would always say how it's easy to be a liberal because it's all about feelings. You walk by a homeless man and think how awful he has it and how bad you feel, but you go home and continue with your life and settle by paying higher taxes so they can give him a welfare check. When a conservative see's that same man, they think how did he end up there? What kind of policies can I institute to better the economy and provide him with more opportunities to get him off the streets? You know many of my peers are liberal. I think most of them are genuinely nice people who want to make the world a better place. I understand where they are coming from most of the time and I feel bad for all the same people they do. We just have a different form of helping them. As the old adage goes, "Give a man a fish and you've fed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you've fed him for life." To me one of the greatest feelings in the world is genuine accomplishment, and I want the struggling individual on the street to experience true success and not rely on food stamps for life. Such a philosophy has been a major piece of Rush's show, and I believe it partially sets the table for why more people have joined the conservative fold.
Above all, Rush had a great sense of humor. He could talk politics and tackle serious issues, all while bringing a smile to your face. In his last news letter before he passed away he discussed when he was a young boy he hated school and failed at everything, but he loved radio. He explained how happy all the local jocks sounded on the radio, and that he told his mother he wanted to have such a career. His parents bought him a Caravelle AM radio transmitter when he was ten, and his mother would watch and listen intently as he pretended to be a disc jockey. He concludes by saying how even though his parents didn't understand his love for radio, they encouraged him to stay in it. It's amazing what is possible when somebody vitalizes you to pursue your dreams in the way Rush's parents did for him.
Rush had once said, "The bond that you and I have as host and audience is one that the media can't break, despite their efforts...and it's the single greatest thing I appreciate about my success, that being that it's all yours. It wouldn't have happened without you. The fact that you're there each and every day and have been for decades is something I can never properly thank you all for other than to say it, and it seems so insufficient when I say it." You know I had heard a radio host once say to his audience he disagreed with all the messages they were sending him, and they can feel free to part ways, stop listening, and not be his friend. I was appalled. How can a radio host treat his viewers like that? Rush never took his audience for granted, and never missed an opportunity to thank them.
His community service work has been unrivaled. I can remember two summers ago he started the "Stand Up For Betsy Ross" campaign and donated the proceeds to the Tunnel For Towers Foundation, which was created after 9/11. I was so excited to purchase a handful of his t-shirts, and can remember tuning in every noon to hear him give an update on the campaign. What started out with small intentions ended up blowing up and continuing to this day, and we've been able to raise millions of dollars to help wounded veterans.
When the pandemic had started, I vividly remember one day he started the show by saying as he drove to his cancer treatment appointments, he could see the faces behind all the closed small businesses. All the dreams being crushed, and how he may not know all of us, but he see's us. I have been heart broken watching small businesses close around me. One restaurant up the street put on its bill board, "Thank you for all the great memories." Rush spoke for struggling working class Americans and freedom seekers in all corners of the globe. The absence of his voice permeating across the air waves will create an irreplaceable void we must do our best to fill. What Rush started behind the golden EIB (Excellence in Broadcasting) microphone must live on through all of us. We must never stop fighting for those without a voice just as Rush did.
I feel like maybe I am rambling and a bit all over the place. In truth, I could spend a lifetime trying to write this piece and might never feel it's right. Rush was more than a political commentator. He kept me company on long walks to class by myself, he sat with me at lunch, and he offered me inspirational advice when I needed it most. I listened to him talk with callers who were in dire need, children inspired by his dedication to America, and those yearning for a platform to make their voices heard.
Rush is famous for saying he had "Talent on loan from God." What Rush accomplished in his lifetime is truly extraordinary. A deaf man who built the largest radio audience in history amassing tens of millions of listeners a week. While Rush has returned his talent back to God today, I think he would want us to believe we all have some form of talent God has lent us, and we should use it to make the world a better place before we have to give it back.
Rest in piece - from a friend you never met, but one you knew
Included below one of my favorite calls from a fellow listener:
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