RUSH: This is Mark in Paso Robles, California. Nice to have you, sir, welcome.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I appreciate you taking my phone call. I’ll get straight to the point because I actually can probably talk for quite a while, but I grew up in an environment ? I?m 41 years old now and I grew up in an environment I guess you would call a generational Democratic environment, very liberal, military was not spoken highly of. Anyway, long story short, September 11 happened, I joined the military at 36 years old, got in, went overseas, was directly involved with Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, came home, saw what they were putting on the news, couldn’t believe it and then about six months ago I was working my civilian job, I was out in the field and a guy had your radio program on, and for the first time I heard somebody speaking about what was going on over there truthfully. I’ve been listening ever since, and the last election we had, I changed my affiliation. I’m actually a registered Republican now.
RUSH: Hear, hear! Hear, hear!
CALLER: And you know what, Rush, you have just given me a level of support and confidence that before that point, I felt all alone, even though I was in the military. So I just want to thank you.
RUSH: Well, that’s great to hear, and I appreciate your kind words but, you know, I hear this a lot. Don’t be afraid to credit yourself here. You did the work. All you had to do was listen. Somehow we permeated your skull full of mush out there and have turned you now into a functioning cerebellum.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: But you did it. You know, let me tell you something here, Mark. I’m being entirely truthful with you here. The enthusiasm in your voice for what you’ve done, and we hear it from so many like you that call, are what really buck us up, particularly when you come under attack, and you are more and more. I want to take the occasion of your call to read an e-mail that I got from a subscriber at Rush 24/7. It came in at ten o’clock last night. I didn’t get home from Miami ’til about 1:30, so I was up a little while looking at e-mail and news and stuff, and this just stopped me dead in my tracks. Now, I want to read this to you without pausing so that you get the full impact of this. It’s going to be difficult to do, because as I am wont, I want to stop, pause for effect and really focus your attention on something, but I think to do it that way would actually lessen the impact of this. It’s from a man named Christopher Rutter, and he’s a sergeant in the United States Army.