RUSH: Joe in the Bronx, you’re next, Joe. Great to have you here.
CALLER: How are you, Mr. Limbaugh?
RUSH: Fine sir, thank you.
CALLER: Good. I’m neither white nor old, but I have some credibility here, I suppose.
RUSH: Let’s see, if you’re neither white nor old, then you would be young and what?
CALLER: My father’s black and my mother’s Puerto Rican.
RUSH: Okay, so you are a person of color.
CALLER: Absolutely. I can say whatever I want.
RUSH: Now, let’s see. Your father’s black, so you do have slave blood?
CALLER: That is correct.
RUSH: Okay, good. You qualify.
CALLER: Yes, I can say whatever I want —
RUSH: That’s right.
CALLER: — without anyone questioning me.
RUSH: You can do whatever you want and have it explained.
CALLER: Exactly. Well, I have something to say as far as the Constitution. I know you were talking about our defensive position here.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: I gotta say this. I don’t think enough people in the United States know what the Constitution is or know what it says. They know so little about it that they are not inclined to care much about decisions like this. And I’m speaking as a former school teacher, presently I am in the United States Army, so I’m now a soldier, that is an upgrade from being a school teacher in the Bronx, and —
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: — my students knew nothing at all about the Constitution or what it said. It was my job, or I made it my job to post the Constitution and presently, whenever I see people in the street, people in my church that know little or speak of it as they know much, but know very little of the Constitution, I give them a copy of it. I carry hundreds of copies in my bag and I give them out to people in my church, people on the street, so they can get informed and maybe start to care about this great document here inspired by God.
RUSH: God bless you, sir. You know, you’re doing the Lord’s work out there. I fear that you’re right. I think people are aware of the Constitution. I think they think the Constitution is where they’re going to get health care. The Constitution is going to mandate for them that they are going to have whatever they want, the Constitution says that. I think there’s a way too large number of Americans who are not taught properly what the Constitution is, have no, no knowledge whatsoever of it, and therefore a lot of Americans born and raised here do not have really roots, roots, intellectual roots to the founding of the country to understand how special it is and why it’s special and why it’s great and why it has outrun the rest of the world in 225 short years.
CALLER: That’s true. You know, you said earlier in the week about the dumbing down of education, and I’m telling you, it’s absolutely deliberate, as a former school teacher, and it’s part of the reason why people know so little about the Constitution. They make it a point not to teach it. They make it a point not to teach proper English. I was actually reprimanded for correcting students’ grammar and things of that nature. It’s just absolutely ridiculous. It’s a deliberate attempt —
RUSH: Were you reprimanded for correcting their grammar because you were insulting them?
CALLER: Well, you know why it was corrected. Basically, it’s judgmental to correct — and I’m an English teacher at that, so it makes it even worse, but to get my graduate degree, I was taught that to correct a child’s grammar is judgmental, it hurts their self-esteem, all the while here I am, black, Hispanic male, and I would argue ’til I was blue in the face that my ability to speak this language, to understand it, to read it well is the reason why I was able to get out of the ghetto, so to speak, and, you know, I cited people like Frederick Douglass who learned to read and became one of the most eloquent speakers and writers in America. But anyway, I was chastised for that in the schools because, look, I believe it’s my duty to correct people’s grammar, especially as an English teacher, regardless of the consequences, which ultimately were that I was fired.
RUSH: I agree totally. I think that’s your job.
CALLER: Sure. Well, not only as a teacher, but as a citizen of the US, it’s my job to help young people especially to learn how to speak correctly, to learn how to read and how to understand what they read, but it’s a deliberate attempt to dumb down education here in America. It’s a sad thing, and we need to fight against it.
RUSH: Let me ask you about one thing that you said because I don’t disagree with any of that. You said you joined the military. Where in the military are you?
CALLER: I am in the New York National Guard. Army National Guard.
RUSH: Army National Guard, and you described that as an upgrade from teaching in the Bronx?
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Meaning you feel safer in the National Guard?
CALLER: Well, I feel safer, A, because I don’t have students attempting to swing at me, which did happen on occasion. But also it’s a job, teaching in the Bronx, it’s pretty insulting, you go to work, and under the guise of teaching, and all the while if you’re honest with yourself, you know that your job is to keep kids down. And I’m sorry if that that sounds pessimistic, but it is the truth, it’s whatever —
RUSH: You’re a Hispanic-American. Let me share with you a story I have here from one of my stacks of stuff. I want to get your reaction to this. It’s a story from North Carolina. ‘Dissatisfied with teaching in Spanish 85 percent of the time, a North Carolina superintendent is pushing for a proposal that includes a plan for a school where Spanish is the predominant language. Superintendent Peter Gorman pitched his proposal to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board today, with provisions to combine two of its dual-language programs and turn Collinswood Elementary into a Spanish-speaking school.’ The reason he wants to do this is so that Hispanics do not lose their culture. Given your experience as a teacher, if you have Hispanics in the country who are not encouraged to learn English, but instead are sequestered, segregated into their own school where they speak Spanish and maintain their culture, what’s going to happen to them?
CALLER: Well, look, if you can’t speak this language, you are a second-class citizen. There’s no way around it. But sadly enough, I think that’s exactly where the liberals want you so that you can continue to vote them in. But it handicaps you. And, look, I believe in full immersion. You come to this country, jump into an all-English environment. That’s how you learn the language. That’s how my wife learned the language, and it’s the only way. This idea of putting people in ESL, I don’t buy into it at all, and again I get into a lot of trouble for voicing these kinds of opinions, but it’s true, everyone knows it, people are just afraid to say it.
RUSH: Not you.
CALLER: Absolutely not.
RUSH: Not you. Glad you called. Thanks much, Joe. You’ve been great.
CALLER: Thank you.
RUSH: Joe in the Bronx. There are more like that than we know. There are more Joes out there than we know. Otherwise, we would be in the ash heap by now.