RUSH: Here is Kathryn in Pittsburgh. I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s a real honor to talk to you. I’ve been waiting for some time. Just thrilled to be talking to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: You’re welcome. So I’m a college student in Pittsburgh. I have an oral communications class, and a kid in my class was reading a song lyric or a song quote or whatever you want to call it from a song, and it said: to die for your country is not honorable and to die for the red, white, and blue isn’t a good way to die, it’s not respected, and to those types of tones, and at the end of this presentation everyone clapped, excluding me, I did not clap. And I got reprimanded for not clapping for him.
RUSH: Okay. What did the student say again, go a little slower.
CALLER: He said to die for the Stars and Stripes is not honorable, and to die for our country is not respected.
RUSH: So a student made the statement, and everybody but you applauded?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And then what happened?
CALLER: And then my teacher yelled at me, she said, ‘Why didn’t you applaud, why didn’t you applaud for him?’ And I said it’s disrespectful and I don’t agree with it, and I think our country is a great place, and she said —
RUSH: Why did she think you had to applaud? Just to avoid hurting the guy’s feelings or did she agree with this student?
CALLER: I think she agreed.
RUSH: Why do I even ask, of course she agreed, she’s a professor at a university. Why would I even think otherwise?
CALLER: Because at the end of the presentation — he was the last presentation — and at the end she stood up and she goes, ‘Very good, very, very well, very well spoken.’
RUSH: Okay. Did you suffer any more than a reprimand, or did it stop there?
CALLER: I’m not sure yet. I haven’t gotten my grade yet.
RUSH: Wow. Well, you hang in there, Kathryn. This is worth the reprimand. You heard it from me. We hear these kinds of stories periodically, kids call from all over with the stories of what’s happening inside these institutions of higher learning. Thanks much, Kathryn.