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RUSH: Julie in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you with us.
CALLER: Hello. How are you?
RUSH: Fine. Thank you.
CALLER: I just wanted to tell you a funny story. I’ve listened to you since 2000, and in 2004 I decided to go back to college after being out of high school for ten years, much because of what I’ve heard on your show about how you can do anything. You should do anything; you should not be okay with mediocre, et cetera, et cetera. You are the only one that’s ever put that idea in my head.
RUSH: Is that right? Your whole life?
CALLER: Yeah. (laughs) Yeah, it’s been that kind of life. But yes, that’s correct, and it was drilled in my head over and over again from listening to your show, you know, “Go out and do it. Just do it. You know, make something better of yourself. You have opportunity.” So I went back to school in 2004 and I had a professor who had a master’s and was working on his second master’s who was so book smart, you know, thought he knew everything, and he would bring up arguments in class over the economy, amendments, laws, different things — and I’m telling you what, the only thing I’d done since high school was work, and then I started listening to your show. I could go toe to toe with that guy and argue with him about anything, and make him look stupid in front of the class just by listening to your show. (Laughing)
RUSH: Did he know that he looked stupid or did he give you problems? Did he think you were being insolent and disrespectful?
CALLER: No. He was baffled. He looked at my profile, and he said, “Now, you’ve been out of school ten years.” He said, “This is your first year.” He said, “How in the world do you know all this stuff?”
RUSH: Uh-oh.
CALLER: And I said, “I’m going to be honest.”
RUSH: Uh-oh.
CALLER: I said, “All I do is listen to Rush.”
RUSH: Oh, no. I knew that was coming. And then he said…?
CALLER: He said, “No!” He said, “That’s just hate speech.”
RUSH: (Laughing)
CALLER: And I said, “No. No, it’s not,” and I said, “You know what? I didn’t even know how informed and smart I was ’til I got in this class,” and I said, “and realizing everything I’ve heard from that show, how informed and smart and capable I really am, and I couldn’t believe it. You know? And he said, “Well, doesn’t he just talk bad about people, doesn’t he just make fun of Democrats?” And I said, “No, it’s actually very educational,” and he said, “Well, I just can’t believe it.” So I said, “Well, give it a listen some time,” and he ended up listening, and he doesn’t listen every day because of classes, but he ended up listening and said he rather enjoys the show even if doesn’t agree.
RUSH: I hope he’s listening today. Was your college in Oklahoma City?


CALLER: Yes, it is.
RUSH: Julie, I have to run because of time. Well, no! In fact, hang on. I want to ask you a couple more things or at least do a couple more things. Hang on through the break.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, back to Julie in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Julie, I couldn’t let you go without thanking you from the bottom of my sizable beating heart.
CALLER: No, thank you for opening up my eyes, because, really, there was no one else around to do it and the only reason I started listening to you was the election of 2000. I just felt I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on ABC, NBC, and I said, “What would Rush Limbaugh have to say about this? Let’s get a different point of view,” and ever since then I’ve been listening.
RUSH: Sounds almost like divine intervention.
CALLER: (Laughing) Right. “What would Rush do?”
RUSH: Well, of all the people you could think of, and you hadn’t listened before. Rush Limbaugh.
CALLER: No, my sister has listened since you had your TV program.
RUSH: A-ha.
CALLER: Yeah. She’s listened, and she’s always talked about you, and I almost felt guilty listening to you, because I thought —
RUSH: Why?
CALLER: I said, “My sister would love this.”
RUSH: Oh.
CALLER: I said, “She would love this,” you know?
RUSH: One thing I have to ask you, because you said earlier in your call that nobody in your life had ever spoken to you about the positive aspects of you, the potential that you as an American citizen have, that you can be better than you think you are; you can do more than you think you can. Nobody ever talked to you that way at any time in your life?
CALLER: Let me tell you why. Because when I was 18, I had a baby. So everyone said, “Well, just go get a job. Just go pay your bills. Just make it the best you can.”
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: You know, because I had a baby at a young age people were thinking, “Well, you know, you just would be doing good to be making more than enough.”
RUSH: Yeah, but even before that. Sometimes I make the mistake because I had a very normal childhood. I had a typical, middle class, middle America upraising, upbringing, and it was via my whole family that I first — now, I didn’t put it in these words, but that’s when I first became cognizant and aware of what I now call American exceptionalism. My dad and some teachers were constantly pushing me to do better than I was doing because they all knew that I could. I was not interested in what they wanted me to do well in at the time, but still, the concept that there’s a great land of opportunity out there, and all you have to do is go attack it, was not something foreign to me. It’s why I’m one of the few members of my family that left home.
I left home when I was 20, and, you know, struck out on following my dream. I’ve told the story countless, thousands of times. What I’m amazed at is — and I wonder how common this is — that up until the time you had your baby, when you were 18, that the whole concept that there’s greatness for you out there, that you are a special person, that you’re better than average, that all it takes is a little hard work, that there’s far more out there than what you think. This was something that never occurred to you or was never taught to you?


CALLER: Well, no. It was because I wanted to be a police officer. I wanted to be an FBI agent, and everyone said, “Oh, Julie.” You know, “You can’t do that. You could never do that. That’s a man’s work.” You know, just put that idea out of your head, and so I would start to think, “Well, maybe I can’t,” and that’s where really —
RUSH: See, that’s distressing to hear. I think there’s probably a lot of that out there in general. “No, you can’t do that.” I mean, I’ve been told that, too. I was not told that by my family.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: But I’ve been told that by people that fired me. I’ve been told that by friends, when I told them what I wanted to do. It’s easy to be negative. You know, you’ll never go to the library and find a book on how to fail, because we all do it.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: It doesn’t take any special insight. But these people that write books on how to succeed and how to think positively make millions because it’s something that doesn’t occur naturally, apparently, even in this country where I think it ought to be occurring but then you look at the political drivel that suffices as “news” most of the day for most people, and the country sucks, it’s going to hell in a handbasket. In fact, there’s a shortage of handbaskets because the economy is doing so poorly. Bush is lying; people are dying. It’s a constant negative drumbeat that is by the Democratic Party, echoed by the media. So I’m not surprised. That stuff’s easy to be caught up in. What did your parents do? What did your dad do?
CALLER: He was an accountant.
RUSH: He was an accountant. Well, that’s not easy. That requires a lot of hard work and specific talent.
CALLER: Right. He wasn’t around so it was just my mother.
RUSH: Oh. Oh.
CALLER: But I guess the idea of her having a daughter that wanted to be a police officer or FBI agent or whatever was just farfetched. “No, not my daughter,” you know?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: “Don’t you want to be a hairdresser or waitress or secretary?” and I said, “No. This is what I want to do,” and then came into the whole, “Well, you’ve got a baby now. You know, you’re going to do good just to make it.” I believed that for so many years: I’m doing good just to make it, and I thought, “Wait a minute. I can do way more than that.”
RUSH: Well, you know, it takes all kinds. Not everybody is going to reach their potential, and not everybody is going to tap their full ambition. It just doesn’t happen for a lot of reasons, some of them you just mentioned. And other people will settle. I mean you, had you not happened upon this program, probably because what your mother had said enough times, you would have just said, “Okay, this is my lot in life,” and you would have tried to make the most of it and be happy and so forth. I think that probably happens more often than not, but yet somehow you swerved and stumbled into this program — and now that you’ve gone back to college ten years later.
CALLER: Ten years out of high school.
RUSH: And when did you start college, again?
CALLER: 2004.
RUSH: 2004. And this professor of yours ? 2004, I had been on the air sixteen years.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: And this guy had no clue what actually happened on this program, even though you don’t need a secret radio or password to listen to it.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: All you got to do is listen to the radio, and this is a guy teaching college who had no clue. He just believed it was all hate speech, bashing Democrats every day and so forth — and you were able to educate him. How did that make you feel?


CALLER: I mean, I’m telling you, it was not until I walked in that class, and he would start lecturing on certain things and I could argue with him and I could make him look really dumb that I was like, “Whoa! I haven’t just been listening, I’ve been learning,” and it made me feel wonderful, and he was one of those guys that he believes everything he sees on TV. “Well, Dan Rather said it; it must be true. If the book said it, it must be true,” and never questioned anything. He was so institutionalized.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: So: “This is what the book says. This is what it is.” He never questioned anything. You know, that’s one thing I’ve got from your program: “Don’t just listen. You gotta question. Go out. Explore. Get knowledge.”
RUSH: Right. Learn to read the stitches on the fast ball.
CALLER: Ex-actly. And that’s what I’ve done, and I was just amazed that I could go up against a guy who had a masters, for crying out loud.
RUSH: Well, see, that’s another thing to learn. You said it at the beginning of the phone call. There are countless book smart people who have lots of education, but it doesn’t mean they have a lot of knowledge.
CALLER: Yeah. So it was just a little bit surreal, you know? Not surreal but, you know —
RUSH: Well, what are you studying?
CALLER: Police science.
RUSH: Police science! So you’re following your original dream. That’s fabulous!
CALLER: Yes, I am.
RUSH: Fabulous!
CALLER: I am almost there, too.
RUSH: Terrific! Well, damn it, I’m proud of you!
CALLER: Thank you very much, sir.
RUSH: I mean, that is just awesome. You held onto the dream for ten years, and now you’re doing it, and you’re doing it at the university level. That’s just great.
CALLER: And I made the president’s list every semester, while I’ve got two kids, while I’m working full time.
RUSH: That is just incredible! See, you are living proof!
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: See, the great thing here is not only what it’s doing for you and the way you feel about yourself and your future, but anybody else who comes in contact with your story, you’re going to influence in a positive way. So your life experiences are going to transfer to others; you’re going to make them better because you’re going to make them think it’s also possible for them. This is just terrific!
CALLER: Well, you gave me the big push that I needed. (Laughs)


RUSH: Well, I understand that. I understand. Somebody had to. I’m glad we were there when you tuned in, at this propitious moment, you happened to be listening when we weren’t bashing Democrats. (Laughing)
CALLER: (Laughing)
RUSH: Now, do you have a computer?
CALLER: Yes, I do.
RUSH: Are you are you subscriber to my website?
CALLER: No, I’m not. I’m sorry.
RUSH: Well, you are now. I’m going to make you one.
CALLER: Oh!
RUSH: That’s right. You will not believe what all is there. You think that you’re informed and educated now? Wait ’til you tap into the resources that are on my website — and I’m also going to throw in a year’s subscription of the Limbaugh Letter, that’s the newsletter, and I’ll give you a couple items from the EIB Store that you can pick out. So Julie, hang on. A nice man who will not ask you the name of your kids (Laughing) will be on the phone.
CALLER: (Laughing) Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: No, thank you! You’ve made our day here.
CALLER: Well, good. You’ve made a big difference to me, so thank you.
RUSH: Thanks, Julie. We’ll talk to you again soon and be back here just a second. Julie, don’t hang up. Stay on hold.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Hey, Julie, in Oklahoma City. I know you’re still out there. I’m going to add a couple things to the surprise package. I’m just going to give her the house. I’m going to throw in a Select Comfort bed, let her choose what kind she wants and a “Rush PAC” from Allen Brothers. So, H.R., get her back on the phone after the program and make it happen. We can organize all that. We have people in the prize closet. That’s all they do, is handle the freebies and giveaways. Most of them we never talk about because we’re not into this for that reason. But I am so impressed that after ten years, when she went back to school, it was to follow her original passion of wanting to be in law enforcement, and that nobody was able ultimately to talk her out of it, because she “couldn’t do it.” That just makes our day here. Even Snerdley is smiling for the first time today. He’s forgotten about the Foley story.

END TRANSCRIPT


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