RUSH: I need to ask you guys something on the other side of the glass. I want you to be honest. I don’t want any of this kiss-butt stuff that you are normally known for. Do I sound like I’m really down in the dumps over stuff today? I don’t? Good. Because I got some e-mail, “Rush, what are you so down for today?” I’m not. I’m not down. But some of this stuff I have learned over the weekend that we’re talking about, to me is really sobering stuff. Folks, I must tell you. I’m one of these people — and I know I overdo this phrase that I can’t get any arms around something.
I really don’t quite know how to express this. The Melissa Harris-Perry thing, grab audio sound bite number one and play it again. Well, I’m struggling here to explain how all of this is affecting me. I wish I could just ignore it and move on. I’ve been really blessed in life, and I have literally nothing about which to complain. Not one thing. I’m not oriented toward complaining anyway, but if there’s anybody that has nothing to complain about personally, it’s me.
Yet, I’m gonna tell you: Some of this stuff that is happening in the country stands in the way of my happiness. It stands in the way of my happiness ’cause I am scared to death of what’s happening to the country. It’s not that it’s all gonna crumble before I have a chance to fulfill my life and enjoy it all. That’s not it. I’m not worried about that. I’m not worried about things being taken away from me. I just can’t stand to see this. I can’t stand to see this stuff triumphing. It physically angers me, and I’ll tell you, what did I watch? Da-da-da-da-da…
I was scanning/channel surfing over the weekend, and I might have come across the NCAA basketball tournament. I see an arena full of screaming people, and I want to shout, “What in the world are you doing? Do you have any why what’s happening to your country while you’re in there screaming?” I see so many people tuned out, not caring, apparently not concerned. At least that’s the way it appears. I’m probably wrong about that. I hope I am. But I don’t feel like going to a college basketball game and cheering about anything. Even if I like basketball. I don’t feel like doing it.
Things are so drastically wrong, heading in such a wrong direction. I was playing golf again Saturday, and a friend of mine was playing with the club pro. We should have been talking golf and the latest happening on the tour. We went into the clubhouse after playing, and we started talking about all the rotgut stuff happening to the country. Everybody’s worried about their kids and grandkids, particularly their grandkids and whether or not they’re even gonna have a chance to provide for themselves, much less become prosperous.
And then I realize, I’m probably — and you’re in this group too — in the 2% to 3% of the country THAT cares, and everybody else isn’t. (interruption) Well, I hope it’s more than that, but I feel like 2% to 3% care and everybody else is just, you know, running around, living their life in their little isolated instances. They’re doing what they can, which I also understand. Who does want to face this?
What can anybody do about it? The easiest thing to do is to ignore it. I mean, who wants to have to listen to Melissa Harris-Perry tell them that they have no right to their own kids? Who wants to hear that? Who wants to even deal with it? I hear it, and I think, “This has gotta be beaten back. This has got to be stopped.” Anyway, here it is again, just so you’re up to speed on what it is I’m talking about.
HARRIS-PERRY: We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we’ve always had kind of a private notion of children: Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven’t had a very collective notion of these are our children. So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it’s everybody’s responsibility and not just the households, then we start making better investments.
RUSH: Right. How silly? How absolutely ridiculous that your kids are your responsibility! Now, I’ve been doing this program for 25 years, and over most of the 25 years I’d play something like that and literally laugh at it. We’d make fun of it, the usual routine. We’d try to ridicule it. But I don’t know. It’s to the point now where I wonder every day, “When people hear this, how many of them agree with it?”
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