RUSH: Here’s Lucy, Columbus, Ohio. Hi, Lucy. Great to have you on the EIB Network, hello.
CALLER: Hi. How are you? Hey, I wanted to make a comment. I have a comment about the health care ad, but I was telling Mr. Snerdley about my daughter. I bought Rush Revere for her. I ordered it through Amazon and I was telling her about it sort of setting it up, and she must have asked me every day, “Is here yet? Is it here yet?” When it came I took it to school, I gave it to her. She’s 10. I handed it to her. She was so excited she started reading it right away in the backseat. I let her read for about 15 minutes, and I kept looking in the rearview mirror, and she had the biggest smile on her face about five minutes in.
I kept saying, “Elise, what’s going on? Is it a good book? Elise?” And she did not hear a thing I said. She was so engrossed in the book, and I just want to thank you for having that book for her. She kept asking me, “Are there gonna be more?” And my six-year-old kept saying, “Well, what’s it say? What’s it say?” ‘Cause obviously he can’t read, and she’s like, “I’ll tell you later.” So I just want to thank you for the book and it’s very exciting for these little ones to experience history this way.
RUSH: Lucy, I love you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. People like you are convincing me that this was a worthwhile thing to do. The feedback on this, I printed out some fan mail that we’re getting and there are a lot of parents like you who are saying their kids normally don’t like reading or don’t like history, just absolutely love this, and you all are making my day. I can’t tell you how pleased and happy all of us that have worked on this book are when we get feedback such as yours. Your daughter’s Elise, did you say?
CALLER: Elise, yes. And she was reading it, and after a while, I said, “Elise!” I like yelled, not yelled, but she looked up and she held the book up to her face and her eyes really big and I snapped a photo. It’s hilarious.
RUSH: What I want to do, I want to send you guys an audio version, ’cause that’s a whole different experience, ’cause I read that. If you’ll hang on, Mr. Snerdley will get the address necessary. We’ll be back. Lucy, thank you again.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I mentioned that Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims. Snerdley said, “You know, you didn’t even talk about it yesterday.” And I said, “That’s right,” and the reason is that, unlike a lot of people, I don’t want to beat you on the head. You know the book is out there. Most of you have the book or are planning on buying it for Christmas, and we stick to the issues on this program. But I do have to acknowledge some of the mail that’s come in.
I want to share it with you, because what it does, folks, is it lets us know that the purpose here is working. I mean, the reason I wrote the book, Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims — and, again, it’s for ages 10 to 13. However, it’s for everybody, actually. The plan was for grandparents and parents to buy the book and give it to their kids. The kids could read it or, if they’re too young, the parent could read it to them.
All that’s happening. But there’s a purpose, and it’s to correct the record. There’s a story here in the Stack of Stuff (and I’ve talked about this). A guy is amazed at how sports journalism is just as left and liberal as news journalism is. It’s something we’ve talked about on this program for a long time, ever since I was on ESPN. This guy makes a conclusion, comes to the conclusion the reason it’s happening is the way they were raised, what they were taught in the public schools, what they were taught in journalism schools — and he’s exactly right.
The people in sports journalism today do not think they’re covering sports journalism; they think they’re covering classrooms, with diversity problems and all this other societal stuff. That’s why they don’t understand this whole Miami Dolphins thing. This locker room story has got them just outraged. They don’t believe that places like a locker room in the NFL exist, and it offends them tremendously that this kind of language would be spoken anywhere in this country, particularly in the NFL, and so they’re all uniting trying to stamp it out and tar and feather and tag everybody who’s involved.
They do not understand all these very different cultures because they believe in political correctness and they want everybody to behave the same way, have the same sensitivities, and that’s what we’re trying to battle against here is what people are being taught. The school curriculum today, particularly American history, is a shame. What young people are being taught about their country, they’re being taught to feel guilty about it, that this country was immorally founded, unjustly so, and it was founded for just a few to benefit while everybody else suffered.
It’s outrageous the lies that are being taught young people about this country’s founding. So this book has a mission, the beginnings of a mission to counter that. We all ask, what can we do, what more can we do. I’ve got this program every day, and people call here, “What can I do, Rush, besides vote?” This is my, “What more can I do.” And as I’ve said, folks, and I don’t mind saying this at all. I’m very proud of my parents, and I’m very proud of my background, and I’m proud of the way I was raised, and I’m proud of this country, and I want everybody to be.
I wish that everybody could listen to this program. I wish everybody would listen to this program and agree with it. That’s not gonna happen. Young people are not gonna listen to talk radio. They’re just not. They’re gonna do other things. So this book is an effort to take the values that I believe in, that I think are wholesome and worthwhile — and the truth of the founding of this country is a miraculous blessing. I want people to know it. So the book is just the truth. The attraction that we’re getting, I mean, we were number one on the New York Times list the first week, and we’ll find out tonight between five and six if we stay there.
On Amazon, in just two weeks, Mr. Snerdley, we are now the 11th highest selling book of the year. Amazon, I think they keep track of the top 25 or top 50, I’m not sure, but we’re number 11. We were number 15 after the first week. We’re number 11, all books, doesn’t matter, fiction, nonfiction, kids, adults, you name it, we are the number 11th selling book in two weeks on the Amazon top 25 for the year, 2013. And this is just the beginning. It’s just the beginning. We’re ecstatic, and we feel grateful to everybody, every one of you that is helping us in our mission here.
I just want to share with you some of the fan mail that the characters in the book are getting. And I’m getting some, too, but the kids are writing to the characters. “Dear Rush Revere and Liberty.” Liberty is the talking horse that can time travel anywhere in American history, and Liberty is a lovable, absent-minded kind of mischievous character. Young readers just love this horse.
“Dear Rush Revere and Liberty: We’ve been reading Rush Revere to our three daughters, 10, seven and four. They love your book. I wish you could have been in our living room last night listening to our seven-year-old belly laughing at Liberty’s antics. Our 10-year-old daughter, who’s very picky about her reading material, remarked, ‘He’s really good. We should get some of this serious. Trust us. This is a huge compliment from our kids, Rush. We are so thrilled to have this book in our library to open our girls’ eyes to what the Pilgrim voyage was really like. We’ve spent some great family time reading this book together, so thank you so much, Rush Revere and Liberty, for sharing history with us. Grateful parents, Matthew and Kate. Delighted children, Sabrina, Sarah, and Simone.”
“Dear Rush Revere and Liberty: My two girls, age seven and six, are enthralled with your storytelling. To be honest, I didn’t know if they’d really enjoy this type of book, but they absolutely love it, especially you, Liberty. When you said ‘Bless you’ to Rush Revere in chapter one, we were all laughing so hard the tears were rolling. We are thoroughly enjoying the book so far. It’s something we look forward to reading at bedtime every night. Thank you.”
“Dear Mr. Rush Revere: I love your book. I’m 10. My dad said I have to read your book. At first I thought history was boring and reading about it would be boring, but I guess I was wrong. You did change my mind. Now I’m a big fan of history. Please write another book of history, and please tell Liberty I said his history rocks, and thank you, Kathryn.”
A couple more…
“Hi, Rush. I just wanted to thank you for your book. My sons Jack, 11, and Joe, eight, are loving it. Me, too. We have the Kindle, hardback, and the audio version, and I’ve overheard our sons discussing the book with their friends, spreading the word. Thank you again. Signed, Chad. Jack and Joe’s dad.”
“Dear Liberty: My name is Ashley, and I’m 10. I love your CD. You’re the funniest character. I like how you put on those wooden shoes and couldn’t get ’em off. I love your CD. I can’t wait to fish listening to it.” She’s got the audio version. That’s Ashley. And there are a couple more, but I have to take an obscene profit time-out here, folks, but I can’t tell you how heartwarming it is to read this stuff from these young people reading the book.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
Here’s a note from an adult, Edith. I don’t have permission to mention her last name, so I won’t, but she said, “I enjoyed listening to the book. I especially noticed how Tommy — he’s one of the classroom kids, by the way — gave great scientific explanations on how a lot of things work. This was nearly as educational as the overall book. Rush Limbaugh does an impeccable job reading this book. I look forward to more adventures of Rush Revere and Liberty. I believe Mr. Limbaugh has found his second calling when he decides to retire from radio. Yay to his wife for getting this one started.”
This is an adult who is listening to the audio version. The audio version is four CDs, takes about four and a half hours to listen to. I don’t mean to be bragging about it, but I was really flattered with that e-mail because I put a lot into this. Simon & Schuster, they send down their editor or producer or something, and they sit there on the other side of the glass directing the guy or the person reading the book. And this woman didn’t say anything. She stood in there with her mouth open in awe. She only had a couple of suggestions for me. It took three or four nights to do this, but it is really good. I am proud of the audio version of the book, and it’s ideal if you have kids too young to read it.
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