RUSH: You know, we had a caller in the last hour from Modesto, self-admitted former hater of your beloved host, me. She hated my guts. She’d never listened, she hated my guts. And her husband and brother and uncle and dog, everybody else loved me. And that made her hate me even more. She was a tree hugger, environmentalist wacko, big lib, just hated me. And she told the story, she’s driving around one day by herself, and somehow, some way, the radio came on and I was on it. It was the first time she’d heard me, not just heard about me.
And she said that I said something that was outrageously, uproariously, comically funny about animal rights people, and from that point on I have been brilliant and beloved and intelligent and smart and she’s now a conservative. You know, we get — I don’t like calling it fan mail. We’re getting feedback on these Rush Revere books like you can’t believe. Now, I’ve been doing the program 25 years, and over 25 years you go through ebbs and flows and peaks and valleys of response.
I mean, after 25 years, you’re a given. You’re just there every day, and it’s hard to say that anything is really new. I mean, even a new point of view, while maybe noteworthy, still 25 years, it’s hard to have things happen after 25 years that happen in the first two to three years when it was brand-new and nobody ever heard it before and it was just growing by leaps and bounds.
And now here comes the Rush Revere Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans children’s book series, and this is a new thing, but it’s a target market, it’s a target mission for children age 10 to 13. You know, it has a specific purpose. And yet some of the feedback that we’re getting from this is just over the top. I want to read one such because I wouldn’t have taken the time had we not had the call from the woman from Modesto who said what she said. This woman’s an MD. Her name is Laura. I don’t have permission to mention her last name. We don’t tell people who write fan mail or e-mail that their names will be made public, but I know who she is. I’ve got her last name here, but I’m not gonna use it, her name is Laura, she’s an MD.
She said: “Dear Kathryn and Rush: Thank you for writing these books. It might be seen as –” now, listen to this. This is one of these things, I must admit, this is the kind of thing that really does totally surprise me. “Dear Kathryn and Rush: Thank you for writing these books. It might be seen as embarrassing, but I’m in my forties. I have a degree in chemistry and French from Smith College. I’m an MD. I run a national business, but I didn’t know much about American history. It’s likely that I fell prey to the ‘America is evil’ education in the seventies and eighties.
“I learned the American history I didn’t know from your books. I like that all the characters in the book are well-mannered, except Elizabeth. I’ve always loved America except during a liberal phase in college, but I never understood the miracle that is this country, was never told to me. I never had any appreciation for it. America was just there. But your books clearly show how morals and courage and Christian values led to the founding of America.
“America’s unlike any other country in the history of the world, and we are lucky to live here. Thank you both for opening my eyes to how special America is while many others seek to disparage her. I have all three books from the library and the three CDs for traffic in Los Angeles, kind regards.”
But, now, stop. She’s in her forties. She is in her forties, and a children’s book is teaching her for the first time things about American history she didn’t know.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: It still amazes me. A 40-year-old MD. Think of the education this woman has, and in the Rush Revere series she is being exposed to American history that she was never taught, that she never learned. She never even heard it. As an MD in her forties, this woman is very educated. She was taught American history, but not what she’s learning in these books, and these books are the truth.
But I see something like this, I mean, that just blows me away. The last thing I would think is that the books would actually be educational for adults. But, you know, Harry Truman once said, “The only thing new in this world is the history that you don’t know.” Did you know Truman said that? You didn’t know that ’til I just told you. Well, he did. “The only thing new in this world is the history that you don’t know.” That’s why it’s so rewarding and fulfilling to get things like this, totally unexpected.
We put together this big Rush Revere Facebook page, and it’s actually for everybody. It’s for all children, all ages. If they go to the Facebook page you’ll see pictures of children and people from all backgrounds who are coming together under one common theme, which is that they are proud to be Americans. They’re reading these books. They are getting into it. They’re learning things that they’ve never been taught. They’re learning things that they didn’t know about their own country. They’re coming together and they know no boundaries.
We got people from all walks of life who are showing up and registering themselves and providing feedback at the Rush Revere Facebook page. Folks, it’s just a stunning, rewarding thing, and you talk about 25 years and things settle in and there’s very little new after 25 years, but this is, and it’s so unexpected. I mean, we thought they’d be successful. We had high hopes, but to hear from 40-year-old professionally educated people that they’re hearing things about American history they were never taught, they’re hearing about for the first time. I mean, it’s kind of scary, too, to be honest, but that’s mitigated by the positive nature of it all.
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