TODD: Uri in Sparta, New Jersey. Uri, a quick minute. I thank you for calling Rush’s show. Hi, Uri.
CALLER: Hi! Hi. So, you want me to tell my story and you want me to say something Rush Limbaugh in the sky.
TODD: Yeah.
CALLER: Look, I was born and lived in the Soviet Union 33 years. His day… Okay. Fast back. I was born in a 10-room communal apartment, a family per room.
TODD: Mmm.
CALLER: One toilet, one sink, one kitchen for everybody. Almost like 40 people there. So I learned quite early to hate what I had.
TODD: Yeah.
CALLER: I started dreaming of the United States.
TODD: Yes.
CALLER: I love everything about it.
TODD: How did you —
CALLER: Yes?
TODD: How did you learn English? Only because I — the clock just beats us up, Uri. How did you learn English?
CALLER: Well, I tried to learn in the Soviet Union. I went to the —
TODD: Yeah.
CALLER: — college of foreign languages. But the way they teach it is exactly not to talk.
TODD: (laughs)
CALLER: It’s because they want you to become a spy. So I didn’t learn much. What happened when I came here, I started — not immediately, but probably 15 years ago I started — listening to Rush.
TODD: Wow.
CALLER: I learned my English from him.
TODD: Wow.
CALLER: I learned America. I learned about America.
TODD: (clapping)
CALLER: But what I was going to tell you is that I loved America in the first place.
TODD: Yeah.
CALLER: I treasured a button-down back in the Soviet Union, an American button-down shirt.
TODD: Yeah.
CALLER: American chewing gum, American anything, any piece of information. And naturally, quite quickly, I got arrested. Me and my future wife, we got arrested when we were 19 years old. We got arrested, questioned by secret police, KGB.
TODD: Yeah.
CALLER: We were let go. When I was 21, we had a son. I ended up in communist labor camp. I was released, and it took me 10 years, but I left Russia, and I came to America. And I don’t know… I don’t know how, but we ended up in California. And it was so beautiful! It was —
TODD: Yeah. I hate… I am killing… I’d just die having to cut you off. I want to hear your whole story. I wonder if we could call you back some time and get the whole story just because we’re short on time. I want people to hear what our friend, Uri, said. He loved America, learned English from Rush. I gotta hear the rest of this story sometime, Uri. A beautiful phone call. Please stay on hold, and let’s reconnect with you. It’s just a phenomenal story.
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