Pubdate: Sun, 11 Jan 2004 Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) Copyright: 2004 Lexington Herald-Leader Contact: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240 Author: Bill Best Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Rush+Limbaugh (Limbaugh, Rush) POVERTY PROGRAM'S RESULTS PUT RUSH IN PERSPECTIVE Thirty years after I had directed a federal War on Poverty program, I undertook a special project to find out what had happened to the former student participants and to get their evaluations of their experiences. I returned to the four Kentucky counties where they had lived in 1966-67 to visit the many who had stayed at or near home and to get leads on the others, scattered from North Carolina to Southern California. All of this entailed a lot of driving over mountain roads, and as usual, when I am driving, I turned on the radio. Because WHAS in Louisville was the only radio station powerful enough for me to receive the signal consistently, I kept the radio tuned to it. That's where I discovered Rush Limbaugh. Since I could catch only bits and pieces of his program because of my frequent stops, I didn't know what to make of him at first. I had never heard a program quite like it and thought the entire show was a not-very-clever parody of conservatism. In a few weeks, I realized that he was serious about what he was saying but had not bothered to check his facts. He had no regard for the truth and made up "facts" as he went along to suit his ideology. Limbaugh's lies became increasingly evident as he regularly blasted President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs and similar ones that followed. He was talking about how programs such as the one I had directed were a total waste of money. He made no exceptions; all were uniformly bad. At the same time, I was discovering repeatedly that the $650 a person spent on the students I had worked with 30 years before seemed to have been a good investment. Most had done well in their respective endeavors. Many who were dropouts had gone back to school or had gotten their GEDs. Others had improved their grades significantly; many had gone on to college during the next few years -- 35 colleges in all. Others had gone to college years later -- including two in their mid-40s who had just graduated, having followed their children to college. Many were active in various professions, including medicine, nursing, finance, accounting, law, teaching (in many fields and from pre-school to graduate school), law enforcement, the arts and the ministry. Others had become highly successful entrepreneurs, employing many other people in their businesses. Still others had become industry leaders in personnel work, training, marketing and product design. Others, both male and female, had pursued successful military careers. Almost to a person they credited Project Torchlight with helping them to believe in themselves and to gain the skills that they were still fruitfully using. Daily, I listened to his program, and his outrages strengthened my desire to find out what had happened to all the 325 students who had been in one of the two years of Project Torchlight. It was the war experiences of my former students that made me begin to see Limbaugh for what he is. It was with a heavy heart that I learned of the Vietnam combat deaths of four of the first 100 males in the program in 1966 -- an astounding percentage. Another came back with only one leg, and another, who was wounded, was the sole survivor of his company. Another came back disabled by Agent Orange. One of the most touching experiences was interviewing a mother of one young man who had been killed while a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. She said she had become addicted to watching M*A*S*H*, always hoping and praying that her son had been granted that kind of care before he died. When I found out that Limbaugh had not served in the military despite being about the same age as the students in my program, it made me wonder about his professed super-patriotism. So I was beyond being surprised by the recent revelation that Limbaugh is a drug addict who might be guilty of money laundering as well. If he is a true conservative, he will accept blame and take the medicine the courts dole out. I think he needs help, and the type of controlled environment that a prison offers might be the best solution for his problems. Partaking of the medicine that he has so frequently and forcefully advocated for others in years past might serve to demonstrate to others that a fragment of integrity still exists beneath the bravado. Although he obviously did not plan to do so, Limbaugh has forcefully demonstrated the insight and wisdom in the adage that "what goes around comes around," otherwise known as the boomerang theory of justice. My original impression of Limbaugh was correct. His is a shallow parody of conservatism -- at best a sloppy caricature. Conservatives are interested in the truth and not in distorting or making fun of it. They also hold themselves to high standards and accept responsibility for their own actions. I have known many conservatives, and Limbaugh is not one. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek