I know this is yesterday’s news but I was really saddened by his passing yesterday wasn’t really ready to articulate it. I don’t typically mourn celebrity deaths because it’s a “I don’t know this person” situation, but with someone you’ve listened to for years and hours and hours and hours, you do start to feel like you know the person. It’s an odd phenomenon.
I’ve been listening to Rush since I was 12 years old, and back then, I actually played a parody of Rush in a school play. It wasn’t a negative spin on Rush, they actually treated him as a news anchor just someone who was a part of life. Can you imagine them even acknowledging any figure on the right today? With the prevalence of cancel culture now, it could never happen.
I was excited, and I told my mom I wanted to call into his show to tell him. She let me. I hung on hold for over an hour, and finally got to talk to Rush. He put me on the air, I don’t remember the exact conversation but he was genuinely excited to have a young person interested in politics and talking to him. He was kind, patient, nice. And at the end of it, he told me to hang on the line.
He talked to me off air and got my address to send me a signed book. It was my first major interaction with any sort of author or celebrity, and getting that book as a starry-eyed twelve year old made me a fan for life.
Rush was a class act both on and off air. He truly cared about the people. He cared about the future.
Now it’s our job to take up his mantle and create the future he envisioned.
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