Most of the time I learn from people who are smarter than me (that’s “I” for the grammarians and smartasses), or, better than me in some way. But, there have been a few times where I’ve learned from the stupid, the inept, even the cowardly. Today I learned something from a person who I have absolutely no respect for – that would be Rush Limbaugh. He has made a ton of money belittling anybody he doesn’t agree with, or approve of. Lately he has been mocking and ridiculing Barack Obama – making mud out of the fact that he (Obama) went to an Ivy League school. Well, our current president graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Among many other things, he worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University Of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. As we all know, he is now the President Of The United States. Well, Rush, coming from a family of lawyers, dropped out of Southeast Missouri State College after two semesters, and according to his mother, “Flunked out of everything”. To his credit, he only wanted to do radio, and went after that, not selling out to society’s pressures. Where he loses me is that he had it all – money, family, support, and now, as I said, mocks and belittles anybody who does not think as he does, mocking and ridiculing their achievements.
The lesson I just learned from Mr. Limbaugh is, to go after what I want – not what society wants – not even taking into consideration their need to talk down their nose at me, call me names, etc., and don’t waste time wringing hands over any obstacles that may or may not be in front of me. The lesson did, though, come inversely, seeing the way he ridicules others for their achievements. That being said, I have heard him on occasion, go after slackers and shit stirrers, but for the most part, he has made a damn good living going after people who have legitimately achieved what they set out to. One big difference between Rush and me is that I’ve had to fight for every morsel of life, and every speck of material (self) support I ever had, with no support outside of what I did for me. At this late time in my life, though, I am getting support from a person who does appear to want to see me achieve what I want to achieve, so thanks for that, Darlene. I’ve decided to take one last shot at the next level of the music business. Rush’s envy and ridiculing is what has validated and solidified my decision to take my shot. Being the person I am, not caring what society thinks or says, once I decided to do music, it’s what I’ve done since 1980. I think that doing something you hate is a waste of life, as is doing something because society expects it, or demands it, or ridicules you if you don’t do what is “acceptable”. There have been times when I wanted to hang it all up, get out of music, but other than a couple of brief periods, I did music, and nothing but music. Besides loving the actual music part, I seem to have always had some deep seeded need to expose B.S. for what it is – especially in the music business. So, we head off to Nashville as soon as becomes possible – mostly weather related. To top it all off, if I’m not able to break through the country music dynasty that has been carefully built and protected, I’ll be ok with it, because I’ll know that I did everything I was capable of. FTR, it’s never me that I doubt, it’s always the ruthless tactics of those in positions of power – and the fact is, they are much more powerful than I ever hope to be. I’ll fight tooth and nail, just saying it might not be enough.
So, Rush, thank you, even though I know it’s never your intention to help, your shameless envy for those who have achieved something in their life has motivated me to take one last shot at what I believe I’m here to do.
You can find me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ImTheFid
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