Monday, November 2, 2009

We Are All In This Together

Rush Limbaugh was interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox yesterday. If one takes him seriously, it appears that the world is coming to an end because President Obama's plan to take away all of our individual rights is right on course. Limbaugh was a little vague about just what rights he was talking about, but provided a clue as to what he meant by attributing his inability to purchase part of a professional football team, a right we all cherish, directly to Obama. What got me to thinking about the topic of my title "We are all in this together" after hearing Limbaugh's rant was the recognition that he is heard daily on 600 radio stations by millions of 'ditto heads' (his term, not mine) who, from what I hear from talking to a lot of them, accept what he says as the gospel truth, i.e. he tells them what to think. What I experienced vividly from watching and listening to him yesterday was a sense of de ja vue that I couldn't quite piece together at the time. I awoke suddenly early (very early) this morning with a flash of awareness as to where I have had this same sense of disconnectedness. Early in my legal career I would cover criminal preliminary exams in Detroit's Recorders Court. In doing so I became aware of a force in our society of which I was previously unaware. This activity required me to sit and wait my turn in a courtroom buzzing with story after story of stupid and crazy behavior and acts commited by my fellow human beings. Limbaugh's words and thoughts and the litany of criminal conduct acts spelled out in that courtroom share the same thread of lunacy that most common sense type of people are not generally exposed to in a life time. Limbaugh's words are as dangerous to the integrity of our society as the mayhem that goes on nightly in the streets of our large cities. Words, like the guns and knives on the street, cause harm except that the harm caused by Limbaugh and his wannabees goes well beyond the pale of constructive criticsm. It is one thing to criticise, but it is all together another thing to make up facts to spread hate simply to maintain radio ratings to justify a $400 million contract.

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