RUSH: Port Huron, Michigan, Ron. Ron, thank you very much for waiting. It’s great to have you here.
CALLER: Thank you, sir. You’re a great American. It’s an honor to speak with you.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: Well, my issue is I need a little bit of advice. I’m a college student. I’ve been going to school about two years in the criminal justice program.
RUSH: How old are you?
CALLER: I am 21.
RUSH: You’re in a criminal justice program.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: I’ve had to develop a tolerance for all the liberal instructors, and I’m kind of a minority in my school, and this previous week I’ve about had it up to here. A professor proclaimed that he would have our president hung and killed, hunted down and killed if he was the president, and for about a half hour he spent — of our class time that I paid for — to profess his political beliefs on us.
RUSH: That’s not a political belief. It’s a criminal belief.
CALLER: That’s what I was thinking.
RUSH: You’re in a criminal justice
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Well, if you want to have real fun, you call the Secret Service. In fact, the Secret Service, they’re listening to this.
CALLER: Oh. Well, that’s —
RUSH: I kid you not. After stories like this… You’re not the first.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: After stories like this, we’ve actually had the Secret Service call and want to know, ‘Who was it that said that?’ Now, you’re in Port Huron, Michigan. You’re on the level here? You have a professor who, if he was president, he would hang Bush?
CALLER: Yes, sir, and the whole class witnessed it — this is on Monday — so it’s backed up by facts.
RUSH: So, it was Monday?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: It was yesterday?
CALLER: The previous Monday.
RUSH: Oh, so two Mondays ago.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: What was the reaction in the classroom?
CALLER: Well, due to fear of getting a bad grade, there isn’t too much. I got a little sick to my stomach. But I did not want to profess against the whole class and to him, in fear of getting a bad grade. I’ve written reports on Bush, praising our president. I took extra care, turned it in to a liberal teacher and received a C when someone who wrote about Clinton has received an A. It infuriates me.
RUSH: It should. I get calls like this frequently, and people ask me much as you’ve gotten close to, ‘What should I do?’ and I always say this, ‘The grade is important. You’re in school and the grade is the standard of measurement there, but there’s also your integrity.’
CALLER: I never sacrifice my integrity.
RUSH: Well, then you’re going through a life lesson here. I must ask also — I ask callers such as you this question — is it possible that your professor is merely trying to be provocative and inspire thought and controversy within the classroom in order to get an exchange of ideas going, to light fire under you people in the class, or does he actually, in your opinion, mean this? Does he say it with anger? Do his normal behavior and the things that he says in class regularly, back up the fact that he says this and you think he means it?
CALLER: Yes, sir. In a normal debating situation, the teacher might say something to provoke the class to interact. This professor paused, took great thought in what he was going to say, and after about 20 minutes of previous conversations blaming the president about various political issues — obviously, with no facts to back it up — then he states this very angrily and wholeheartedly, and that’s what gets me, you know?
RUSH: You know, just first and foremost, I would love to ask this guy what in the world he thinks he’s doing teaching in the criminal justice program, advocating murder?
CALLER: Let me correct you.
RUSH: This is a computer class?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Oh, I misunderstood. I thought it was an actual criminal justice course. It doesn’t matter.
CALLER: Yeah, that program I’m in is a required course. Yes, sir.
RUSH: For crying out loud, he’s not alone. There have been movies made about the assassination of Bush. There was a book published in the summer of 2004, a fictional account of how to assassinate Bush in Washington, and of course the Drive-Bys all told us that we need to consider these as works of art and so forth. Your guy is not alone here. It doesn’t sound like you’re surprised. This is a lib, and these people are more and more and more off the reservation, but my gosh, in a
CALLER: It’s based off the substance of, let’s say, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and your presentations on those computer programs.
RUSH: He’s asking you to do political presentations?
CALLER: No, no, not political presentations. You’re graded on basically putting in the information to show you can comprehend the material and produce, you know, homework and —
RUSH: In other words, learning the programs.
CALLER: This issue was totally unrelated to class time.
RUSH: How often does he start pontificating on these things that have nothing to do with the subject matter?
CALLER: This has occurred multiple times. But never speaking of assassinating our president if he had the authority to. You know, I think that’s criminal. I think he should be prosecuted in a court of law, especially in a government institution, preaching to young adults who pay and also some of them, their parents pay. I’ve personally put myself through college, and I called my grandfather on this situation. He’s a strong supporter of my life, and you were the one that he said to call, because you’re a number one guy in our book.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. I’m inspired here to ask you a question. How are you putting your way through school?
CALLER: I’ve been working doing interior remodeling. I just, you know, do as much side jobs as I can get. Right when I got out of college, I moved up to Michigan from Texas, and I started working and saving my money, and putting it through. There’s been a few times I’ve had to get some help from my grandparents, and they’ve been a strong influence in my life and keeping me right on the good track. I really am interested in getting into government after policing, so I can do something about these issues that I’m seeing right now.
RUSH: Well, I’m really proud of you, sir. The number of people like you that don’t often get enough credit for doing what it takes to put yourself through school… I mean, you’re doing the bulk of it. You’re getting assistance when you need it. We’re really proud of you here for that.
CALLER: Well, thank you.
RUSH: You don’t need this professor. Have you confronted him on any of this?
CALLER: Not yet, sir. I have the class twice a week, and one class has passed, and I’ve just been in awe on what to do. I thought about an anonymous letter to the dean, but then I said, ‘You know, that will alter my integrity. I should print my name.’ I’m not worried about the grade now. I’m too upset about it. I’ll take the fall, whatever may come being blamed on me, but I’m not going to stand for it.
RUSH: You know, if you want to do this, if you’re going to send a letter to the dean, you should also confront the teacher.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Do ’em both. Send the letter to both of them.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: So the professor knows what you’re doing. But if you’re going to do this, you’ve gotta make a point. You tell the dean exactly what you told me. You are putting yourself through school. You are working additional jobs to pay for this. You are in a criminal justice curriculum, and you have a computer professor who is taking time out from teaching you what you want to learn about these computer software programs to tell you that he would assassinate the president if he could.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: And you question the value of your tuition dollars on this, particularly since it’s a criminal
CALLER: Exactly. Not to mention the taxpayers, when it’s a government funded institution.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I can tell you from my grandfather, he said to me that he is infuriated whenever he hears that. But logically he said to think about it rationally and speak with someone to create the right steps. But you think that’s the best way to go?
RUSH: Well, I’m not entirely sure. The most important thing for you in a situation like this is to not subordinate your instincts and your integrity to the grade. That will serve you far more the rest of your life, not caving and not compromising your beliefs, than whatever grade you don’t get will damage you. Just believe me on this. We’re talking about your future here as a human, as an American and as a man.
CALLER: Your word is gold to me, so I really appreciate that.
RUSH: I totally understand your anger. George Will had a column this weekend on the new rage that’s in politics, and one of the theories (I’m going to have to paraphrase this) was that anger is an identifying characteristic for people who want to be in that group. Anger is something that makes up for something else they don’t have, that they lack in their lives, and the anger is a way they connect with other people, because they feel powerless. They have their own views, and they see their views not triumphing and not winning, and they just feel powerless over it, but it doesn’t bode well for the culture or for the society or for these people. It’s abnormal to walk around and spend your day totally enraged all the time and to have it manifest itself when you’re a professor by suggesting that if you had the power you would kill the president of the United States, and you’re right to be irritated by it.
CALLER: More than anger, I’m hurt. Honestly, if I was a more sensitive person, I would have broken down in tears to believe that our society nowadays can condemn a person in leadership. I don’t care if it was Clinton. He’s not my favorite guy, but I would never,
RUSH: No, I’ll guarantee you if anybody had they would be in jail.
CALLER: Oh, I guarantee you that’s true.
RUSH: If anybody had, they would be drummed out of work by the professoriate and the administration at these universities. That wouldn’t have been tolerated.
CALLER: No.
RUSH: You’ve heard of the controversial lecturer at the University of Colorado, Ward Churchill who basically said that the people that died —
CALLER: Oh, yeah.
RUSH: — 9/11 were idiots or they were guilty. They deserved to die for some reason. They were Americans and they in effect inspired this action by the Islamofascists. Of course he was ‘defending his free speech,’ and your professor probably, by the way, will be defended by the administration on the rights free speech, that professorial and academic latitude and freedom. So the point is — and you shouldn’t suggest in your letter trying to get rid of the guy. You just want the administration to know what’s going on in the classroom for the good of the university. You can make it about your personal feelings, too. There’s nothing wrong with that, but enlarge it to include that you’re proud of the school. You like going to it. You chose it, and it doesn’t reflect well on the school. The class seems intimidated, discombobulated by all this kind of talk. It’s a
CALLER: Well, I brought that up in the class today — and surprisingly, in a majority liberal class, it was a speech class as a matter of fact, a public speaking class, the majority of the class, even the liberals agreed that that was not right, and so therefore I had peers that agree with me on both sides of the aisle.
RUSH: Well, you may have peers in that situation, but understand this. When you send the letter, you’re going it alone. A lot of people will peel themselves away to avoid the controversy.
CALLER: I’m willing to take whatever consequences are rendered, because I value my life.
RUSH: I tell you what, that’s a great attitude to have because you’re bigger than that university. You don’t need it. It needs you. There are countless other places that have criminal justice programs you could go to, if you had to. You’ve already demonstrated that you’re willing to do what it takes to get into one of these places by working these extra jobs to pay your tuition. So, you don’t need that place. If it comes to this and if you have to leave (and I don’t think it’s going to come to this at all, but) there are plenty of other places you could go that would be as affordable and just as valuable. After this call, you never know. You might have people offering you slots. This is outrageous. We hear this all the time about liberal professors and the things they say, but advocating personal assassination of the president? That is somewhat unique.
CALLER: Are there legal ramifications that you think apply? Is there a law that prevents that? I’m in law, but I don’t know who would enforce it.
RUSH: Well, yeah. You cannot publicly threaten to assassinate the president. The Secret Service hears about you doing that, and you will hear from them.
CALLER: Does the word ‘if’ compromise that law or change anything? Since he said, ‘If I was the president, I would have him hunted done and hung,’ pretty much murdered?
RUSH: I’m not expert enough on the niceties of that, ‘If I were president…’ The implication is that this guy thinks presidents can have anybody lopped off at the first desire they have. That’s BS. I don’t think that the Secret Service or people that are concerned with protecting the president are going to be that nuanced about it. Here’s a guy saying he would do it. He probably never would. This is just some blowhard that’s going off for whatever reason. But your course of action here is well taken. Just do it not only in the guise of your personal feelings and reaction to it, but for the good of the university. Put it in your letter you’re proud of the place, you chose it, and it just seems unbecoming of the place for students to have to hear this. Don’t put this in the letter, but just so you know, John Wilkes Booth was a blowhard, and he actually pulled the trigger on Abe Lincoln.