KEN: Today’s EIB High Note is perfect because Memorial Day’s right around the corner. And it’s about six teens in Elkhorn, Nebraska, that started a small business to boost patriotism in their community. It’s called flying Old Glory. And here’s how it works.

Every American holiday the teens get up at dawn and place an American flag at the end of their customers’ driveway in the yard. They use a piece of rebar — rebar and PVC pipe all purchased, measured, and cut and assembled by the boys themselves.

They return at dusk to collect the flags until the next holiday. And they do that every holiday. This service costs 45 bucks. Mason Miller, one of the teen entrepreneurs, explained why they wanted to start this business.

MILLER: It’s really nice to drive up the street and see a bunch of flags flying in a row.

KEN: Yes, it is. And every American has that in them, and every conservative, every listener of this show, you know how it feels when you pull into a street or a business and there’s all this Americana there. This is exactly why Rush wrote his Rush Revere children’s series.

RUSH: Remember, we’re not doing these books just to write books. There is actually a mission behind this. This country is just wonderful. There’s no reason to be ashamed of this country. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best place on earth to be born, the best place on earth to live, the best place on earth that man has ever devised for himself to thrive in the history of humanity.

The absolute best. There’s no reason to be ashamed of it or feel dishonored, there’s no reason to hate this country, and yet that’s all been taught. The truth of the founding of this country has just been distorted, and in some cases lied about now. So this is one small effort to get to young people. They’re never gonna listen to the program, obviously. But it’s a way to get to them in a nonpolitically charged way the truth of this country.

I think back to when I was in kindergarten and grade school and learning this stuff, and since I started this project, I’ve actually asked myself, “What kind of person would I be if I had not been taught what I was taught?

If I hadn’t been taught patriotism, if I hadn’t been taught love of country — if I hadn’t been taught about the great people, the Founders, and people who followed them — what would I be?”

I wouldn’t be qualified to do this program. This program would not be a success if I had not been taught what I was taught. If I had been taught what’s taught today, I’d just be your average, run-of-the-mill person in the media that thinks this country is unjust and immoral and has got to pay a price for all the mean things it’s done to people. That’s not what people want to hear about their country, but they’re being taught that.

At a young age, if that’s all they’re taught, that’s what they’re going to think, and then they’re gonna grow up thinking the country is in vast need of reform and it’s just an absolute shame. If you love the country (and I do) and if you’re proud of it (and I am), there’s no reason for somebody not to be. You know, I’m naive, admittedly so. I also live in great conflict. For example, one part of me doesn’t understand how people could hate this country.

Then the other side of me says, “Yeah, I do, if they’re taught it.” Maybe African-Americans, that’s a huge hill to climb — slavery, and turning something like that into love of country. I can understand that intellectually. But at some point you have to realize that was then, that was way back then, and we’re one of the few countries that’s ever abolished it. We’ve gone to war with ourselves to do so. There’s even a, you know, positive ramification from that.

But the opportunity, the freedom? I don’t understand hating it. I literally don’t understand elite leftists and their hate for the country. To me, it’s irrational. But then the other side of me understands their irrationality ’cause I know who they are and I understand what their inner needs are, and so I understand. But it still makes no sense to me.

So the mission here is to try to get to these kids before they are totally gone.

KEN: What a beautiful message, as is so often the case with Rush about the country. That is another thing that made Rush so iconic with his connection to Americanism and patriotism iconic. I think people found — they found comfort in that. It really is refreshing. And things are so crazy in leftist media that you go down the dial and you just — if you could just find something that doesn’t make you feel like crap, some announcer or some host that doesn’t say, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, you American.” And then the list of everything. And that’s why I think so many people love Rush.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

KEN: Speaking about the Rush Revere series, I remember Rush and Kathryn donating more than 30,000 of those books to schools and public libraries upon request.