POVERTY PROGRAM'S RESULTS PUT RUSH IN PERSPECTIVE

Thirty years after I had directed a federal War on Poverty program, I
undertook a special project to find out what had happened to the
former student participants and to get their evaluations of their
experiences.

I returned to the four Kentucky counties where they had lived in
1966-67 to visit the many who had stayed at or near home and to get
leads on the others, scattered from North Carolina to Southern California.

All of this entailed a lot of driving over mountain roads, and as
usual, when I am driving, I turned on the radio. Because WHAS in
Louisville was the only radio station powerful enough for me to
receive the signal consistently, I kept the radio tuned to it. That's
where I discovered Rush Limbaugh.

Since I could catch only bits and pieces of his program because of my
frequent stops, I didn't know what to make of him at first. I had
never heard a program quite like it and thought the entire show was a
not-very-clever parody of conservatism. In a few weeks, I realized
that he was serious about what he was saying but had not bothered to
check his facts.

He had no regard for the truth and made up "facts" as he went along to
suit his ideology. Limbaugh's lies became increasingly evident as he
regularly blasted President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs
and similar ones that followed.

He was talking about how programs such as the one I had directed were
a total waste of money. He made no exceptions; all were uniformly bad.

At the same time, I was discovering repeatedly that the $650 a person
spent on the students I had worked with 30 years before seemed to have
been a good investment. Most had done well in their respective
endeavors. Many who were dropouts had gone back to school or had
gotten their GEDs. Others had improved their grades significantly;
many had gone on to college during the next few years -- 35 colleges
in all.

Others had gone to college years later -- including two in their
mid-40s who had just graduated, having followed their children to college.

Many were active in various professions, including medicine, nursing,
finance, accounting, law, teaching (in many fields and from pre-school
to graduate school), law enforcement, the arts and the ministry.
Others had become highly successful entrepreneurs, employing many
other people in their businesses. Still others had become industry
leaders in personnel work, training, marketing and product design.
Others, both male and female, had pursued successful military careers.

Almost to a person they credited Project Torchlight with helping them
to believe in themselves and to gain the skills that they were still
fruitfully using.

Daily, I listened to his program, and his outrages strengthened my
desire to find out what had happened to all the 325 students who had
been in one of the two years of Project Torchlight.

It was the war experiences of my former students that made me begin to
see Limbaugh for what he is.

It was with a heavy heart that I learned of the Vietnam combat deaths
of four of the first 100 males in the program in 1966 -- an astounding
percentage. Another came back with only one leg, and another, who was
wounded, was the sole survivor of his company. Another came back
disabled by Agent Orange.

One of the most touching experiences was interviewing a mother of one
young man who had been killed while a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. She
said she had become addicted to watching M*A*S*H*, always hoping and
praying that her son had been granted that kind of care before he died.

When I found out that Limbaugh had not served in the military despite
being about the same age as the students in my program, it made me
wonder about his professed super-patriotism.

So I was beyond being surprised by the recent revelation that Limbaugh
is a drug addict who might be guilty of money laundering as well.

If he is a true conservative, he will accept blame and take the
medicine the courts dole out. I think he needs help, and the type of
controlled environment that a prison offers might be the best solution
for his problems.

Partaking of the medicine that he has so frequently and forcefully
advocated for others in years past might serve to demonstrate to
others that a fragment of integrity still exists beneath the bravado.

Although he obviously did not plan to do so, Limbaugh has forcefully
demonstrated the insight and wisdom in the adage that "what goes
around comes around," otherwise known as the boomerang theory of justice.

My original impression of Limbaugh was correct. His is a shallow
parody of conservatism -- at best a sloppy caricature.

Conservatives are interested in the truth and not in distorting or
making fun of it. They also hold themselves to high standards and
accept responsibility for their own actions. I have known many
conservatives, and Limbaugh is not one.