A WAKE UP CALL FOR LIMBAUGH

Texarkana (Texas) Gazette - Now that talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has
publicly admitted his addiction to prescription painkillers, it is time to
extend a hand of compassion toward him, not vitriolic comments because of
seemingly insincere remarks he's made about drug addicts and the treatment
they deserve. What Limbaugh needs is professional help for his addiction and
that's exactly what he said he intended to do, announcing that he would put
himself into a drug treatment program immediately after his show last
Friday.

Maybe getting help will serve two purposes for Limbaugh: free his body from
drug addiction and free his mind from the erroneous contention that drug
addicts need jail, not help.

Of course, that may well have been Limbaugh's on-air persona talking rather
than his real self.

Now the shoe is on the other foot and many will be waiting to hear what
Limbaugh has to say when he returns to the air and to see if his own brush
with drug addiction changes his perspective. But one thing Limbaugh has said
before really is true and that is "too many whites are getting away with
drug use" and that blacks go to prison more often than whites for the same
offenses.

No doubt his show will resume when his treatment is finished and no doubt
he'll remain as popular as ever. But Limbaugh will paint himself a hypocrite
of gigantic proportions if he insists on decreeing others as less worthy of
the drug treatment he admits he needs to survive.