Re: "An Open Letter to Rush"

What the hell does this have to do with Boatanchors?


"RapidRonnie" <rapidronnie@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1179444759.921069.192340@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I was shooting the *** with a friend the other day about building a
downconverter board for old tube receivers-I was thinking Collins but
any would do-to give them BCB and other off-ham reception without
permanent butchering. We were talking about how there is nothing on AM
anymore besides Limblow and he gave me this letter his dad wrote to
Rush. He got no response.


He has let me post it. I don't have a scanner so I'm going to type it
in and any flaws are probably mine.


"Dear Mr. Limbaugh:

I am a 59 year old white male who is alive today only because of the
kindness of strangers and my religious beliefs against suicide. I have
no assets, no marketable skills and can not do heavy manual labor even
if someone would let me. I work part time at a job that I honestly
hate but which I am grateful for nevertheless.

Perhaps I should be regarded as a derelict, but if I am a derelict or
a bum, my path to that status has ben an unusual one. I have a
master's degree in electrical engineering and over 30 years experience
at everything from digital interfacing and assembler programming to
maintaining radar and broadcast transmitters. There are no jobs within
a 50 mile radius of my house (or, should I say, what was my house)
that will hire me for any electronic or electrical job. No matter what
the stated requirements, I'm always underqualified, overqualified,
lack the necessary experience or certification, or some other nebulous
reason. The real issue is that there are now many more people in every
facet of electronics than there are jobs.

Most of the jobs have gone to China or india, but the ones still in
the US have gone to areas like the San Francisco Bay Area and have
left the Midwest and South. This is because they can hire H-1B
applicants there for very low wages.

While employed in industry, I saved money carefully and raised two
children with my wife of 32 years. A year after the last employer I
worked for massively downsized, she was diagnosed with cancer and
died. We had little insurance and although she did receive what I
think was the best possible treatment, we had to refinance the house
and the bills destroyed any other equity we would have had many times
over. I am making payments on the house but with the liens I will
never see any net equity in it again. In essence, I am renting the
house from the bank. If I miss two payments I will be on the street.

I have gone as low as to apply to work at burger places but my age
and the fact I don't speak Spanish are serious issues baring me from a
management trainee position. Office temporary places have got me a
couple of call center positions, but they have not worked out well
long term. I was doing technical support for an Internet provider,
after acquiring A+ and Microsoft Certified Professional certifications
with money from the sale of my late father's Lionel trains and his
L.C. Smith shotgun-may G-d forgive me!-but I was fired after
responding to a barrage of profanity from a snotnosed teenager in a
less than deferential manner. As a result of that the temp agency
that placed me won't talk to me anymore.

Start my own business, is that what I should do, Mr. Limbaugh? What
business would you propose? No, that is not an option for me. In fact,
let's get something out of the way. Small business is not the economic
engine of America, and it never was. American prosperity is built on
medium and large corporations, and has been since the 1880s. Most
startups, then and now, fail, as you are well aware.

Perhaps I should become a doctor, a lawyer, a CPA? Medicine,
dentistry and pharmacy are out of the question at my age: I've
checked. I couldn't even get into veterinary school. Law school is an
option, if I were to take on a $80,000 debt over and above the one I
have, but let's be honest: what firm worth talking to is going to hire
a 62-year-old new bar admittee? I'd wind up working as a law clerk or
tax preparer and defaulting my debt. There is nothing they could do
about it: my house is already far in lien and I drive ten year old
cars. Despite my math and engineering background, becoming a CPA would
mean even more college than law school (though perhaps cheaper).

Trade school? I've looked into truck driving, but the only job you
get out of school is driving for a "truck load carrier", living in a
sleeper cab and being out for weeks at a time. Auto mechanics? I'm
already a decent car mechanic, actually, but I'm not fast, and I'd
never survive in a dealership. And again no one would hire me. I've
made a few enquiries. I couldn't even get hired in a parts store,
because-get this-I had "no experience". Never mind I could explain the
function of every part in the store and look up any needed piece of
information in their database. The manager admitted he simply was not
allowed to hire anyone over 35 unless they had management level
experience with a competing chain, and besides, I'd better be prepared
to win a fistfight or two with the young counterpeople on staff or
they'd harass me to death in two weeks anyway. Oh yes, and do it
without anyone else seeing it. If he saw it, he'd have to fire us
both, and he didn't want to lose any of his young hard chargers. (I
guess I should be grateful he told me the truth straight up instead of
giving me a long runaround.) I even looked into aircraft mechanic
school, but aside from the insane tuition, I managed to find out that
all the jobs available are in places like Florida, Arizona, and Nevada-
hard, hot outdoor work.
And starting pay, after spending $30,000, is about $14 an hour.

No, Mr. Limbaugh, the problem isn't that I am lazy or stupid or
criminal. The problem is that I did just what conservatives are
supposed to do-worked hard, went to school, married and had a family.
I did it in a world where alleged "conservatives" have stabbed me, and
others like me, in the back. They have deported our industry and
allowed unskilled, not very bright, and incorrigibly non-American
workers to flood the lower rungs of the labor market and foreign
college graduates willing to become virtual indentured servants to
kill the technical professions for their own profit.

Is this your definition of "moral responsibility", Mr. Limbaugh?
"Family values"? If not, I think you owe me, and the millions in my
situation an explanation. If they are indeed your values, then you owe
it to us to at least own up to it. And we owe it to you and to
ourselves to get your old, fat carcass off the radio. "

(signed)



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