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April 10, 2015 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:27
April 10, 2015, Friday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
It's a big day.
It's an exciting day.
We've been looking forward to it.
It's the EIB network.
It's Rush Limbaugh.
It is the 25th annual curathon right here on the radio as we engage in the ongoing effort to beat the blood cancers.
For the benefit of all who suffer, their families, Leukemia, Lymphoma, Society, let's hit it, folks.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida, it's Open Line Friday.
Yip, yip, yip, yip, yahoo!
Open Line Friday, where we combine the normal everyday radio program with our effort to defeat the blood cancers.
We do it once a year.
This marks 25 years, a quarter of a century.
And this day, every year, is one of the primary reasons why I tell everybody that those of you in this audience, all of you, comprise the best audience anywhere anyone in media could possibly have.
25 years started extremely small, started accidentally.
Well, not accidentally, but as an afterthought.
In fact, I'll explain that in just a second.
And in over 25, in these 25 years, we have raised, you have raised over $40 million, one day a year.
And for not even the whole three hours of the radio program.
It's incredible.
What you have done over the course of the last century is literally incredible.
The telephone number for the leukemia curathon today, Leukemia Lymphoma Society Curathon, is 877-379-8888.
Make a note of that.
Feel free to use it as often as you want today.
And for the next 24 hours and into the weekend, you can also donate at rushlimbaugh.com.
You can't miss it.
Right there at the top of our homepage.
And in addition to the ability to donate, you will also learn what the premiums for certain levels of donations are this year.
It really is stunning when you stop to think about this.
And I'm very proud of it.
Everybody associated with it is.
I'm still, I'm in kind of a state of awe here.
25 years, not even three hours a year, folks.
And you've come through with over $40 million in an effort to cure the blood cancers.
There's a lot of work to do, and a lot of progress is being made.
Now, for those of you relatively new to the program, let me tell you how this all began because there's a lesson here, and that is never be afraid to ask.
1988, when this program started, it had a lot of oddities to it.
It was a much different broadcast climate then.
And our radio station in New York, which we needed, did not carry this program.
I had to do a separate for New York only program after I did this one.
It actually might have been before I did this one during the day.
But that was back when radio stations and major markets, it's got to be local.
It's a nice thing you're trying to do.
We wish you the best, but we don't want any part of it.
So I had to do a local show because it was local, local, local.
When I finished that, I would come over and do this show when we started.
Well, along the way, it turned out that all the ABC-owned and operated radio stations at the time devoted a full day wall to wall, sun up to sundown, radiothon to cure leukemia.
All the owned and operated ABC stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Dallas, Baltimore, wherever they were, they all band together.
Now, my show on WABC in New York at the time was separate and different.
And so I was not part of that broadcast day.
And the Leukemia Lymphoma Society people came to me and gave me the phone number, said, look, we know you can't go wall to wall.
You've got to do your show because it was a national show.
You've got to do your show.
Could we give you our phone number?
Can you get the phone number out and just mention it a couple of times?
And I said, sure, I'd be happy to.
And what eventually happened is you, in this audience, as the years went by, and this is just, it's a fact, and it's actually a very big plus, but it's not intended as a criticism of anything.
You in this audience didn't take long before you were eclipsing all of the efforts of all the other radio stations.
Didn't happen the first year, of course.
And as things evolve in every business, it was eventually decided as ownership changed and priorities changed and the nature of this program changed, Leukemia Lymphoma Society people came and said, you know, we'd like to do it totally with you.
And everybody else was fine with that because they'd been doing it their way for many, many years.
And everybody was interested in change.
And so that's how it happened that the cur-a-thon ended up exclusively on this program and on now 628 radio stations all across the country.
$40 million.
I've always said, ladies and gentlemen, that I wanted to be older.
And I've always, I've never regretted it.
15 wanted to be 20, 20 wanted to be 21.
21 wanted to be 30 and so on.
Because as I looked at older people, I saw happier people.
I saw more independent people.
I saw freer people.
I saw people able and even willing to make up their own minds, make their own decisions.
It was a freedom issue for me.
And even when I was 40, I didn't mind getting 45.
When I was 45, I didn't mind turning 50.
My life has gotten better with the passage of each year.
Now I'm 64.
I can't say that I can't wait till I'm 70, but I don't regret that I'm 64.
And my life is still getting better.
At this age, each year is better than the previous one.
Not complaining about any of the past, but there's one thing that you know, but you don't ever spend conscious time contemplating it.
And that is the one aspect of getting older that nobody tells you about, you have to figure it out yourself, and you do, is that your friends start to get sick.
And friends of family members start to get sick.
Family members start to get sick, and some of them pass away.
And it changes perspective, changes outlook, and it has its own effect on your life.
And earlier this year, we lost our chief of staff to the blood cancers.
Kit Carson was diagnosed four years ago out of the blue, very young.
There was no prior indication.
No telltale sign.
Just happened one day.
And after two years of valiant effort in fighting it and with tremendous assistance from everybody at the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, I mean, this is one of the reasons why I'm more determined than ever to break records.
And we have every year.
I think only one year we have not raised more than the previous year.
But just one year in 25, that isn't bad.
But this is why I am more determined than ever to break records.
And this doesn't mean you giving more than you have.
The economy has been rough on a lot of people and remains tough on a lot of people.
I mean, 93 million Americans are not working.
But with an audience like this one, with an army of so many people in this audience, even if everybody just gave a dollar, we would break records that would never ever be broken if everybody just gave a dollar.
And that's the point.
You don't have to give everything you can.
You don't have to give even a lot.
It's an economy of scale thing.
And the effort is just to get as many people as possible to donate.
But we're not focused on records.
We're focused on raising money and continuing to advance research and treatment and assistance to families and patients.
We've seen all this up close and personal now.
In more than just the case of HR, we've seen it up close in person.
We've seen what happens.
Many of you affected by the disease know it.
You've lived it.
You've seen it.
And it's devastating.
All the ups and downs and all the highs and lows.
In Kit's case, after two years, we thought he'd beat it.
He was in remission, and everybody said, you got to five years of remission before you can really think.
And there's never really beating it.
There's just expectations and hope for a little bit more life.
In Kit's case, he prayed to see his kids graduate from high school.
He didn't quite get there.
But he gave it every effort that he had.
And everybody that knew him and his family devoted themselves to his fight.
And the doctors and the nurses that were involved at every stage and the people from the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, we were able to see firsthand, up close and personal, what all of the efforts that you have made over the years caused to happen.
Saw it up close.
We saw the good work.
We saw the care.
We saw the love.
We saw the compassion.
We saw the advancements.
We saw the miracles that Sunday.
After two years, it was amazing.
I'll tell you in one little story, first two years where Kit had been diagnosed, and I guess it was, I don't know, six months in.
And the word came that it wasn't good, that you better get up and see him soon because it spread to the brain and the memory was deteriorating rapidly.
So Catherine and I flew up and we indeed found that to be the case, knew who we were, but in 10 minutes didn't.
And 15 minutes later, thought we had just arrived, knew us again and so forth.
It was, you know, it was painful.
It was challenging.
But we were told that don't worry, there's a treatment that we're going to do involving his brain and describe what it was.
And hopefully it will restore him to normal.
And it did almost over a weekend.
It was incredible.
It was uncanny.
And it was inspirational.
It gave everybody hope that maybe he was going to survive this for longer than people thought he did.
It got two years and then into remission, but after another two years, it came roaring back this past winter, November and December, and it claimed him in late January.
And there have been other examples of other people close to us, family members and so forth, who've contracted the disease and come down with it.
And it's made it personal now, like it has always been personal with the people we deal with at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
They are involved because it's impacted them personally.
And now it's impacted us personally.
And as I say, this is you see these things, these tragedies and the effects firsthand, how it affects family and friends.
And it changes the way you, even though you think you have all the maturity in the world to understand it, you have the ability to understand it.
You hear about people that you don't know have the disease and how they're fighting it and you admire it and you respect them and you see it firsthand, as is the case with almost anything, it changes your perception.
And in our case, we've doubled down on our effort and desire to see this through.
25 years ago, when we first started doing these cur-a-thons, we were just getting familiar with how your support and mine could make a difference.
25 years ago, it was much different.
It was a much tougher diagnosis than it is today.
The effort to find cures for blood cancer has been led by the Leukemia Lymphoma Society for 66 years.
And as I say, we've been part of that now for 25.
Survival rates for many blood cancer patients have doubled and tripled and in some cases quadrupled since the 1960s.
The long-term survival rate for the most common form of childhood leukemia has gone from 3% to 92%.
So when you make a donation to Leukemia Lymphoma Society, and again, you can do so at rushlimbaugh.com right now, donate online the easy way or call 877-379-8888.
When you make a donation to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, you are dedicating dollars toward funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services to people in need.
This disease takes over.
It takes over everybody's life.
The family, the children, or in case of the children being the patient, it just takes over.
It dominates everything.
That's just one of the many things Leukemia Lymphoma Society offers assistance, education, patient services, and family services to people in need.
Now, when these forms of cancer are initially diagnosed, a patient and family are scared to death.
It's cancer.
It's a blood cancer.
They want information.
The moment the diagnosis happens, they want information.
They want to know what kind of resources are available.
They want to know if they can afford it.
They want to know if it's covered.
They want hope.
Even just a little, they want hope.
And that's what the Leukemia Lymphoma Society provides, in addition to many other things, hope.
And the hope is genuine because of donations from people like you over all of these years who have enabled the research, the patient and family services.
The hope is genuine, and that's what is wanted.
Hope is found in the advances being made for survival and the benefits for early treatment.
And thanks to your generous support, we have more tools than ever before to take this killer out.
But we don't have the job completed.
Have to keep bringing the fight.
One way you can do that is by participating today, by sharing what you can.
Our website's the easiest and quickest way you can be involved.
And we're set up today to take donations at rushlimbaud.com.
You can call a specific, a specific or specified dedicated number and talk to somebody if you want at 877-379-8888.
All of your personal information is secure.
You will not be placed in an emailing list.
You're not going to be hounded by anybody after today.
Your list, your name is not going to be sold to any other charitable endeavor.
Quick timeout.
Be back in.
Yeah, yep, yep.
Of course, I never ask people to do something I don't also do.
So stand by.
We'll be right back.
Yeah, here's an example of exactly what I was talking about.
People are already donating and commenting on our Facebook page.
We're all over the place today, folks.
We're eating Facebook, Twitter, yes, even Twitter.
877-379-8888.
You can donate at rushlimbaud.com.
Here's a post.
I listened to Rush for years doing this fundraiser, and never did I think that I would be one of the people he's trying to help.
I was diagnosed with acute leukemia March the 16th of this year.
Thank you for all that you're doing for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
I'm not going to mention the person's name, but these are coming in all over.
That's the thing about getting older.
You may have been listening to this radio thon for 25 years.
And at times you might have said, come on, can you get back?
I want to hear what Hillary's doing or whatever it else.
And we do.
We combine a normal program with our fundraising effort here.
But now some people have been listening and donating for all the 25 years.
All of a sudden, some of them have been diagnosed.
I'm telling you, it brings it home.
It closes the circle.
And this disease doesn't discriminate, folks.
There's no identity awareness of the blood cancers.
It doesn't matter where you were born, who you are, how much money you have or don't have.
It doesn't matter.
In this sense, everybody is the same.
And that's why the Leukemia Lymphoma Society treats everybody the same, as do the doctors and nurses.
Everybody involved in this effort treats everybody the same.
One other thing: Leukemia Lymphoma Society of America does not get a dime of federal money.
There is no government funding.
They rely exclusively on the generosity and the love and the compassion of all of you in this audience and, of course, others in order to keep going, in order to keep improving, making new research discoveries and so forth.
So we'll be back.
Don't go away.
A 25th annual Leukemia Lymphoma Society Cure-A-Thon.
25 years we have been doing this as of today.
And you can donate at rushlimbaud.com.
Donate online.
And everything you give and every bit of personal information is secure.
You're not going to be hounded by anybody else.
Your name is not going to be sold to any other charity or anything.
You have anonymity and privacy.
You can also call 877-379-8888.
And folks, I have run out of ways to express my and all of our gratitude to you over the years here.
And I understand probably everything that you think and feel as we do this once a day, once a year.
I know that some of you think, come on, would you just, we get it.
You've given us the number.
You've given us the address.
Now get back to the.
But you don't.
I haven't gotten any complaints.
Not real.
I mean, the naysayers and the Twitter cesspoolites, but there has never been anything but total support from all of you.
You have, every year you have rallied.
Every year you banded together.
You banded together in groups, sometimes anonymously, but every year you outdo the previous year.
No complaining, just nothing but total support.
I don't know how to express our gratitude other than to thank you very much for participating in this that we do one day a year.
Now, I never ask people to do something I don't do.
When I used to watch all these telethons on TV and I would watch all the celebrities come and go and take their turn at imploring or begging, some of them even employed shame.
How dare you sit out there in the comfort of your home while little Johnny here can barely walk?
Why don't you get off your butt and get to the phone and make it?
I heard all that.
And I heard the impassioned please.
And I always wondered in the back of my mind, what are you doing?
How much are you donating?
Why don't you ever tell anybody how much you've given?
And in some cases, they were asked, and they always said, I'm donating my time.
I have come here and donated my precious time to help the cause.
Well, that isn't any big deal.
If you're going to ask people to give up some things of theirs to help your cause, you certainly have to be able and willing to do that yourself.
It's just been a belief of mine.
And so every year I have donated to kick off the curathon each year.
And this year is no different.
I normally announce it before this stage of the program, but there were some things I wanted to get to before this, but I didn't want anybody to think I wasn't going to get there.
Last year, Catherine and I donated $500,000 to the Curathon just to get the ball rolling.
And because we care and because we've been touched by it up close and personal now in more than just Kit Carson, in more than just one way, it's what I say is one of the byproducts of getting older.
People you know and love get sick.
And every year, if I'm able, I always increase it.
So this year, we talked about it last night, in fact.
And this year, we are going to kick it all off with a $600,000 donation to leukemia and lymphoma.
And it's an honor and a privilege to be able to do it.
And yeah, we want to exceed the amount every year.
We want to do better than the year before for the cause.
There's nothing personal about this.
I mean, ask yourself, how many places outside this program have you even heard of this?
The media doesn't write about what happens here.
There is no PR agency writing about what happens here.
No news network cares about it.
None of the critics of this program care a whit what happens on this program on this day.
So none of what happens here is for any of that.
What happens here on this day is devoted to the real, is devoted to the genuine, is devoted to the substance.
And the substance and the effort is curing the blood cancers.
And hoping that we can arrive someday where we don't have to have people go through what we saw Kit go through and his family go through or what you have had to go through yourself or family members or friends of yours.
We want to get to the day where a diagnosis of the blood cancers does not mean what it means today.
It's certainly what it meant 10 or 15 years ago.
It's not nearly the bad news it used to be, but it still can be.
We want to wipe all the bad news out.
And none of what happens here is for image.
None of what happens here is for buzz or PR because we don't put any news about it.
We don't broadcast it ourselves.
It's self-contained in these three hours.
It's all between you and me and the Leukemia Lymphoma Society of America.
And that's as it should be.
So if you have the ability, if the disease has touched you or somebody you know and it's become personal this year, 877-379-8888 or rushlimbaugh.com.
Very quickly, Leukemia Lymphoma Society uses your donations to invest in research.
It attracts universities, pharmaceutical companies, to enlist with them on the funding of research to find medicines and treatments to bring a cure to these blood cancers.
And if not a cure on the horizon, the immediate horizon, at least the expansion of survivability years and rates.
And there has been profound success in that regard.
It isn't easy.
It's not quick.
It takes dedication.
It takes a lot of hard work.
Breakthroughs happen, and sometimes in other fields, drugs that have been developed for leukemia and lymphoma have been found to be effective in other things.
There was a doctor working at Oregon Health and Science University, developed a targeted drug called Gleevec.
It was approved for use in 2001, 14 years ago.
Dr. Brian Druker is his name.
He dedicated years of his life to finding a cure.
His research focused on one form of leukemia, a form of acute myeloid leukemia that took more than half of the patients who suffered from it.
Now, this drug, Gleevec, has helped to increase the survival rate for patients with this form of leukemia 95% just since 2001.
That's happened in the last two dozen years since this audience started working with and supporting leukemia and lymphoma society.
There are successes, all kinds of them, but we haven't yet beaten the disease.
How many other doctors do you think are working in university and hospital settings like Dr. Drucker was, looking for and finding solutions and cures?
And what do they do for funding?
They don't get any federal funding, not Leukemia Lymphoma Society.
It's all private.
It's all personal.
And that's where they play such a critical role as a catalyst for collaboration between people and families by enabling drug discovery from beginning to end, identifying urgent unmet medical needs, creating partnerships with biopharmaceutical companies and academic research, and establishing a milestone-driven agenda to manage product development projects.
The process can be accelerated, but it takes you to do it.
Wish there were another way, but there isn't.
It takes you.
This is the essence of compassion here.
It's the essence of selflessness.
This is the essence of caring.
For over 65 years, Leukemia Lymphoma Society has been helping to lead the way to a world without blood cancer.
In 2014, last year, they surpassed a momentous milestone of investing more than $1 billion in research to further the mission to find cures and to achieve a world without blood cancers.
So the work is ongoing and there is all kinds of progress being made.
And we all want there to be more.
So again, it's 877-379-8888.
Phone number.
If you want to call and make a donation or easily done at rushlimbaugh.com.
We'll be right back.
25th annual cure-a-thon leukemia lymphoma society exclusively on the EIB network.
25 years.
You've raised over 40 million.
Note that I said you have, not me.
All I've done is sit here and give you the phone number and the address.
You've done it.
And you've done it every year.
Can't tell you, just me personally, how blown away I am.
I said to Snerdley today, Snerdley will back me up.
He walked in here about a quarter to 12.
And I said, I don't know how much longer we've got to be tapped out.
Bo, I mean, we've been 25 years.
How much do people have left?
He said, no way.
You wait.
No way.
He said, what are you afraid of?
I'm not afraid of anything.
I'm just 25 years is a long time.
He said, yeah, but you only do it once a year.
You're not beating people over the head every day.
Well, that's true.
That's true.
But still, 25 years and over $40 million.
And it's all you.
And as I say, folks, we don't do this for any reason other than the cause.
You never hear about what happens on this program regarding this, do you?
You don't see anywhere reporting on what happens on this day on this program, do you?
Oh, yeah, you'll hear about all the other supposed controversial things that say I shouldn't even be on the radio.
You'll hear all about them, but you will not hear about what happens on this day.
No, I'm not complaining about it.
I'm making a point.
We don't buzz about it.
We don't, it's not, we're not doing it for that.
We're not doing it for recognition.
We're not doing it for praise.
We're not doing it for adaboys.
We're doing it for the cause.
That's all.
This program is real.
Everything here is devoted to substance.
There's no symbolism over substance on this program about anything.
It's real.
The cause is the thing.
There has been, very personal, we do.
Catherine and I have been living.
Sorry for this expression.
It's the best way I can explain it to you.
Since last October, we have been living under a cloud of death and sickness.
Her best friend just died five weeks ago.
One of her best friends just died again with this kind of disease.
Kit Carson in late January.
It doesn't seem to have been a break from it.
And it's devastating.
And you just wish with every bit of your heart these people wouldn't go through it.
In case of Catherine's friend, they told her that, well, I don't want to get too far, six months.
And so they started making some plans to do some bucket listings.
She didn't get five weeks.
I'm telling you, it's just, it is devastating.
And anything that anybody could do to see to it that it becomes less suffering, less profound, on the way to a cure.
That's what this is all about here.
That's why we've been doing it for 25 years.
877-379-8888 or rushlimbaugh.com.
And on the phones, we'll start with Jim in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Great to have you, sir.
Hello.
Rush, please to talk with you.
This was meant to be.
I was riding down the road listening to you on the radio, talked with my brother Ed, and I said, I got to call Rush and tell him the thank you.
I'm a three-year survivor of acute myeloid leukemia.
I spent 50 days in the hospital over a four-month period and had seven blood transfusions and just felt dreadful for a year, a year and a half before that until they figured out what was wrong with me.
Three years ago, this would have all been just something I would have had to imagine, but now I've seen it.
I've been in the hospital room.
I've been where this is happening.
I know what you've gone through now.
Three years, what's your status?
You're three years.
I am, well, I'm in full remission.
My doctor says you're cured, even though he said you're not really cured, but you're cured.
So the chances of it coming back are so minimal.
Yeah, but that's great.
I mean, you always live with that possibility that it can recur, but it's still got to be great to have a doctor tell you what it's like.
My blood tests were every three months.
They pushed it out every four months now.
So all is good.
My blood tests come back.
I feel great.
What was the treatment for you that everybody thinks worked?
It was inductive chemotherapy where seven days a week for a whole week, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the first week.
Just decimates your immune system.
And then you have to worry about getting infections and things like that.
So I spent a full month in the hospital the first round.
And then just, again, you have to watch out for your infections and so forth.
So they can't let you out.
You're in isolation pretty much.
I know.
See, I know all this now, been through all this with other people.
Jim, thanks for the call and congratulations.
I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Here's Connie in Beverly Hills, Florida.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
Oh, my gosh, Fresh.
It's such a pleasure to talk to you.
Oh, I'm almost speechless, almost.
I've been listening since 1989.
You're my hero.
Well, you're almost a lifer.
Wow.
Thank you very much.
All right.
I'm a nurse of 35 plus years, and I have been an oncology nurse for most of those years.
And I have observed over the years something that I felt would maybe be helpful for your audience because dealing with family members is a big part of this terrible disease.
It isn't just the patient going through it, it's the family as well, and friends, like you were of your friend.
And they find it so difficult to see the patient, or not all, but many find it difficult to go in and see the patient, or they're afraid they're going to tear up and cry and then make the patient cry, or they're not going to be able to speak and say anything that makes any difference.
And I have tried to help so many people figure out: no, this is what you need to do.
Don't worry about it if you tear up.
It's okay.
If ever you had a good reason to tear up, it's okay.
This is true, folks.
People don't know what to talk about.
You walk into the room, it could be your friend, best friend, an acquaintance, a friend of a friend, family member, and you don't know what to say.
You're afraid of being negative, so you don't want to go on that route.
I have developed to deal with this.
I found my own ways of communicating with people now that seems to work for me and them, and I'll share that with you when I have more time here.
But this is an excellent point, Kai.
Your point about it being harder on the family sometimes than the patient, that sounds kind of hard to say, but it can be true.
I saw that too.
I saw it harder on the families, particularly when the patient reaches a certain stage.
That's right.
And they do go through all of those five stages of death and dying.
And many of them don't have enough time to get to the last stage of acceptance.
A lot of them do.
But the family members and the loved ones, it's harder for them because they just feel so frustrated and so helpless.
And it is a hard thing.
But having done this, and I've given the chemotherapy and I've held emotional support groups, and I've talked to more patients and family members and loved ones than you can shake a stick at.
And I have seen this so much.
And I guess I kind of want to just say, you know what?
Just take a deep breath.
Take a deep swallow.
And be real.
I hate to have to stop you, but I've got no time.
I'm so sad about it.
But it's be real.
And this is what the Leukemia Lymphoma Society also offers assistance for people in dealing with.
Coming up on the program, Raul Castro bullies Obama.
That's what the headline says.
It's actually Bullies America.
Hillary Clinton quietly announcing on Sunday for the presidency and Clorox bleach in trouble on Twitter.
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