Every once in a while, you get caught up in the day to day routine of doing the radio show, and it takes an e-mail like this one from a listener to make you pause and remember how great a country this is, and how thankful we are to be able to do what we do.
Just got back from MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Command) in -----, having taken the oath and signed the contract - I'm a 35-year-old from -------- (though born in Brook Park, raised a Tribe fan!), and I realized this summer that I was still young enough, and we were financially secure enough, that I could afford the pay cut that joining the Reservers would mean while I was in training and deployed. My wife was supportive. The only problem was that I was really out of shape. And that's where you two come in!
Nearly every time I went out running, I would take an iPod loaded up with your show. Nothing helps the miles go by like a segment with Lileks or VDH or Hitch or The Smart Guys. And the greatest ten words in radio are "Mark Steyn, can you stick around for one more segment?" I don't know if you remember, but on one of Glenn in Dallas's calls this past fall, he broke down in tears talking about, I believe, the soldier whose death Hitchens had written about. I was having a really tough run that day, but when Glenn broke down, it was one of those moments that focuses your mind. America loves and honors its troops, as Glenn brought home to me in that call, and as you two make clear in every single show. And that support, and the inspiriation of the stories you bring to us, are part of why, 40 pounds, hundreds of miles and four months of push-ups and sit-ups later, I'm now enlisted in the greatest military history has ever known.
Thank you both for such a wonderful show - I will miss it when I'm in Basic this April and May, but hopefully by the time I get to Fort ------- for ----, I'll be able to start listening again!
If you wanted to post any of this, please leave out my name/location/--------- information - especially because of my -----, I want to avoid any kind of public anything of any nature...I'm just emailing to thank you guys for what you do - it is truly appreciated.
Never have I read an e-mail that was so humbling and so awe-inspiring. Please know that on behalf of all of us involved with the show, you, along with the thousands of men and women who wear the uniform and keep this country free through incredible personal sacrifice, you are the ones to be thanked and appreciated, not us. We talk for a living, something that could not be done without the freedom provided by all of the members of the United States military, past, present and future.
Please know that we will pray for you and your family as you embark on this new chapter in your life. God speed, and please keep in touch.