The fund drive is where we live. Hey, if everyone puts in just a little money we will have what we need to go forward. Everyday I go out on the streets and so many of you shake my hand and tell me what the station means to them. Maybe because I am getting a little older people thank me for my part in putting WAMC together. As I tell them, I am telling you -- it isn't me. They think I'm being modest but I am not. I assure them that this has happened because people believe in what we are doing and are not afraid to put something in the pot.
We are now slogging through one of the worst threats that the United States has ever faced. We have a president who lost the popular vote yet seems determined to do everything in his power to negate the popular will.
His choices for cabinet positions represent the antithesis of logic. He installs a climate denier in the cabinet at the EPA. It couldn’t be worse. We scratch our heads and wonder how this could be happening. So from the very beginning WAMC has been there. We will always speak truth to power. We will give you all sides. And more people are listening than ever before.
Our Congressional Corner invites every Congressperson on the air. We let them have their say. One or two angry, frustrated people have called me up and said that it was my job to beat up some of our Republican congress people. I tell them that I ask the questions and they answer.
That's true for the many Democrats who we have had on the show. When an occasional note comes in from a conservative listener who complains that I wasn’t hard enough on a Democrat, I say the same thing that I say to everyone else. "As long as I can draw a breath, WAMC will invite everyone on and let them have their say." I also remind them that if they think a John Faso isn't telling the truth about health care, they have to realize that there are a lot of other people out there who are as intelligent as they are and who hear the same thing.
Donald Trump is now in big trouble. He is a liar. He tells us that he will make a "better" health care system and then does the opposite. He fires the FBI director and tells people that he did it because of "the Russian thing." The White House is now getting prepared for the obvious impeachment effort but I want to remind everyone that it wasn't always that way. At the beginning of his presidency, people were really scared. They kept writing me and saying, "What can we do?" Through it all we had WAMC in common.
People were doing commentaries, one after another, that dealt with every aspect of our politics. The Roundtable brought out all sides of every debate. The listener comment line was filled to the brim. Incredible guests like Malcolm Nance and so many others were interviewed by Joe Donahue and by our crack news team.
The Congressional Corner gave everyone a chance. And there was one reason we could do it all -- you. Your generosity and decency literally brings tears to my eyes. I’m now 75, but when I was struggling in high school and college and through a Ph.D., I had no idea that I would ever be allowed to do anything this important. I have made my mistakes; I have spoken too sharply to some of my critics, even when they were unspeakably cruel and mistaken. Obviously we all make mistakes but we are not mistaken in our love of this radio station that we have made together. As long as we keep on supporting what we have made, we will have this wonderful thing.
