I never got to speak to Rush Limbaugh, but he always seemed like a friend I heard from every day. He quoted my work on the air a few times, and it was a surreal delight, a joyous thing that could not possibly be happening. He helped us all become friends.

That's the real measure of Rush's impact. He helped so many people realize they were not alone, even as the mainstream media labored to make them feel isolated and hopeless. He understood that totalitarians overwhelm and dominate ordinary people by making them *feel* surrounded.

How often good and decent people felt isolated before Rush! They wondered why nobody could see what was so perfectly obvious to them. The secret of totalitarian success is to make ordinary people fear everyone around them is an informer or enforcer. Rush shattered that illusion.

The illusion of manufactured consensus and forced conformity never worked on Rush, not for a minute. He KNEW we were all out here, long before his ratings proved it. He gave so many others the confidence to raise their voices, knowing they were not alone.

It takes incredible talent and discipline to realize a bold vision like that. I heard him on the air not long ago, and thought he sounded great, as if time had not touched the voice I first heard over 30 years ago. Someone had to do what he did, but not just anyone COULD have.

And now the Internet will be filled with ugly cries of triumph from the howling darkness Rush spent his life opposing... proving him right once again, one more time. They're still dangerous, but they aren't scary any more, not after Rush spent all those years mocking them.

We all lost a great friend in Rush Limbaugh today, but he showed us how many friends we really have, across this nation and many others. We are one less, but because of him, we will never again fear we are alone. One voice is stilled, but there will never again be silence. /end