Slated on Backbone Radio, Oct. 12 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver... 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.
So you're feeling down because it doesn't appear your guy will win the election, or because the world's strongest economy is pretty sick right now? Take a little courage from the godly hero we honor every year on October 12, Christopher Columbus. Determination when things were tough? Vision when others lacked it? Perseverance in adversity? Backbone to brave the unknown? Columbus had them all. Seems to me a dose of his medicine would do Americans a lot of good in this stormy autumn.
This now-neglected holiday isn't the only way we recognize the discoverer of the New World, the Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Every time we speak of Washington DC, we unthinkingly echo the old poetic name for America, taken from his name -- Columbia.
Two songs with the same echo were our unofficial national anthems until the current one was adopted in 1931. "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," calls our land "the ark of freedom's foundation," undaunted by gales. "The world offers homage to thee," it says, and that's still true. Who's in the White House or how low the market goes won't change it a bit.
"Hail Columbia" exhorts: "Firm, united let us be, rallying round our liberty. As a band of brothers joined, peace and safety we shall find." That challenge and that hope are still true as well. A heart for liberty and a hand of brotherhood are if anything more needed in tough times like these.
Tune in this Sunday, Columbus Day, and together we'll shake off those red-ink, blue-state blues.
** I'll talk with Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute about global warming myths... with Steve Maggi of Evergreen Freedom Foundation about "Flunked," his movie on failing schools... and with Anne Neal of ACTA about how liberalism is eroding our sense of American identity.
** Also quick hits with Republican contenders in the 10 hottest legislative races... Senate candidates like Libby Szabo and House candidates like Dave Kerber... plus a rundown on our yes/no recommendations for all the Colorado ballot issues.
"Thy banners make tyranny tremble." Remember singing those Columbia lyrics in grade school? Few kids learn them in today's NEA-dominated multicultural mush factories. Yet with global tyranny threatening, if we don't fight back, who will? That's why Backbone Radio is into defiance, not discouragement. How about you?
With the spirit of 1776 and 1492, JOHN ANDREWS