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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn this phase of my Randi Rhodes grieving process
I began to collect all the old shows I could find, and listen to them. 2008 is amazing to hear. She called everything right, all the time.
When I first heard her, she grated. Hard politics, sometimes rude, she seemed to bristle with the electricity of solid fact. After awhile, I began to realize I was learning a great deal, that her insight was profound and positive -- that she had It, The Mind, The Sight. She adhered to a rigorous and painfully honest intellectual process informed by living, by working for minimum wage, by being a mechanic and a trucker and raising her dead sister's child.
I was amazed at the things she was saying out loud, vibrating in the air. I came of age in Arizona in the seventies, and actually saying that stuff would have been utterly dangerous then, probably still is, I don't know, I escaped to California.
I began to think that, as long as Randi Rhodes was on the air, we would eventually be all right somehow. That the best part of the world was still alive, that we could turn this horrible corner quickly, and without the standard mass-death-and-chaos cycle the conservative subroutine continually drives the human race through. Pipe dream, hey?
I grieved morosely, silently, for months after she stopped broadcasting. Something like the loss of a close friend. Like a bright light had gone out, and the world dimmed down some. It's been hard.
In the last few weeks, I started listening to my collection of her shows. I have less than a hundred, mostly 2004, 2008, and the last few months of the show. With each old show I hear, I'm growing to realize the value of them. It's history and news analysis, but it's also timeless wisdom. The woman is wise. Wise beyond me, and she's been my teacher. It's why I love her. Most true information junkies do fall in love with her, from either side of the aisle. Information is the currency of the realm, as she used to say, and her shows are order-of-magnitude platinum rich. Sharp, that human.
I need more. I've been looking -- White Rose took down their collection, so has the old Randi Rhodes archive site, apparently for unstated legal reasons.
Someone has them all, somewhere. Someone on the Democratic Underground probably knows that person. If you do, please PM me and tell me where to go, what to do. I need this particular fix like I need blood and higher brain function. Help me. That voice that used to make me flinch is now my primary comfort addiction.
That person, who has every show? Richest human being alive. The Walter White of Truth.
I miss her.
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)I am a big fan and have been listening since I first remember Air America coming out on the XM radio. I worked out of my car and could listen to AA all day. She was always the anchor to my afternoon. Over the past few years she was jerked around by the powers that be at her station, distributor, and affiliates. She was shown that she could be here on Monday and gone on Tuesday. She started getting her shit lined up for a peaceful retirement, away from all of this shit. Then, she made the decision that her life and happiness were more important than her work. No one says on their death bed that they wished they spent more time at work, is how the quote goes, and I think she felt ready to walk away.
I'll miss her but I'm glad she has a nice place to watch the waves roll in and out. And just as the tides, the shit that she reported on daily will continue. As soon as my wife is ready, I too am ready to walk away from this day to day thing in exchange for comfort and inner peace.
Maybe I'll catch her next time I'm drinking in a cantina down Central America way and I'll ask her about it.
byronius
(7,369 posts)Still, I'm not ready to float downstream just yet. And for all of her career difficulties, I think she made an impact far beyond the scope of her listenership.
I know I have to let her go. But her old shows are awesomely entertaining to hear from my vantage point here in the future.
Cartoonist
(7,297 posts)Yeah, right.
I used to like Randi until she lost her mind.
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)I first found her out when we were on vacation in Florida when she was on a local Miami station there. She was a breath of fresh air. Listened to her on Air America up until the primaries. Once she took sides in the primaries, she became an Ann Coulter like figure spewing unbridled hatred, and I lost all respect for her and never listened to her again.
Mika
(17,751 posts)Crazy smart person. Then just crazy. She got her loot and ran.
Manifestor_of_Light
(21,046 posts)She was interesting and so was almost everybody else then on the liberal XM channel--Thom Hartmann, Rachel Maddow, Al Franken, Sam Seder, Mike Papantonio, Ed Schultz.
I thought Randi had good taste in smart men--she raved about her crush on Paul Krugman and how adorable he was in that rumpled professorial way.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)byronius
(7,369 posts)corkhead
(6,119 posts)louisejarmo
(1 post)It feels odd to describe my state as grieving but that is what it is. Her last show was particularly surreal because it was her last show. It was also quite painful for the same reason. From the moment I found her, I listened to her religiously. My Mondays through Fridays were formed around her show (until I found a way to listen to her podcast), so part of my grieving has to do with the change in schedule, as we are all creatures of habit. I still listen to the other shows but none of them move me as much as Randi's show did. However, without those other shows, I would be even more bereft.
byronius
(7,369 posts)AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)alp227
(31,960 posts)Featuring Bill Press, Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Sam Seder, Leslie Marshall, and Mike Malloy 5 days a week starting at 6am Eastern all the way to midnight! Listen on Tunein.com and the Tunein app.