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It's My America Too
by 
Ben Ferguson
  
Average rating: 
Publisher: HarperCollins
Subject(s):  Biography & Autobiography
Current Events
Politics
Language(s):  English

Format Information

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File size:   1811 KB
ISBN:   9780060746339
Release date:   Aug 17, 2004

Description

With It's My America Too, Ben Ferguson, the voice of America's youth and the host of The Ben Ferguson Show, one of the country's fastest-growing syndicated radio shows, delivers his views on all the issues, from politics to current affairs to popular culture. Everyone wants to know what Ferguson will say next -- and here's your chance.

Ben Ferguson is a conservative who is also an independent thinker unafraid to take contrary positions. In It's My America Too, the twenty-two-year-old media star shoots from the hip and the lip on numerous topics. Ferguson tells us why he thinks the voting age should be lowered to sixteen; who the "New Minority" is -- the twenty-something men and women who are overworked, underpaid, overmarketed, and drastically underrepresented; why politicians talk about and at young adults, but never to them; how he feels about everything from homeschooling to sex, NASCAR, and George W. Bush; and much more.

Ferguson's message is clear. He is not on a campaign to reform liberals and turn them into right-wing Republicans. He is presenting his views on American society and challenging those who do not agree with him to an open debate. Some will not agree with his political and religious views. What he hopes to accomplish, with both his radio show and this book, is to energize future generations about politics. The way to do this is through open communication. He is encouraging his generation (and even some in previous generations) to get involved and be heard.

Hip and forthright, funny yet never pedantic, Ferguson offers a fresh viewpoint and insights on topics such as "What the Republican Party can learn from Bill Clinton"; "Why anti-Americanism is our problem"; and "Dubya: my favorite redneck." He reveals a positive outlook on the economy, offers his opinions on bias in the media, and also includes chapters on Donald Rumsfeld, affirmative action, and the values instilled in him by his mother and father.

Ferguson's pride in his country, in his religious beliefs, and in his choices reflects his vision of the American dream. He is informed and determined to make a difference. Youthful as he is, he has a unique perspective not only on America and its history, but also on current events and issues. You may applaud his opinions or perhaps you will disagree with them. But for those of you who are angered by this book, Ferguson instructs: "Don't just get mad. Do something about it."

Excerpts

Chapter One

Falling in Love with Radio

...

I was always fascinated with radio. I guess I had an overactive imagination, because when I heard people talking on the radio, I would spend a lot of time wondering what they looked like. It was that same curiosity kids naturally have about the unknown. I think I just took it a little further. I would listen to the deejays and try to paint a picture in my head of what they looked like. Were they tall? Or short? Thin? Or fat? A mental picture would pop into my head, based on how they sounded. I would try to imagine the studio, the microphones, every detail I could put together in my head without ever having seen a studio in person.

Having time to listen to radio was one of the big advantages of homeschooling. I am sure I would never have ended up where I am now if I had not spent so much time in the family minivan driving around town with my mother while other kids were stuck in boring classrooms, staring at the walls or ripping apart their paper, piece by piece. If my mother would drive to the supermarket, I went with her. If she would drive to the post office, I went along for the ride. We spent a lot of time together, which I think was good for our relationship, and it also gave me plenty of chances to listen to the radio with her as we sat in the car. Sometimes we listened to music, but by the time I was eight years old or so, we started to listen to Rush Limbaugh's show almost every day. We'd be driving to my tennis lessons, or taking my sister to horseback riding, and along the way we would be tuned into Rush Limbaugh, who became a big influence on me.

Rush was just starting to make a splash around that time. He worked in music radio for a Pittsburgh stations in the early 1970s and even had a show for a while as "Bachelor Jeff" and "Jeff Christie," but he quit radio for a while and went to work for the Kansas City Royals baseball team as director of group sales. He was doing political commentaries on Kansas City radio but was fired from that job when they decided he was too opinionated. Imagine that! Rush daring to express his opinions! I bet those guys who decided to fire him felt like real geniuses a couple of years later when Rush was the talk of every living room in America. He moved to Sacramento to start his first talk show and did well out there. It was July 1988 when he moved to New York to start his national show, and, not much later than that, my mother and I started listening to him and other talk radio a lot.

I was pretty young, so I don't remember being impressed by his opinions, or his ideas, or his arguments. I just loved that he could keep talking and talking and talking without ever slowing down, no matter what the subject was. That was kind of my dream. He was my hero and not because I thought he was so fascinating. I was just amazed at the way he came on the air every day, and he could talk about anything he wanted. I remember thinking that I would love to do that, too. I just knew right away that it would be great to have the chance to talk about whatever I wanted to talk about every single day and have people listen to me. That idea intrigued me.

I also remember loving the fact that here Rush was, basically an un-known at that point, and he would go after anybody, no matter how big they were. That to me was cool. It wasn't like he was famous back then. It wasn't like he was a movie star. He just seemed real to me, like someone you would talk to when your parents had a bunch of neighbors over for a Fourth of July barbeque, or something like that. It's hard to explain, because now everybody knows Rush Limbaugh. But back then he was just starting out, and even then, there was this sense that you knew him, even though you had never met him.

 

About the Author

Ben Ferguson is the youngest nationally syndicated radio talk show host in the country and has been hosting talk radio programs since he was thirteen. He lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

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