Work hard, says Limbaugh; talk-show host back home to address graduates

Opportunities for success are still plentiful, Rush Limbaugh told Cape Girardeau Central High School graduates Friday night. And it still takes hard work to achieve success, he said.

"It's not getting worse in America," the radio personality and 1969 Central graduate told students. "It's getting better. Every day it's getting better. Every day more opportunities are being created."

Fears that young people will never have the lifestyles their parents and grandparents enjoyed are unfounded, Limbaugh said.

"You have the power to be whatever you want to be in the United States today, just as much as anyone ever had the opportunity to be what they wanted to be," he said. "The thing that you'll discover is that work is the key. Work is what will define you. Work is what will make you whole. Work is what will make you able to enjoy whatever else you want for yourself."

Limbaugh criticized what he called the "attack on achievement in America today."

He warned students that their success will mean "somehow you'll be suspected of having done it in an underhanded way. Be prepared for it."

Limbaugh said he was fired seven times before he became the national figure he is now.

"If what happened to me is any lesson at all, it's a lesson about what is possible in this country," he said. "I didn't go to college. I wish I had. I knew what I wanted to do, and college got in the way. I'm trying to tell you that if I can do this, any one of you can do it. There's no reason why all of you can't do it. The limitations that you face in life as you go through it, most of them are going to be self-imposed."

Graduates at Central and Notre Dame High School both heard nationally-known radio personalities Friday night.

The Rev. Harry Schlitt, host of the radio program "Love on the Rock" for the Armed Forces Radio Network and "Love on the Rock II," broadcast nationally, spoke at Notre Dame High School's graduation ceremony. Schlitt is the pastor of St. Gabriel Parish in San Francisco and stewardship director for the San Francisco Archdiocese.

Valedictorian and salutatorian for the 71 graduates of this year's class at Notre Dame were Amisha Shah and Jennifer Layton, respectively.

At Central, 297 students graduated. Valedictorian was Jennifer Jones and salutatorian was Emily Trueblood.

Limbaugh told students it is important that they hold on to the values that they've learned.

"You'll never, ever be able to get rid of the influences that this place has had on you," he said.