This page is dedicated to those in Hollywood, New York, Nashville, and sports venues all across the country that have a bigger stage to show support for our troops, and have the heart to use it that way, as opposed to so many more that use their "star status" to put down our government, our country, and our troops!!! We Thank You for what you do as well!!!
CLICK HERE for a moving video of one of our
heroes using his "star status" in the proper way!
You won't be disappointed!!!
And here is one of the greatest patriotic acts of all times. If you love sports, you have probably seen this video. If not, you need to see it! Please take the time to watch this one.
Here is another up and coming star doing his part to support our troops and their families. CLICK HERE to see his video and listen to his great song. Rockie joins a group of ordinary American citizens also doing their part to make a difference. Truth be told these fine people are far from ordinary, and heroes in my book! Please check out this great organization by clicking on the banner below. I personally hope to see this group become a nation wide effort!
And as for the press of our great country, I ask you this simple question. You will make a front page story out of the slightest thing one of our troops did wrong, but all of the heroic deeds of our soldiers usually go unmentioned except on the first page of their local newspaper, and that usually involves the death of one of our heroes. Why is that???
Shame on all of you, from the TV anchor-person or column writer right up to the TV news producers and newspaper editors!!! Remember it is these heroes that you love to show in a negative light that preserve your right of free speech!!! Yet they still do it day in and day out while you sit in your offices and bash them as often as you can for the purpose of gaining a few bucks!!!
Some of you have even gone so far as to make up total lies and then blame it on "unreliable sources". Be glad that you are not held accountable for what you do, like the young men and women that protect your freedom are!!! Most of you would be out of a job, and several of you would be in jail. The next time you see one of our heroes, ask them to define "integrity" for you. I bet you will learn something!!!
I think this pretty well sums it up. Thank you Ben. We are glad you get it.
Ben Stein's Last Column...
For many years Ben Stein has written a biweekly column called "Monday Night At Morton's." (Morton's is a famous chain of Steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from around the globe.) Now, Ben is terminating the column to move on to other things in his life. Reading his final column is worth a few minutes of your time.
Ben Stein's Last Column...
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How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?
As I begin to write this, I "slug" it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is "eonlineFINAL," and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.
It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it. On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.
Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.
They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.
A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.
A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.
The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.
I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.
There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament...the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.
Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.
I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin...or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.
But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.
This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human.
Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.
By Ben Stein
I posted this article not to scare anyone that have loved ones in a hostile area of the world, or to discourage anyone thinking about joining our heroes in our fight for freedom. I post this article and the pics to emphasize the sacrifices that our heroes are making, and to show how they do it with pride!!!
I know their families are right there lending every bit of support there is to be offered, and we thank them again as well!!! They put their lives on the line day in and day out, not only to protect our freedom, but to give freedom to those that have never tasted freedom before. So if you want to see a real hero, don't bother looking in LA or NY, or Nashville.....thats not where you will find them. You can find them near any military base in this country, or around the world, and they deserve your respect and prayers.
You may not believe in this war. You can stand up and shout your opposition to it. But remember that it is these heroes that give you that right to speak your mind!!! Its called FREEDOM, and these men and women are willing to put their lives on the line to preserve yours!!! So ask yourselves, what have you done to give FREEDOM to others today?
The terrorists (murderers) that attacked this country on 9-11 don't care what religion you believe in, the color of your skin, , what sex you are, how rich you are, how old you are, or how you feel about our military trying to bring peace to a region. All they know is......you are an American, and YOU are the enemy!!! They want to kill YOU, and the only thing standing between YOU and them, is the heroes some of YOU like to protest against!!! Its time to get a clue, just like Ben did!
Here is a group of young people that get it. Why is it so difficult for some of our grown-ups to get it?
A special thanks goes out to my friend Sonburned, who customized all the navigation buttons at the top of each page. Thanks again Bro!!! And another big thanks to Kilroy for passing on such great info to me to use here on this site. It wouldn't be the same without you!!!
