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04/11/2007 17:27:56

Subject: FW: Ben SteinI liked your obama letter so much I thought you might relate to this.



> For those of you who can't place him... he is the man you have often seen
>on the Visene commercials. Actually he is a journalist. Here is his
>picture
>
>
>
>
>BY: Ben Stein, Open Letter
>02/02/2007
>
>Dear Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, National Guard,
>Reservists, in Iraq , in the Middle East theater, in Afghanistan , in the
>area near Afghanistan , in any base anywhere in the world, and your
>families:
>
>Let me tell you about why you guys own about 90 percent of the backbone in
>the whole world right now and should be happy with yourselves and proud of
>whom you are.
>
>It was a dazzlingly hot day here in Rancho Mirage today. I did small
>errands
>like going to the bank to pay my mortgage, finding a new bed at a price I
>can afford, practicing driving with my new 5 wood, paying bills for about
>two hours. I spoke for a long time to a woman who is going through a nasty
>child custody fight. I got e-mails from a woman who was fired today from
>her
>job for not paying attention. I read about multi-billion-dollar mergers in
>Europe, Asia , and the Mideast . I noticed how overweight I am, for the
>millionth time. In other words, I did a lot of nothing.
>
>Like every other American who is not in the armed forces family, I
>basically
>just rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic in my trivial,
>self-important, meaningless way.
>
>Above all, I talked to a friend of more than forty-three years who told me
>he thought his life had no meaning because all he did was count his money.
>And, friends in the armed forces, this is the story of all of America
>today.
>We are doing nothing but treading water while you guys carry on the life or
>death struggle against worldwide militant Islamic terrorism. Our lives are
>about nothing: paying bills, going to humdrum jobs, waiting until we can go
>to sleep and then do it all again. Our most vivid issues are trivia
>compared
>with what you do every day, every minute, every second.
>
>Oprah Winfrey talks a lot about "meaning" in life For her, "meaning" is
>dieting and then having her photo on the cover of her magazine every single
>month (surely a new world record for egomania). This is not "meaning."
>
>Meaning is doing for others.
>
>Meaning is risking your life for hers.
>
>Meaning is putting your bodies and families' peace of mind on the line to
>defeat some of the most evil, sick killers the world has ever known.
>
>Meaning is leaving the comfort of home to fight to make sure that there
>still will be a home for your family and for your nation and for free men
>and women everywhere.
>
>Look, Soldiers and Marines and Sailors and Airmen and Coast Guardsmen,
>there
>are six billion people in this world. The whole fate of this world turns on
>what you people, 1.4 million, more or less, do every day. The fate of
>mankind depends on what about 2/100 of one percent of the people in this
>world do every day and you are those people. And joining you is every
>Policeman, Fireman, and Emergency Medical Technician in the country, also
>holding back the tide of chaos.
>
>Do you know how important you are? Do you know how indispensable you are?
>Do
>you know how humbly grateful any of us who has a head on his shoulders is
>to
>you? Do you know that if you never do another thing in your lives, you will
>always still be heroes? That we could live without Hollywood or Wall Street
>or the NFL, but we cannot live for a week without you?
>
>We are on our knees to you and we bless and pray for you every moment. And
>Oprah Winfrey, if she were a size two, would not have one millionth of your
>importance, and all of the Wall Street billionaires will never mean what
>the
>least of you do, and if Barry Bonds hits hundreds of home runs it would not
>mean as much as you going on one patrol or driving one truck to the Baghdad
>airport.
>
>You are everything to us, as we go through our little days, and you are in
>the prayers of the nation and of every decent man and woman on the planet.
>That's who you are and what you mean. I hope you know that.
>
>Love,
>
>Ben Stein