Our Troops - The Real Stars!!!

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Ben Stein's Last Column...The 'Real" Stars

How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be

a Star in Today's World?

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.

We are not responsible for the operation of

the universe, and what happens to us is not

terribly important. God is real, not a fiction,

and when we turn over our lives to Him, he takes

far better care of us than we could ever do for

ourselves.

In a word, we make ourselves sane when we fire

ourselves as the directors of the movie of our

lives and turn the power over to Him. 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.

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.

[SoldierMedic]

Hooooooooah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Acey]

Ben Stein's Last Column...The 'Real" Stars

How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be

a Star in Today's World?

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.

We are not responsible for the operation of

the universe, and what happens to us is not

terribly important. God is real, not a fiction,

and when we turn over our lives to Him, he takes

far better care of us than we could ever do for

ourselves.

In a word, we make ourselves sane when we fire

ourselves as the directors of the movie of our

lives and turn the power over to Him. 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.

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.

So true, Franemtnurse !!

We need to show our troops how grateful to them we are! They need our prayers and support ! They're priceless !

http://www.AnySoldier.us

God bless our troops !!!

Acey

[RNPATL, DNP, RN]

Outstanding Fran .... thanks for sharing this.

[live4today, RN]

Franemtnurse]Ben Stein's Last Column...The 'Real" Stars

How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be

a Star in Today's World?

We are not responsible for the operation of

the universe, and what happens to us is not

terribly important. God is real, not a fiction,

and when we turn over our lives to Him, he takes

far better care of us than we could ever do for

ourselves.

In a word, we make ourselves sane when we fire

ourselves as the directors of the movie of our

lives and turn the power over to Him. 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. ...................................[/QUOTE]

:balloons: AMEN SISTER!

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Outstanding Fran .... thanks for sharing this.

Anytime. These people are the ones who are preserving our freedom, not the movie stars. The stars only provide entertainment; the greatest stars are those of our military forces, and their commitment to our country. Multiple military, including our allied forces willingly laid down their lives for us all.

[humiliated]

SUPPORT THE TROOPS, NOT THE WAR!

[ivsandy]

i was thrilled to find your post and was very glad i did. i wholeheartedly agree with ben stein. it angers me that people like barbara streisand stand on thier soapbox and tell everyone to conserve energy while she lives in a gszillion room mansion with every light and pool filter running full balst (not to mention her airconditioning)!

also noted your profile. it looks like we may have a few things in common. maybe we can chat sometime.have a great holiday.

anytime. these people are the ones who are preserving our freedom, not the movie stars. the stars only provide entertainment; the greatest stars are those of our military forces, and their commitment to our country. multiple military, including our allied forces willingly laid down their lives for us all.