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 Greetings From Rancho Mirage
> By Ben Stein
> Published 4/5/2006
> Tuesday
> 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 cojones in
> the whole world right now and should be damned happy with yourselves and
> damned proud of who 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 others.
> 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 eight 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 EMT 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 hit ninety 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