[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 26 (Monday, February 12, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E329]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO OUR TROOPS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACK KINGSTON

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 12, 2007

  Mr. KINGSTON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to submit to the Record an 
article by the writer, actor, economist and lawyer, Ben Stein. This 
article, titled ``Greetings from Rancho Mirage'', expresses support and 
encouragement to our many hardworking and dedicated troops abroad:

               Greetings From Rancho Mirage--by Ben Stein

       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 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 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.

                          ____________________