The American Spectator

Special Report

The Cost of the War on Terrorism

By Ben Stein on 6.6.05 @ 12:09AM

(Page 2 of 2)

They gave me one standing ovation after another and I left the stage dizzy with gratitude. These women -- overwhelmingly women -- are paying a fearful price so the rest of us can get on with our daily selfishness and greed without hindrance.

So that the witches of Beverly Hills and Fifth Avenue can go on with their shopping, these women lost their husbands. Mothers and fathers were there, too. One came up to me, a crusty couple, husband a Marine, and showed me a dollar bill from his late son's wallet when the son was killed in Iraq. The edges were covered in blood.

HOW CAN WE THANK these families? How can we possibly praise enough the sacrifice they and their husbands have made? How can it ever be enough?

Yet, they have something the rest of us rarely have: meaning. They know why God put them on earth, why they live and suffer. They never doubt their worth.

Bonnie drove Marina and me back to The Watergate. I felt as if I had been with the finest people on earth that night, the ones in God's image.

Mostly, I see the dregs of human selfishness. When I am around the military -- the Honor Guard, the families, the kids, the parents, the ones who are the thin line between life and death for freedom, the ones who make our lives worth living, I have hope for the human spirit. The best of the human spirit is alive and well inside those red T-shirts.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Hollywood, Military, Iraq, Alaska