Ben Stein's Last Column

NA | NA | By Ben Stein

[lainde]

Just beautiful! I've become a HUGE fan!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.

Amen. Such a wonderful man. I'll sure miss him.

[lainde]

bttt

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Thanks for the ping.

Years ago Ben Stein had a column in the old "L.A. Herald Examiner" and often wrote about California. He made it seem like the greatest place on earth, filled with surprise and promise and wonder, the end of the rainbow.

While California has sometimes disappointed, Stein never did.

[investigateworld]

"...he actually does check it..."
Wow, he responded to my note him in very personal way. I'm impressed!

[fullchroma]

Thanks for clearing that up. I couldn't imagine that he would stop writing! I usually caught him here and there on FreeRepublic postings or Fox News but will subscribe to American Spectator now.

Ben, do you Freep? We treasure you!

[ariamne]

This is a very appropriate piece for a Sunday morning. Forget the Ward Churchills of the world, they are squirming insects on the ground. This man understands America.

Tears and more tears...

[mtbrandon49]

Bump!

[fastattacksailor]

Jan:

Stein is that MAN!

He certainly knows where the real heroes are, for sure!

[jan in Colorado]

A must read USF!

[JFK_Lib]

Ben Stein is so right on this.

Somehow, when we look at all the attention and celebrity lavished on movie stars, rock musicians, and athletes, it makes me wondere if we have gone mad.

Well, Mr Stein proves at least that not all of us have.

[jan in Colorado]

I agree JFK_LIB!

Mr. Stein put in to words exactly how I feel!

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping

[Mustng959]

I missed this somehow when it was posted earlier this year on FR and received it in an e-mail from a Marine vet friend. Great article and worth bringing up again.

[Dawgreg]

Why you.........I was gonna say that! LOL! Ditto here. Ben is smart, funny and a Pub! Couldn't ask for more!

[hershey]

Reaching for kleenex. Ben Stein says what needs saying. American heroes are by and large ignored. God love them and keep them safe. (He will.)

[maica]

You will enjoy this Ben Stein column, written last January for a Hollywood readership.

Commentators are remarking these days about the decline in movie theatre attendance. I think a lot of Americans are having similar feelings about the true meaning of "stars."

[CBockKansasCity]

While I don't have much interest in "star" doings, I do in creative people. It is not really the "star" who pursues such fame and hero worship, but rather the world at large and the "money machine" that is the media which hold them up as examples of someone or something the rest of us might want to read, watch and know about in our boring lives. That external lives are purported to be boring or lacking without the trappings of a "star" is the misnomer. It is of course the internal life where riches lie. And in defense of "stars" who are! in many cases creative people, they can have rich internal lives which often teach the rest of the world how silly we can be, how misguided we can be and how often we mistakenly idolize the external. It is not so much the "star" who is worshiped, but rather the light they throw walking through the same tunnels.

[lisaG]

15 yrs ago my six yr old son brought me a handfull of wilted wild flowers he had picked for me for mothers day. This is one of the memories I will never forget because he gave with such love and pride that it touched a very special place in my heart. This little boy never expected anything in return. I had placed those flowers in a small vase on my table and enjoyed until every petal had fallen. Today my son still brings me flowers, not the kind you can put in a vase but every bit as wonderful. Today he serves in the US Airforce and will be training as a SERE instructor. This yr two of his high school friends died serving our country and Jimmy, my son decided to carry on where they could not placing more flowers in my heart than I could ever imagine and still no expectations of anything in return. Yes, this little boy...this wonderful young man is my hero. Those wilted flowers that have taken root in my heart have been nurtured and continue to bloom with a pride so strong, so visible that they embrace not only a mother's heart but also a nations. He is a hero as well as all the sons and daughters in this wonderful country of ours. God bless our children.

Lisa G

[Zack Nguyen]

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.

Oh no! I never heard of this! When did it happen?