JUST WHEN I NEEDED IT

I'll admit I'm growing weary.

I'm weary of posting stories on this website as a means of keeping up to date with the world my wife lives in at the moment...

I'm weary of poring over hundreds of internet news stories to find the dwindling handful that are balanced.

I'm weary of the words and phrases "quagmire", "Bush lied", "growing insurgency", "another blast in Baghdad", "two US soldiers killed", "anger at occupation mounts" etc.

I'm weary of politicians playing politics with this war while my wife is still in harm's way.

I'm weary of beginning every prayer I utter with a supplication to the Almighty to protect my wife and her soldiers...when I'd rather begin the prayer with exultations of His name over her safe return and our reunion.

I'm weary of browsing the list of blogs and finding that its often easy to spot those that lean to the left...as many have vulgarisms in the title.

I'm weary over the utter lack of civility demonstrated in our nation...be it on TV, Superbowl halftime shows, so-called reality TV shows where the intent is to isolate and humiliate, even in debates over a movie about Christ Jesus himself.

I'm weary of a society that supports a college sophomore suing the NFL when what he ought to be doing is trying to better his mind with the same effort he is trying to better his bank account. For that matter I'm weary of Judges and Mayors who decide the rules of fairplay that founded and grew this nation do not apply to them. I have to play by the rules...why don't they?

I'm weary of endless cable news channels prattling on 24 hours per day when they don't have but about 12 minutes of stuff to say.

I'm weary of the manufactured celebrity culture wherein someone in charge of television or radio program appears to believe that we are or should be interested in what actors/singers/NBA rookies have to say on every subject possible.

I'm weary of stepping into Burger King and being assaulted with movie of the week tie-in promotions. They didn't need that for Citizen Kane...for Casablanca...still the best two movies ever made.

And just as I'm thinking I've had enough...I open my mail to find that an e-friend (defined as one whom I know only via the internet) has sent something especially to me...and that it fits me to a tee.

My day is brighter because Sarah shared this with me. Perhaps your day will be brighter for having read it too.

Please read it all here.

I only wish that those Americans so anxious to use our soldiers as political pawns in election campaigns actually knew our troops. Not as an abstract concept, but as people.

The American soldier is a historical anomaly - not a grasping conqueror, but a man or woman of courage and good heart who wishes only to do what must be done, and then go home. Our troops are inspiring in ways that no campaign speech or campus rally will ever rival. They live the virtues - courage, patriotism, love of freedom, self-sacrifice, honor - of which their critics are embarrassed to speak.

They have a wicked sense of humor. They're exuberantly politically incorrect. They're part of the most thoroughly integrated, representative American institution - our military. And when the American people and our leaders stand behind them, they can do any job on earth.

Defying countless predictions of disaster, our soldiers have accomplished more in Iraq than we had any right to expect. And they did it not because of some brilliant master plan - there was none - but because they took a look at the bloody mess they inherited, rolled up their sleeves and went to work to fix it.

They're the best we've got.

Thank you, Sarah.

Oh...and if I may say so - don't be so hard on yourself. When allowed in moderation - tears on the phone emerge on the other end as "Your place here is permanently reserved". That can mean a lot in a sandy camp on the border of Hellville.