The actor, writer, economist and Republican activist wrote "Monday Night at Morton's" for E! Online for seven or eight years. He cites his changed worldview -- and a new reverence for God -- for dropping the column.
I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to....A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq...[fast forward]
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die. I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.
[fast forward]
Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin--or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.
But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life.
I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.
This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human.
The final column is undated, so I don't know how long it has been up. [Reader Roy found the date: Dec. 20. Thanks...]
Too bad for whichever poor soul went to SEA in Ben's place 30-odd years ago that he didn't have this epiphany about militray service back then...
Oh well, better late then never.
Just look at Robert McNamara.
And Lee Atwater.
Posted by: Brad Smith at January 30, 2004 04:55 PM
"military service" of course.
Carry on
Posted by: Brad Smith at January 30, 2004 04:58 PMHow surprised yet pleased I was with Ben Stein's last column! He is right! While I believe this country needs humor and entertainment and I enjoy being entertained by funny and dramatic people, they are not the heros in my life either. Mine is my husband who IS a soldier, who married me 11 years ago when I was a single mom. Not only has he served our country for 13 1/12 years, has been to Kuwait 7 or 8 times (I lost count), Somalia for 5 months and Bosnia for a year, but has had time when he was home to be a great example to my son and the two children we have together (one of whom IS autistic). Now I must face another deployment where he will go to Iraq for a year and sacrifice his time with our children so that the Iraqi children will have a chance at what life should really be. I am not resentful. I am thankful that there are others out there like him who are willing to do the same. Yes, those are the heros in my life as well.
Posted by: melody at February 5, 2004 11:55 AMI agree whole heartedly with Ben's final statements. To live a life which is pleasing to God by helping others who He indeed places in our path.
Posted by: Dennis DuBois at July 28, 2004 09:01 PMI have been a preacher for 54 years) and was an Army Chaplain for 30 years, and I never preached or heard a better sermon than this.
Posted by: Charles Schmidt at August 2, 2004 01:40 PM

good for him. sincerely. he always seemed a bit hammy and part of the hollywood system. this change surprised me.
Posted by: tom at January 30, 2004 07:56 AM