Score one for the good guys

By Daniel B. Kline

They go places you would never visit under conditions you would consider cruel. They leave behind family and friends to do whatever gets asked of them, never complaining or questioning their orders. We've sent them into wars in countries where the people hate us and even the civilians represent a danger to their very lives.

In exchange for all of this, the American soldier gets lousy pay and, if he or she gets hurt in the line of duty, in too many cases we don't give them the best care money could by. In addition to poor treatment our soldiers also fall victim to politics where the average citizen does not honor their service because of the political party that chooses how they serve.

Iraq and Afghanistan have been branded as bad wars by many on the left and any action President Barack Obama takes gets labelled as bad by those on the right. None of that political fighting changes anything for the soldiers. They go where they are asked and do as they are told. They don't have the luxury of questioning their orders or debating the political merits of how they are deployed.

But, no matter what hardships we heap on our military, they persevere. No matter how difficult the challenge, how steep the hill, they win the day.

They do this without individual acclaim. No one soldier wins glory for himself and though we give lip service to honoring those who serve us so well, wars are distant things and for many Americans soldiers putting their lives at risk are a vague, far-away concept.

That changed a few days ago. It changed when a brave American soldier put a bullet through the head and another through the hear of Osama bin Laden. Those two shots may not have ended terrorism or even crippled it, but they did strike a blow for everyone killed on September 11, 2001.

That was the day we all became New Yorkers. The day when any differences American had – be they racial, religious or anything else – disappeared.

We forget sometimes that no matter how much we are different what makes America beautiful is that we're all the same. It may take horror and unspeakable evil to remind us of that, but when you attack one of us, you take on all of us.

I think that every American wishes they were the one that pulled that trigger, that they were the person that wiped the perversion that was bin Laden off the face of this Earth. We're lucky though, that our soldiers – American soldiers – did their jobs in the face of incredible danger and brought some measure of vengeance that anyone who suffered on 9/11/2001 deserved.

If the horrible events of that day taught us anything, it's that we are stronger together than we are on our own. We may have different politics, different religions and different thoughts on so many things, but in the end, we are all American.

The death of a monster deserves to be celebrated, but more importantly the rise of a nation and its brave heroes who bring that about deserve our cheers. Bin Laden won't be the last to challenge what we are – our way of life – but we now know, that any who seek to harm us will meet a foe that will not bend and will not break.

Be proud to be an American and remember the sacrifices of those who make that possible. Honor them by remembering that no matter our differences, we are all on the same team.

Daniel B. Kline's work appears in over 100 papers weekly. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com. You can listen to his podcast or buy his upcoming book, Worst Ideas Ever, at Worstideasever.com.

Give us cheaper gas or get out of office

By Daniel B. Kline

I keep checking the news and I have yet to see the story about how Congress and the President have tendered their resignations due to their failure to keep gas prices in check. I can only assume that the paperwork for all of the Federal government quitting at once takes a while and the news is forthcoming because anyone who fails at their job so miserably would in all cases resign in shame.

Congress and the President have a basic responsibility to protect the American people. That includes protecting us from bankrupting ourselves getting to work -- a task they have failed at miserably.

While the oil companies and our Middle-Eastern “allies” (the kind of allies who hate us and want to kill us) cash enormous checks, we slowly get crushed under the weight of $4 a gallon oil. As we sink into to debt simply to make our daily commutes, the government – both Federal and state – of course, still takes its pound of flesh in taxes.

If the price of oil goes up the oil companies make more money. Because of that anyone who produces oil has exactly zero incentive to do anything that lowers prices. Until prices get so high that demand lessens, there's no reason an oil company or an oil producing nation would want lower prices.

That, of course, is where the government should get involved. Since the United States purchases so much oil, we do, in fact, have some influence with the companies and countries selling it to us. We should be using that influence to lower profit margins as prices rise – if we feel the pain, then they fail the pain.

Instead, our government has let the world walk all over us while they draft new legislation to make cars more fuel efficient or to replace 2% of our gas mixture with corn cobs or some other nonsense. Being more efficient and finding alternative fuels may be part of the long-term solution, but it does nothing to solve the short-term problems.

All of our politicians – the Republicans and the Democrats – are so beholden to the oil companies and our allies (the ones that consider us devils) that our entire oil policy involves saying please and thank you. If I bought half the gummy bears produced in the world, you would think I might be able to get the people at Haribo to make me a good deal, but the same apparently does not apply to oil.

President Obama, of course, wants lower gas prices because if gas stays at $4 a gallon, he will likely not get reelected. That, sadly means that the Republicans actually want prices to stay high so they can take the presidency and claim victory when prices randomly fall on their own somewhere down the line.

I know that I bought a Saturn Ion – a tiny fuel-efficient car with crank-up windows – to consume less gas because I have a 45 minute commute. Beyond owning an expensive non-luxury car (I couldn't afford a hybrid) there's nothing I can do to end my personal pain at the pump.

Because of that, I'm calling on the entire Federal government to either fix the problem or step aside, If you can't keep the basic staples of life in this country affordable, than you don't deserve to hold office.

Daniel B. Kline's work appears in over 100 papers weekly. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com. You can listen to his podcast or buy his upcoming book, Worst Ideas Ever, at Worstideasever.com.