Cheerleading is not the point...but a diatribe that could have been written by Maureen Dowd is another...and completely mystifying. I have been and still am a great admirer of hers, but if anything, Peggy Noonan was "over-the-top" in her criticism. The jealousy thing hadn't occurred to me, but she is human...still she was the one who lacked vision and even a basic wisdom that I have always associted with her perspective, I am truly disappointed in her choice of words that are now touted by those who will never be accused of balanced intentions. It is just a shame. Oh well, upward and onward. No opinion, certainly not Noonan's or any of ours...can diminish President Bush's courage and vision. That does not mean we must always agree on every point or be "cheerleaders." All of integrity must just ask themselves are we first willing to listen and digest the whole..before picking apart for our own self-aggrandisement. The latter can be the real example of "Too much" and "over-reaching" We all can be guilty of embarrassing self-importance, and when the ego is painfully more important than principle...it becomes obvious to all. Even great writers like Noonan can fall victim, to this human flaw...but I think her column was misguided and it is a shame....because Noonan diminshed herself not the President and it is a shame. But unlike her dissection of a magnificent speech by GWB, I prefer to judge Noonan on the whole of her writings and not this lateset rather bizarre detour.
As do I. That is why I went to look up some of her early writing. This is from her June 14, 2004 column, in which she reprinted a speech she made at a gathering of former Reagan hands, following President Reagan's funeral:
"Are we a government that has a country, or a country that has a government? We are the latter; hold it high. Can dictators who run a country the size of a continent in the name of a life-killing ideology, can they push freedom around? They cannot. Say it, hold it high. Is there a natural thing within man that tells him God is real and good, real as a rock, good as clean water--is that thing, that knowledge, natural to man? Yes it is. Hold it high. Should we as a people try to rid ourselves of the natural expressions of this natural knowledge? No. We must keep that and guard it and love it. We must hold it high."
This from her latest column:
"This world is not heaven.
The president's speech seemed rather heavenish. It was a God-drenched speech. This president, who has been accused of giving too much attention to religious imagery and religious thought, has not let the criticism enter him. God was invoked relentlessly. "The Author of Liberty." "God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind . . . the longing of the soul."
It seemed a document produced by a White House on a mission. The United States, the speech said, has put the world on notice: Good governments that are just to their people are our friends, and those that are not are, essentially, not. We know the way: democracy. The president told every nondemocratic government in the world to shape up. "Success in our relations [with other governments] will require the decent treatment of their own people."
...snip
"Ending tyranny in the world? Well that's an ambition, and if you're going to have an ambition it might as well be a big one. But this declaration, which is not wrong by any means, seemed to me to land somewhere between dreamy and disturbing. Tyranny is a very bad thing and quite wicked, but one doesn't expect we're going to eradicate it any time soon. Again, this is not heaven, it's earth."
When I look at her latest column, in light of what she has written previously, I cannot see anything but hypocrisy.