Peggy Noonan: Welcome Back, Duke

Opinion Journal ^ | 10/12/2001 | Peggy Noonan

[Pokey78]

From the ashes of Sept. 11 arise the manly virtues.

A few weeks ago I wrote a column called "God Is Back," about how, within a day of the events of Sept. 11, my city was awash in religious imagery--prayer cards, statues of saints. It all culminated, in a way, in the discovery of the steel-girder cross that emerged last week from the wreckage--unbent, unbroken, unmelted, perfectly proportioned and duly blessed by a Catholic friar on the request of the rescue workers, who seemed to see meaning in the cross's existence. So do I.

[Pokey78]

A ping for our national poet.

[ladyinred]

I just love Peggy! I just love the Duke, and I love that the real man is being celebrated today, and that the cross remains when all else falls around us!

[Snake65]

Great article, I can see it in the mountains of Afghanistan now....

Bin Laden: "Terrorism is caused by poverty and despair. Did you bring gold?"

Wayne: "No."

Bin Laden: "Ahhh, silver maybe?"

Wayne: "Just lead."

[x]

Nice enough. But I'd rather skip the poetry and hear what Peggy has to say about her immigration enthusiasm today. Not that that enthusiasm and the dim and hazy poetry she generated around immigration were the worst things in the world, but they really stifled a lot of hard thought about our future. It would be good to know if she had any second thoughts -- and thoughts is the word -- after what's happened.

It's good to have John Wayne back. Unfortunately, I don't think they'll let him stay unless we can't do without him. I'd rather have him around than a lot of other people I could name, but he could be a sign that peace is not coming back for a long time. We may be a better country now. We are rediscovering some old and real truths that we'd forgotten. But we'll miss some of those silly and irresponsible pleasures of peacetime.

[summer]

Thanks for the flag!

[Utah Girl]

Thanks for the post. I love Peggy Noonan's writings. She is elegant and lyrical.

[NYpeanut]

I think I'll go kiss my manly man right now.

[Movemout]

"Thank you pilgrim."

[riley1992]

I am speaking of masculine men, men who push things and pull things and haul things and build things, men who charge up the stairs in a hundred pounds of gear and tell everyone else where to go to be safe. Men who are welders, who do construction, men who are cops and firemen. They are all of them, one way or another, the men who put the fire out, the men who are digging the rubble out, and the men who will build whatever takes its place.

She is at her best here. Masculinity in a man is one of God's greatest gift's. In it's truest form it is raw and powerful and quiet. I, for one, cannot imagine why a woman would want it any other way.

[jokemoke]

Yes, welcome back! W is the living example of "Duke". He has shown America what a real man should be. And, from this woman, comes a huge THANK YOU!!!!!

[xsmommy]

this woman is unbelievable. i have always liked her, but since 9/11, she has been magnificent.

[jaime1959]

I love Peggy! Think I'll rent True Grit tonight.

[mombonn]

Wonderful, just wonderful!

But then I am experiencing Sept. 11 not as a political event but as a spiritual event.

Against the Evil One, to be sure.

[Mudboy Slim]

"A ping for our national poet."

Yep...MUD

[xp38]

That's bold talk for a one eyed fat man! :)

[JoeSixPack1]

When Cassious Clay, now Mohammed Ali, who at the time was the undisputed Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world, refused the draft on religious grounds he fired the opening salvo that encouraged the flower power peace movement of the 60's. All of a sudden, tough guys were no longer allowed to be tough guys. We were told we had an inner feminist side. What did we know? if the toughest guy in the ring is a pacifist, who was to argue? Peaceniks, NOW, bra burning, draft dodgers all the way up to x42's domineering wife had us tough guys in chains. Maybe its ok for tough guys to come out of the closet now? Or are we just being given a war time furlogh?

[Carolinamom]

Hymn of praise for the re-emergence of the manly man!! I rejoice! Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld have the true grit.

Kristol, Clinton, Edwards, Lieberman, Gore et al ineligible for this category!!!

[WaterDragon]

How I agree with Peggy! Sitting here with tears, I think of all the decent real men I have been fortunate to know during my life. My neighbor, a policeman, my father, an assistant D.A. I worked with, and so many more. I'll never forget each of them because, as Peggy notes, they really stand out among the insolent, indifferent, self-involved wimps. I think the wimps are so terrible, such cowards, and so mean because they know they have emasculated themselves, and they have only contempt for themselves, leaving them nothing to offer others but arrogance thinly veiled as 'caring.