Peggy Noonan: My Brothers and Sisters

Opinion Journal ^ | 03/08/2002 | Peggy Noonan

[Phaedrus]

Another Home Run from our National Poet, our National Treasure, our Chronicler of the Soul of America. Every Friday, she just makes my day. We need a book that gathers together in one place all her columns since 9/11.

[mamaduck]

"All just tryin' get home, man. Just doin' our best."

Amen

[beckett]

For those interested, here is a link to C-SPAN's three hour In-Depth interview of Noonan, which was conducted on Mar. 3.

In-Depth with Peggy Noonan

[reflecting]

There is quality about her writing that makes you feel as if you had just read Emily Dickinson. What is it?

[Snow Bunny]

Hi Pokey, thank you.

[.45MAN]

ping

[Euro-American Scum]

They have been lucky so long they don't even know they're lucky anymore. That's the bad thing that can happen to you when you've been lucky too long: You start to think it's not luck, it's what you deserve. And instead of being grateful you get a bitter-tinged sense of entitlement.

The essence of liberalism. No matter how much they get, it's never enough.

Instead they have a sense of being cheated. Why isn't my life perfect? Why don't we have $2 billion instead of $1 billion? Why isn't Al Gore president? Why can't everyone love Bill, he deserves it!

Never have so many who have so much been so victimized by so few.

[betty boop]

Langston Hughes: "God gave Noah the rainbow sign / Said, 'No more water, the fire next time.'"

But of course, this is just a silly "myth." So no need to take it seriously.

Thanks P for bumping me to this. Peggy Noonan has captured my own mood these days. Things aren't getting any easier, post 9-11. All my very best -- bb.

[Lorena]

Thanks for the ping, Pokey. What a wonderful rambling journey with Peggy this article was. I find it hard to believe that someone of Peggy's stature and (I assume) wealth takes the subway so often, instead of having a chauffeur driven limo or at least taking a taxi. Wow. She certainly does have an endless amplitude of prayer material there...I enjoyed her description of her recent subway trips. Isn't is interesting that she's taken to calling strangers, "My brother or my sister"?

Also, her perspective of the bitter Clintonista types is so right on. Lots of good insight in that part, as well as in the cloning part (yikes, really scary, I hope we never get there stuff...) This whole article has given me so much food for thought. I'll be chewing on it all for awhile.

[stanz]

In 1993, I sat in my office 5 blocks from the Trade Center and heard the explosion when the bomb went off. Every day after, I thought about when the terrorists would come back and finish the job. I thought about it exactly 3 times every day- - -in the morning when I walked through the WTC concourse after taking the E train, at lunch time when I ran my errands at the concourse and again at night on the way home. Since 9/11, I haven't been able to let go of the same feelings...that it's not over.... that some time in the near future, I may not be lucky enough to have the chance of thinking about it again. We aren't gallant here in NYC, we are just going about the business of life the only way we know how.

[Amelia]

Thanks Pokey78! Sometimes, reading a Peggy Noonan article is like getting a long, chatty letter from an old and dear friend.

[borkrules]

Peggy Noonan is a national treasure.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

I think you're right. They will come back again, and go after NYC again. They probably believe that is the seat of *infidels*, or something so absurd like that.

[stanz]

My current office is 1 Liberty Plaza, directly across the street from WTC. We worked out of our mid-town offices for two months after the attacks. Even in mid-town, I found myself always looking up when I was outside. That's something I rarely ever did. When we returned to 1 Liberty, it was weird. Coming up out of the subway on Fulton Street, there used to be just shadows from the Towers. Now, there's just open sky. I still keep thinking about when they will hit us again and where. Will I survive, will my daughter survive? It just reminds you how fragile life really is.

[Museum Twenty]

Pokey, thanks for the Ping!

Lorena, I too am amazed by the Subway stories. Surely, Ms. Noonan doesn't need to ride the subway for economic reasons; I would think she is recognized all the time, and that this recognition would make riding difficult for her.

I went to High School & College in NYC, and quite frequently (for recreation) rode the subways, particularly the #4 IRT, between Woodlawn & 14th Street, or the #1 up to Van Cortlandt Park.

It was really enjoyable on warm days, when the train was empty -- whether just lying on the benches enjoying the Bronx sunshine, or standing between the cars and enjoying the breeze. That sensation is the urban equivalent of a convertible ride!

But I am a teenager no more, and on those very rare occasions when I visit the city, I never think of the subway as a transportation alternative. I am so grateful for the excellent cab fleets, which economics (perhaps just temporarily) permit me to enjoy.

To me, Ms. Noonan's choice is just another example of her extraordinary qualities. I don't think many other big media names share that style.

In summary, all I can really say is...God Bless Peggy Noonan!

[Lorena]

Amen!

[dansangel]

"We aren't gallant here in NYC, we are just going about the business of life the only way we know how."

That does make you and all New Yorkers who have stayed to face down the evil "gallant."

All of us in America have been victimized and many of us live with 9/11 in our hearts and on our minds day after day. Next time, if there is one, it could be any one of us. I worry about it here in Atlanta, home of the CDC.

Peggy Noonan captures a feeling a lot of us have had the past 6 months, but couldn't verbalize.

God bless us all.....God Bless America!

[strictlyaminorleaguer]

I feel the same way you do, for the exact same reasons...except that I live in the DC area. I've thought about the '93 attack on the WTC and how 9/11 finished the job, as you put it. I can't help extrapolating that comparison to the White House and Capitol, which were spared this time. Annd then that queasy feeling I had for weeks after 9/11 rises all over again. We need to pray and keep praying, as Peggy says. What a gifted writer she is.

[father_elijah]

Bless you Pokey78 for posting St. Peggy's latest. When I read her I feel I am back home among the best of friends.

She is exactly right when she says that as long as the Holy Father is alive we feel we will be alright somehow. But Padre Pio's statue, well anything to do with Blessed Padre Pio, tells me the Holy Father's life is in greater danger than usual. To use Tom Ridge's system, the threat against the Pope has been at Orange Level for some time, but I -- like many of my cohort -- feel that we have entered into Red Alert within the last month.

God save us all, everyone.

[McGavin999]

Somehow, I don't think that NYC will be the target next time.