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Peggy Noonan: 'Everybody's Been Shot'
Opinion Journal ^ | 01/11/2002 | Peggy Noonan

Posted on 01/10/2002 8:09:35 PM PST by Pokey78

Edited on 04/23/2004 12:04:04 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

There's a small but telling scene in Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" that contains some dialogue that reverberates, at least for me. In the spirit of Samuel Johnson, who said man needs more often to be reminded than instructed, I offer it to all, including myself, who might benefit from its message.


(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: peggynoonanlist
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To: sinkspur
I got this from a friend in New York and forwarded it to many and posted it on another forum.

Many years ago a one-eyed carpenter name Jesus commented that "not every day is Christmas."

Peggy Noonan's The Case Against Hillary Clinton, ReganBooks/HarperCollins, 2000 is excellent.

I've spent the evening on Marine sites in the prepublication work for a friend's Aid and Comfort: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam, a treason indictment of the plastic-chested Barbarella on the NVA AA.

No one was beating his chest that he'd been shot. There was a tremendous esprit de corps. The devotion to duty, honor, country of legend.

Peggy Noonan was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan. If we can regain a portion of the patriotic feeling of the man and the times, we will have advanced miles from the moral cesspool of eight years of the traitor-rapist who betrayed our constitution and the men and women who defend it.

Peggy Noonan is condemning a nation of Oprahs and Rosies, and summoning what's in the heart of America.

81 posted on 01/13/2002 7:58:38 PM PST by PhilDragoo
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To: Miss Marple
I work in a profession affected by the terrorism, and as a result I've had to listen to far too much self-involved we've all been shot! nonsense at work since September. And this is Official Nonsense, not just the vivid imaginings of my coworkers. The chances of my jobsite being targetted are about as remote as anyone else's, but you'd think there was a great big bullseye on my office. It may be that I now see drama queen whining where it isn't.
82 posted on 01/13/2002 8:11:31 PM PST by Pelham
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To: Pokey78; mtngrl@vrwc; ohioWfan
I think this is my all-time favorite column EVER!
83 posted on 01/13/2002 8:13:08 PM PST by lawgirl
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To: Ditter
She is saying, "Everyone is wounded SO get in the truck & drive"

Hey, Time Wounds All Heels, Ditto.
Me, I'm not wounded in the slightest. The FDNY is wounded, the NYPD is wounded, the Rangers and CIA are wounded, the families of the people in the towers and the Pentagon are wounded. Let's leave sympathy to those who really deserve it.

84 posted on 01/13/2002 8:21:56 PM PST by Pelham
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To: beckett
Can anybody tell me what she is saying about Cornel West and "perp-walks." What does the metaphor of a perp-walk, i.e., the walk an arrestee makes under guard, usually before TV cameras, have to do with West's meanderings through the halls of academe? Her point escapes me.

Today the perp is usually hooded or covering up to the photographers. Think of a movie from the 30' or 40's. Many of the perps then were notorious and thier perp walk was an opportunity to smile and PLAY to the cameras,to indulge thier contempt for the charges and to display thier arrogance.

85 posted on 01/13/2002 9:27:44 PM PST by Vincent 567
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To: Pelham; lawgirl
Let's leave sympathy to those who really deserve it.

Having just read all your posts, I am amazed at how profoundly you have missed the point of this fine article. You are seeing what's not there, and not seeing what is there.

lawgirl, it's a good one, but I like the John Wayne/return of masculinity one better!

86 posted on 01/14/2002 4:52:40 AM PST by ohioWfan
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To: lawgirl
I think this is my all-time favorite column EVER!

I have to agree with you. I am so glad that you brought this article to my attention. Thanks!

87 posted on 01/14/2002 1:41:18 PM PST by mtngrl@vrwc
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To: ohioWfan
I am amazed at how profoundly you have missed the point of this fine article.

It's so profound that there are people defending her from diametrically opposed positions. Why don't you set us all straight? What is her point?

Is she approving when she says:

"Now that's someone who knows that everybody's been shot."

If so, I think it's a poor metaphor, one that reflects the very same whining she's writing about. But maybe I'm being too harsh. You've probably been shot too, after all.

88 posted on 01/14/2002 10:02:38 PM PST by Pelham
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Comment #89 Removed by Moderator

To: mtngrl@vrwc
I'd like to buy every combat vet here a 'shot' . . .
90 posted on 01/14/2002 10:21:35 PM PST by Crowcreek
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To: Pelham
semantics are insignificant? if we are not taken at our words then we are no better off than those liberals who listen with their hearts. you have missed the whole point of noonan's article and my comments by clouding your judgement with emotional cotton in your ears that only allow you to hear what you want to hear to make your pitiful argument palatable to the bleeding heart masses.
91 posted on 01/15/2002 5:04:34 AM PST by teeman8r
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To: Zon
"IMO, here's what she missed; due to the 9-11 terrorist attacks each person has had a shot of internal-reflective self-honesty -- each one of us is a hero in our own little world and want to share that with others. ...And a shot of healthy external skepticism regarding what the politicians, media, journalists and Hollywood had been clamoring about before the attacks -- telling us we were all deficient." what?! internal-reflective self-honesty? isn't that redundant, some how? if one is honest with oneself it is internally reflective. yes, we all were given a healthy dose of skepticism, i concur, but your point is vague in supporting or criticizing noonan's article. she is not saying "you're losing some freedoms, get over it" she is saying we all have to take some lumps, and suck it up, for the benefit of the whole. "the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few or the one."
92 posted on 01/15/2002 5:16:55 AM PST by teeman8r
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To: teeman8r

internal-reflective self-honesty? isn't that redundant, some how?

No. For example, there are alcoholics that would be internal-reflective and rationalize not quitting. That is not self-honest. Self-honesty requires respect for ones own body and mind. Think about it, being self-reflective is not the same as being self-honest. Hitler surely wasn't.

she is not saying "you're losing some freedoms, get over it"

I know she's not saying that. She seems unaware that its a fact.

 she is saying we all have to take some lumps, and suck it up, for the benefit of the whole. "the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few or the one."

That's the cry of the collectivist. Is that like majority rights over individual rights? ...Tyranny by the majority. Or society's rights over individual rights? Individual's have rights, not groups. The whole is made up of its individual constituents. When the individual is sacrificed eventually so is the whole.

The smallest minority is the minority of one -- the individual. When the individual is protected all larger-than-one minorities as well as the largest majority are protected.

93 posted on 01/15/2002 6:06:49 AM PST by Zon
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To: Pelham
Why don't you set us all straight?

Because I'm quite certain from the tone of your post that you are not one bit interested in, or open to my point of view.

94 posted on 01/15/2002 12:28:20 PM PST by ohioWfan
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To: Zon
if one is self-honest then one is internally reflective...

as for the rights of the individual, they are paramount, and i concur that the protection of the one, is the protection of the whole, but those individuals who rise to protect society are the gems... an example, the beaches of normandy... individuals fighting for the whole

95 posted on 01/28/2002 7:29:43 PM PST by teeman8r
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