"While Obama readies an ugly campaign, Paul Ryan gives a serious account of what ails America." by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal.
A few quotes:
People are increasingly fearing the divisions within, even the potential coming apart of, our country. Rich/poor, black/white, young/old, red/blue:.......To read the rest click on the title for a link.
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What was the glue? A love of country based on a shared knowledge of how and why it began; a broad feeling among our citizens that there was something providential in our beginnings;
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"To whom much is given much is expected"; a general understanding that we were something new in history, a nation founded on ideals and aspirations—liberty, equality—and not mere grunting tribal wants. We were from Europe but would not be European: No formal class structure here, no limits, from the time you touched ground all roads would lead forward. You would be treated not as your father was but as you deserved. That's from "The Killer Angels," a historical novel about the civil war fought to right a wrong the Founders didn't right. We did in time, and at great cost. What a country.
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But there is a broad fear out there that we are coming apart,.....
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Where is the president in all this? ......
he feels free to exploit divisions. It's all the rich versus the rest, and there are a lot more of the latter.
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Which gets us to Rep. Paul Ryan. Mr. Ryan receives much praise, but I don't think his role in the current moment has been fully recognized. He is doing something unique in national politics. He thinks. He studies. He reads. Then he comes forward to speak, calmly and at some length, about what he believes to be true. He defines a problem and offers solutions
I love the quote above from the historical novel "The Killer Angles" which was made into the movie "Gettysburg." In the movie Jeff Danial's, as Union Colonel Joshua Chamberlain a collage professor from Maine, turned solder, speaks the words to a group of Maine deserters just before the battle of Gettysburg. One of the most powerful moments in the movie and in movie history.
Here is the complete quote from the movie:
This is a different kind of army. If you look at history you'll see men fight for pay, or women, or some other kind of loot. They fight for land, or because a king makes them, or just because they like killing. But we're here for something new. This has not happened much, in the history of the world: We are an army out to set other men free. America should be free ground, all of it, from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow, no man born to royalty. Here we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here you can be something. Here is the place to build a home. But it's not the land. There's always more land. It's the idea that we all have value, you and me. What we're fighting for, in the end... we're fighting for each other. Sorry. Didn't mean to preach.
Later that day he wins the Congressional Medal of Honor for holding the end of the left flank of the entire Union Army on the "Little Round Top" at Gettysburg. When his men run out of ammunition he orders a bayonet charge that breaks the Rebel attack.
Who will hold the line in 2012 ?
