A simple thing
To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit.Beautiful sentiments. Do you know who spoke them? Can you guess? (Spoiler here.) [Via this commentary.]To find that answer, we need only look within ourselves.
When we listen to "the better angels of our nature," we find that they celebrate the simple things, the basic things -- such as goodness, decency, love, kindness.
Greatness comes in simple trappings.
The simple things are the ones most needed today if we are to surmount what divides us, and cement what unites us.
To lower our voices would be a simple thing.
In these difficult years, America has suffered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading.
We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another -- until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.
| Posted at 1:45 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (12)
Too bad he was a crook!
Posted by Truth | September 21, 2009 2:33 PM
Yet another reason to rename NW 23rd -- don't you think?
Posted by jhbjrpdx | September 21, 2009 2:33 PM
Love the punchline on this one. Egads, Nixon?!!
Posted by Brandon | September 21, 2009 2:59 PM
It takes a lot to make one yearn for Richard Nixon, but the current crop of "Republicans" are certainly more than equal to the task.
Posted by Allan L. | September 21, 2009 4:14 PM
Nixon was delusional--but he was also brilliant. Caught doing what so many have done before (and after) him, Nixon became the symbol for that kind of behavior.
Unlike Bush, I get the feeling history will be somewhat kind to Nixon. Then again, history often softens the bloody edges of presidential performance.
Posted by ecohuman | September 21, 2009 4:49 PM
My dad cried when Nixon resigned, because
as far as he was concerned, Nixon going to China eclipsed everything else. My mom danced with joy, never having spoken his name without a sneer.
Maybe that speech was written, misty-eyed, after spending 30 hours straight reading Robert Frost poems, and he might even have rewarded himself with a big dose of Librium and bed....
Why is it that mentally ill people get in to politics?
Posted by gaye harris | September 21, 2009 5:48 PM
He was indeed great and got caught. He had China eating out of his hand and they loved him. Do you suppose that any existing or future president will ever charm China again?
Posted by Stalin Sunstien | September 21, 2009 8:10 PM
Somebody else wrote that speech--and all its fine sentiments--but I don't think it was Pat Buchanan.
Posted by Gil Johnson | September 21, 2009 8:16 PM
It might have been William Safire.
Posted by Jack Bog | September 21, 2009 9:08 PM
The good cop appealed to the silent majority -- while bad cop Agnew (with the same ghostwriter) carped about the nattering nabobs of negativism. Nixon was a brilliant politician.
Posted by Let's Be Free | September 22, 2009 10:19 AM
Ray Price drafted both of Nixon's inaugural addresses.
Posted by ecohuman | September 22, 2009 10:31 AM
Like Cheney, Nixon was inherently paranoid. Thus significant poll numbers were not enough to satisfy his thirst for power. Watergate was as foolish an endeavor as occupying Iraq, but not nearly as deadly. Nixon was impeached then pardoned. Cheney should be prosecuted. But let's not look back.
"~ The paranoiac is the exact image of the ruler. The only difference is their position in the world. One might even think the paranoiac the more impressive of the two because he is sufficient unto himself and cannot be shaken by failure. ~"
Elias Canetti
Posted by genop | September 22, 2009 12:33 PM