Scrapbook
Scrapbook The Speech Maureen Dowd Hated Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a bracing lecture last week at the annual American Enterprise Institute dinner. The recipient of the think tank's...
...Today, as in the past, we will need a brave "civic virtue," not a timid civility, to keep our republic...
...How, she asks, can "being able to abort a baby validate your womanhood...
...These heroic virtues "transcend family and community and may even, on occasion, violate the conventions of civility...
...However, in the effort to be civil in conduct, many who know better actually dilute firmly held views to avoid appearing "judgmental...
...To this we often respond (if not succumb), so as not to be constantly fighting, by trying to be tolerant and nonjudgmental— i.e., we censor ourselves...
...Gertrude Himmelfarb refers to two kinds of virtues...
...Pope John Paul II has traveled the entire world challenging tyrants and murderers of all sorts, speaking to millions of people, bringing them a single, simple message: "Be Not Afraid...
...As it happens, the number of people living on steam grates has remained pretty much constant from the middle 1980s, when they filled the airwaves and graced the cover of countless magazines, to the present day, when they are all but forgotten...
...Though they are not mutually exclusive or necessarily incompatible, active citizens and leaders must be governed by the vigorous rather than the caring virtues...
...As if on schedule, the Washington Post ran a front-page story on February 16, "Indicators Show D.C...
...The first are the "caring" virtues...
...The insistence on civility in the form of our debates has the perverse effect of cannibalizing our principles, the very essence of a civil society...
...This tendency, in large part, results from an overemphasis on civility...
...Next time you're headed uptown, tell your driver to keep going...
...That is why civility cannot be the governing principle of citizenship or leadership...
...The recipient of the think tank's prestigious Francis Boyer award, Thomas delighted conservative Washington with his remarks and appalled Maureen Dowd, who called the address "self-pitying," "self-aggrandizing," and "bellicose" in her New York Times column the next day...
...I do not believe that one should fight over things that don't really matter...
...We haven't heard much—anything, really—about the homeless since, oh, roughly January 20, 1993...
...Horrific Days Are Here Again You heard it here first...
...It is said that, when asked what sort of government the Founders had created, Benjamin Franklin replied that they had given us "A Republic, if you can keep it...
...it would have been hate speech...
...Matalin not only says the Roe v. Wade decision was "bad law," she argues that women should be required to have a sonogram before having an abortion...
...Andrew Ferguson predicted a month ago in these pages that the return of Republicans to the White House would mean "the reemergence of all kinds of things we haven't seen since—well, since the old President Bush was in the White House...
...They are about to be remembered...
...Good thing a Republican didn't say that...
...She notes that the vigorous virtues have been supplanted by the caring ones...
...Today, there is much talk about moderation...
...These are the virtues that make daily life pleasant with our families and those with whom we come in contact...
...On everything else, I'm to the right of Attila the Hun...
...As Gertrude Himmelfarb observed in her book One Nation, Two Cultures, "To reduce citizenship to the modern idea of civility, the good-neighbor idea, is to belittle not only the political role of the citizen but also the virtues expected of the citizen— the 'civic virtues,' as they were known in antiquity and in early republican thought...
...Avarice and selfishness are just the beginning...
...So, this evening, I leave you with the simple exhortation: "Be not afraid...
...Listen to the truths that lie within your hearts, and be not afraid to follow them wherever they may lead you...
...And he preached it to us, warning us how easy it is to be trapped in a "culture of death" even in our comfortable and luxurious country—"Be not afraid...
...Mary, We Hardly Knew Ye We were under the impression, mistaken it turns out, that Mary Matalin, former host of Crossfire and now a top adviser to Vice President Cheney, is a squish on abortion...
...The two photos accompanying the article showed Nancy Hill, "who said she . . . has been homeless for three years" and James Johnson, "homeless for five years...
...Matalin insists she's "not a moderate...
...they are branded as mean-spirited, racist, Uncle Tom, homophobic, sexist, etc...
...Homelessness Getting Worse...
...And you'll still be in Manhattan...
...In what manner should we participate...
...Usually identified as a GOP "moderate," which is code for pro-choice, Matalin says it ain't so and never has been...
...It is cowardice, or well-intentioned self-deception at best...
...Geography for Anchors Talking about Bill Clinton's post-presidential office dilemma, Dan Rather said on the CBS Evening News the other night that the choice came down to "Manhattan or Harlem...
...Those three little words hold the power to transform individuals and change the world...
...and that the Founding Fathers thought provided the dynamic combination of conviction and self-discipline necessary for self-government...
...that Montesquieu referred to as the "spring which sets the republican government in motion...
...They include "respect, trustworthiness, compassion, fairness, decency...
...A couple of miles past where your friends live, you'll reach Harlem...
...He preached this message to people living under Communist tyranny in Poland, in Czechoslovakia, in Nicaragua, and in China—"Be not afraid...
...We must not allow our desire to be decent and well-mannered people to overwhelm the substance of our principles or our determination to fight for their success...
...They can supply the quiet resolve and unvoiced courage necessary to endure the inevitable intimidation...
...She strongly rejects the feminist notion that having the right to choose "validates your womanhood...
...It is not comforting to think that the natural tendency inside us is to settle for the bottom, or even the middle of the stream...
...But how are we to do that...
...This is not civility...
...These are the virtues that characterize great leaders, although not necessarily good friends...
...It's probably presumptuous of a Washingtonian like The Scrapbook to point this out, Dan, but that island you live on stretches a bit farther north than you realize...
...But what about those things that do matter...
...The Founders warned us that freedom requires constant vigilance, and repeated action...
...No matter how difficult it is, good manners should be routine...
...He preached it to Africans facing death from marauding tribes and murderous disease—"Be not afraid...
...Ultimately, we should seek both caring and vigorous virtues—but above all, we must not allow the former to dominate the latter...
...I've always been pro-life," she tells The Scrap-book...
...None of us should be uncivil in our manner as we debate issues of consequence...
...The second are the vigorous virtues...
...From the paper that thinks the only good conservatives are the ones who lose graciously, that counts as high praise, so here are some excerpts: It goes without saying that we must participate in the affairs of our country if we think they are important and have an impact on our lives...
...Again, by yielding to a false form of "civility," we sometimes allow our critics to intimidate us...
...It's a baby, not a blob...
...The only thing I'm libertarian on is gays...
...Now they tell us...
...Say hello to homeless-ness, for instance: We are about to see a horrifying deterioration in the plight of our nation's street people...
...As I have said, active citizens are often subjected to truly vile attacks...
...Next week's lesson: The Bronx is up and the Battery is down...
...These are the virtues that Aristotle thought were necessary to govern oneself like a "freeman...
...That's better than 'informed consent.' Even before babies are shaped, you see that little heart...
...They curb their tongues not only in form but also in substance...
Vol. 6 • February 2001 • No. 23
