A Heart, a Cross, and a Flag: America Today

First, the surface: On the cover of What I Saw at the Revolution, revolutionist Peggy Noonan's memoir of her two or three years as a writer for Reagan, she looked like Mabel or Madge, one of the frazzed but bravely smiling babes who sling hash or bring cuppas at Denny's on the night shift, one of the working-class heroes that Barbara Ehrenreich slummed with in Nickel & Dimed. By the time she got to her excellent bio of President Reagan and to this book about the year of 9/11 & dangerous living, Ms. Noonan had a makeover. She says or implies in A Heart, a Cross, and a Flag that everybody in America had a makeover on the day the towers fell. On 9/10 we were somebody; by the morning of 9/12 we were somebody else. Gales of destruction buried our surface lives, casual joys, & previous conditions of certitude. Squalls of Pompeii ash in midtown Manhattan baptized stricken survivors & watchers. In an instant on a brilliant morning we were born again into a deeper world where centers do not hold. This morning, 4 1/2 years later, we heard that Dick shoots Quayle & Dubya shoots drugs before going to the deeper news about Oprah & J-Lo. 4 1/2 years after war came to us & we went to war, we're mired in a quagmire of 9/10 superficial surfaces. Now, as then, we are living on borrowed time in houses of cards with foundations of sand. Impelled by deep faith, Ms. Noonan expected that 9/11's agony would bring reappraisal & renewal. She believed reasonably that our clueless multitudes would at last get a clue, if not about ultimate absolutes, then about gas bombs, germ bombs, and dirty nukes on barges in the East River. She believed by 9/20/01 that the president we almost elected president was becoming a great president leading our nation through fire and leading a mature, competent, capable administration. (The news today, oh boy: Vice President Fudd shoots crony, doesn't apologize.) A Heart, a Cross, and a Flag is, alas, the dead past. It's what might have been. It's where we should have gone (to our knees, without birdshot) but didn't. It's where Ms. Noonan thought we were being led after 9/11 awakened us from our Clinton-Flynt torpor and before -- as Noonan wrote last month --the wheels came off the tram & the tram went off the rails. 4 1/2 years ago she saw hope rising from the ash. Now she sees trouble & dark nights of the soul. Then as now she uses langauge well. Walking the Brooklyn Bridge and talking about plots to blow the Brooklyn Bridge, she uses simple & supple words to build bridges of meaning & understanding. Occasionally, though, her words blow up & the bridge falls down. This if from page 190, hardcover edition: "Why does Mr. Bush's seeming not to need the presidency contribute to his popularity? Why would it be, in fact, a central reason for his high poll numbers? Because when you know they don't need it, you know they won't do anything to keep it." Parse those words (but overlook the histori

This book was given to me by a very good friend of mine, MaryAnn. On 9/11/01 we sat next to each other in work in New Jersey. We watched and listened in horror as the events of 9/11/01 unfolded and realized from that moment on the world as we know it will never be the same. The following year, we actually picked that specific day to fly on a business trip, 9/11/02, to honor those who lost their lives on 9/11 and to show the terrorists we are not afraid of them. Ms. Noonan actually discusses how people are afraid to fly today in the last chapter. For some people this book will not be politically correct, so be aware of this. Ms. Noonan can not heap enough praise on the firefighters who responded on 9/11 (MaryAnn's brother was one of the brave firefighters who responded on 9/11, a real hero). I enjoyed and re-read over several times the chapters that referred to the 9/11 events. I agree with Ms. Noonan that we are in a war with terrorists, even though there may not be people who realize this. I enjoyed how other subjects were interwoven into the book, the Pope, how life went on after 9/11. Ms. Noonan described how she walked across the Brooklyn Bridge the morning of 9/11/02. Her descriptions and how she captures her feelings are written beautifully, each of us should have tried to capture our own moments. I know some people picking up the book may not want to read about President Bush or the Pope but the descriptions on the weather, how people continued to live their lives after 9/11 were great. If anyone feels as though their civil rights are being violated, just read Chapter 18, "Everybody's Been Shot", even if you are in a bookstore just read it. I've updated this review on 11/30 after I saw on TV people feel as though their rights are violated when they are searched boarding a plane, wake up people remember 9/11 and days afterwards, the shoe bomber, Everyone's been shot, read this section. If nothing else read the poems on pages 23 and 24 (they were tagged for me, thank you) and the poem on page 79, Two Thousand One, Nine Eleven (read these several times). Ms. Noonan describes Brooklyn Heights and beauty (I went to St. Francis College in the Heights). The past two years MaryAnn, other co-workers and myself have gone to Brooklyn Heights to view the Blue Light tribute to 9/11/01. Everyone should see this from Brooklyn Heights and everyone should read this book. Thanks for writing the book Ms. Noonan. This is an awesome gift.

Peggy Noonan's columns that appeared in the pages of the Wall Street Journal during the year that followed the attacks on September 11th were not only some of the best writing of her career, but served as a source of weekly comfort during those early months.Her first piece, "What I Saw At The Devastation" still stands out as the finest account of what it felt like to be there. The descriptions are vivid, the feelings are real, and as the weeks continued, as we routed the Taliban out of Afghanistan, as we came together as a nation, only to see divisiveness pull us apart, Peggy's words captured the moments.The oddity that became an FBI invesigation, the declarations by the left wing media declaring our failure in Afghanistan as smoke still rose from lower Manhattan, and perhaps the most poignant tale, of a subway ride to the World Series a month after the attacks. . . Peggy's columns were wonderfully written, and this collection captures it perfectly.

Is there anything more comforting, more appealing, and more illuminating than Peggy Noonan's words. If you've heard her speak the experience is increased ten fold as you can actually 'hear' her soft tone express the desires we all felt after that day in September 2001. Anger, resentment, pride, hope, a feeling of loss, and feeling of gain...it's all here. I was so amazed that I had to share it with my wife and family.You'll want to too.

This Book is a collection of Ms. Noonans essays from 9-11-01 to 9-11-02. It is not a geo-political interpretation of events, but a cultural & an almost spiritual one. It will be wonderful reading for those not yet born, or too young to remember that horrible day of 2001.