Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Losing Bill   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

You know it will happen, and then you're not prepared when it does.

I agree with everything everyone else has already said, and will post some of the letters I have been receiving. I believe that he really was indispensable in creating modern conservatism — something that answered that name may have existed without him, and perhaps been just as strong as a political movement, but it would not have taken the form it did. (In particular, it might not have been oriented toward the free market and limited government.)

Bill's kindness and generosity of spirit really were remarkable. He was as interested in listening to the college senior to his left as to the former secretary of state to his right. I knew him in his old age, when his answer to the question, "How are you doing?" was likely to be, "Decomposing." Even when his body was weary, though, his eyes retained a preternatural youthfulness. A treatise could probably be written about the role those eyes played in the making of modern America, but I don't have the heart to do it. R.I.P.

02/27 12:31 PMShare