| WFB |
 WFB
|
Feb. 27th, 2008 @ 02:34 pm 
|
|---|
William F. Buckley, Jr. is dead.
He never held elected office, yet few people have had greater influence over the course of human events than he has over the last fifty years through the sheer power of his intellect, wit and drive. We already knew who he was at my house even before he founded National Review in 1955. By the early 60's my dad was a subscriber and I devoured each issue, building up a store of arguments to buck me up any time some junior high smart ass liberal wanted to debate social security or the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Long before Firing Line I would tune into distant WNBC radio in New York to listen to Buckley extemporate all night long on any and all issues. He was in his intellectual and physical prime when he ran for Mayor of New York City in 1965 and I followed that race with a passion that only a 14 year old political junkie could have. He finished third, but then, so did Teddy Roosevelt when he ran for the office.
By the time I entered college I was a full steam ahead member of Young Americans for Freedom, founded at the Buckley estate in Sharon, Connecticut in the early 60's, and chairman of our local College Republicans and Youth for Buckley (brother James, that is) and got to see the whole clan when Jim was elected US Senator in 1970. I finally met Bill when he gave a series of four lectures at Russell Sage College around 1973 and he graciously hung around to engage anyone who cared to chat. And I like to chat.
We kept up a correspondence for a while, nothing earth shaking or worth reprinting, but the fact that he would bother to even answer every letter from every young hero-worshiper I found pretty amazing. He even invited me to lunch, but our schedules never meshed.
Two years ago, early the next morning after his big 80th birthday bash, he emailed me to thank me for what I had written about him on this blog, at a time when I'm sure he had about ten thousand thank you notes to write to people far more important than this lone blogger. It's hard not to like a guy like that.
Buckley made the conservative movement respectable and he kept it respectable, no small achievement.
It's hard to imagine Reagan without Buckley playing John the Baptist. As well as being ideological allies, they became fast friends, and even when they disagreed, they did so in good humor. When Bill was supporting the Panama Canal Treaty and Reagan leading the fight against it, the Reagans invited the Buckleys over for dinner. As Buckley drove up the long driveway he found neatly spaced, like Burma Shave signs:
We bought it.
We paid for it.
It's ours.
We're gonna keep it!
His writings, his voice, his television shows, his spirit we will always have with us, but as he observed when his sister Aloise died, things are just not going to be as much fun anymore.
Rest in peace, and welcome into the Kingdom.
*********
| From: | (Anonymous) |
|---|
| Date: | November 18th, 2005 11:55 am (local) |
|---|
|
|
Delighted by your blog! You didn't say whether you were still
reading us! I hope so. WFB
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
|
|
|
|
| Top of Page |
Powered by LiveJournal.com |
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}