The American Spectator

p> HOPE FOR THE FUTURE br> Re: TAS ‘s writers and readers: /p>

As a devoted Spectator reader, I get a tremendous lift each morning from the brilliant and creative words of R. Emmett Tyrrell, Ben Stein, Jed Babbin, Lisa Fabrizio and all of the other nimble minds who contribute regularly. Among those, I must count such Americans as the elegant Diane Smith, plain-spoken Elaine Kyle, steady Beverly Gunn and so many others. Sometimes it seems like the entire world is in shambles and only in the Spectator is it put right.

The real beauty of the Spectator is that it provides us with reminders of the blessed lives we can lead in America with all of its prosperity and promise. The Spectator reminds us of our struggles, conflicts, occasional failures and of our mutual hard-won freedoms, unique in all of the world’s history. Most of all, the mere presence of such an array of great thinkers, writers and citizens offers me hope for the future of America and the world.

Much of what seems to trouble us today is a kind of national guilt over things like Vietnam, slavery, religion, abortion, our material wealth and our exalted place in the world. How that guilt is “managed” has led to the divide between red and blue America. Entities like the media, academia and the American left respond to this guilt by refusing to move ahead with life until all agree that white America has despoiled the Earth, sickened and enslaved our own minorities, waged cultural and religious war on benign foreign innocents and seeks to dominate the planet with this or that sinister profit-motivated conspiracy. Blue guilt can never be assuaged because the facts do not bear out their emotions and that, it seems, is why blue America is constantly angry and continuously offended by just about everything and everyone.

The voices that I read in the Spectator seem to have a wiser and more realistic approach. They seem to favor moving ahead in an imperfect world with hope that things like logic, facts, patriotism, courage, religious faith and traditional morality will carry us forward. Spectator columnists and readers are not angry, rarely resort to name-calling or vulgarity, are up on the facts and have the far more positive perspective on national and world events. They are, however, frustrated over the insincerity of the blue voices who cloak purely political motives in high sounding moral terms, intended somehow to induce us to share their shame and guilt (as well as the contents of our collective wallets).

p>I thank the Spectator for presenting rational views on so many interesting topics and for conducting lively, reasoned and thoughtful debate. So many wonderful writers and readers reflect what’s best about America’s past and present, as well as providing this reader with hope for the future of the world. Elaine, Diane and Beverly would never let us fall. br> — Deane Fish