On this last morning of 2007, I set out with a seemingly noble goal: Select the best quotes from my favorite columnists’ articles, and post them here in a “Best of” format. I started with my idol, Jewish conservative Dennis Prager. Having read all these articles once before, I was certain that upon a second read I’d be able to find a couple of gems.
I was wrong—I had barely gotten to February when I had to concede that full articles were gems. Finding it impossible to do justice to Mr. Prager by selecting a mere few sentences, I am now forced to modify my plan. Here are my twelve favorite Dennis Prager articles of 2007, along with introductory or other key paragraphs.
I strongly urge every Jewish American to read Prager’s work, especially these cogent articles. On so many things he hits the nail square on the head. I hope they speak to you as much as they did to me having read them once during the year, and then again this morning.
America Founded to be Free, Not Secular (Jan. 3)
There has been a concerted, and successful, attempt over the last generations to depict America as always having been a secular country and many of its Founders as deists, a term misleadingly defined as irreligious people who believed in an impersonal god.
It is also argued that the values that animated the founding of America were the values of the secular Enlightenment, not those of the Bible—even for most of the Founders who were religious Christians.
This new version of American history reminds me of the old Soviet dissident joke: “In the Soviet Union, the future is known; it’s the past that is always changing.”
Forcing Girls to Cheer for Girls (Jan. 30)
High school cheerleaders must now cheer for girls’ teams as often as for boys’ teams thanks to federal education officials’ interpretations of Title IX, the civil rights law that mandates equal playing fields for both sexes. According to The New York Times, almost no one directly involved wants this—not the cheerleaders, not the fans, not the boys’ teams, and not even the girls’ teams. But it doesn’t matter: The law coerces cheerleaders to cheer at girls’ games.
Liberals Don’t Ask “What Happens Next?” (Feb. 6)
In general, the Left does not ask the question, “What will happen next?” when formulating social policy. Not thinking through the long-range consequences of their positions is liberalism’s tragic flaw. […]
In the view of many liberals, “What happens next?” is a pragmatic, but not idealistic, question by which to guide social policy. In fact, however, no question is as idealistic as “What happens next?” Asking it means that social policy is made by noble and compassionate minds, not hearts alone. In the rest of life, thinking through the consequences of actions is called “responsible” and “mature.” Those remain worthy goals in public life as well.
New Form of Evil Is Why America Has Not Won Iraq War (Mar. 27)
I never thought we could see a new form of evil. After the gas chambers of the Holocaust, the tens of millions murdered in the Gulag, the forced starvation in the Ukraine, the hideous medical experiments on people by the Germans and the Japanese in World War II, the torture chambers in all police states, I had actually believed that no new forms of evil existed.
I was wrong.
Duke Lacrosse Scandal: Eight Lessons (April 24)
America’s news media, an amoral university, an opportunistic district attorney, and a police department that seems to have collaborated in framing innocent students all combined to nearly destroy the lives of three innocent young men—members of the Duke University lacrosse team.
“Buck Fush” and the Left (June 5)
Every day I see at least one car, usually more than one, sporting a bumper sticker that reads, “Buck Fush.”
Apparently, some of our fellow Americans on the left find this message to be profound and witty. But it is not these individuals’ presence or absence of wit or profundity that interests me here—both are so obviously absent, no comments are necessary. It’s their contempt for society and their narcissism that demand commentary.
America Needs a Fourth of July Seder (July 3) *This one’s my favorite!
Perhaps the major reason Jews have been able to keep their national identity alive for 3,000 years, the last 2,000 of which were nearly all spent dispersed among other nations, is ritual. No national or cultural identity can survive without ritual, even if the group remains in its own country.
Americans knew this until the era of anti-wisdom was ushered in by the baby boomer generation in the 1960s and ‘70s. We always had national holidays that celebrated something meaningful.
Why “Islamophobia” Is a Brilliant Term (July 31)
Whoever coined the term “Islamophobia” was quite shrewd. Notice the intellectual sleight of hand here. The term is not “Muslim-phobia” or “anti-Muslimist,” it is Islam-ophobia—fear of Islam—yet fear of Islam is in no way the same as hatred of all Muslims. One can rightly or wrongly fear Islam, or more usually, aspects of Islam, and have absolutely no bias against all Muslims, let alone be a racist.
(Also recommended: Prager’s Oct. 30 related article The Left and the Term “Islamo-Fascism”)
If It’s Bad for America, It’s Good for Democrats (Aug. 14)
One of the two major political parties of the United States has linked all its electoral hopes on domestic pathologies, economic downturns and foreign failure.
It is actually difficult to name any positive development for America that would benefit the Democratic Party’s chances in a national election.
Name almost any subject, and this unhealthy pattern can be discerned.
Ann Coulter Wants Jews to Become Christian—So What? (Oct. 16)
Those who label Ann Coulter an anti-Semite do damage to the battle against anti-Semitism.
I say this as a committed Jew, a religious Jew, a Jewish writer and lecturer, … and a man who has fought anti-Semitism all his life.
There is nothing in what Ann Coulter said to a Jewish interviewer on CNBC that indicates she hates Jews or wishes them ill, or does damage to the Jewish people or the Jewish state. And if none of those criteria is present, how can someone be labeled anti-Semitic?
The World Doesn’t Hate America, The Left Does (Nov. 27)
One of the most widely held beliefs in the contemporary world—so widely held it is not disputed—is that, with few exceptions, the world hates America. One of the Democrats’ major accusations against the Bush administration is that it has increased hatred of America to unprecedented levels. And in many polls, the United States is held to be among the greatest obstacles to world peace and harmony.
But it is not true that the world hates America. It is the world’s left that hates America. However, because the left dominates the world’s news media and because most people, understandably, believe what the news media report, many people, including Americans, believe that the world hates America.
Baby Boomers Owe America’s Young People an Apology (Dec. 4)
We live in the age of group apologies. I would like to add one. The baby boomer generation needs to apologize to America, especially its young generation, for many sins. […]
… Most people get wiser as they get older. But not those of us baby boomers who still believe these things. Of course, many of us never bought into these awful ideas that have so hurt you and our country, and some of us have grown up. But many of us still talk, think, dress and curse the same as we did in the ‘60s and ‘70s. And we’re still fighting what we consider the real Axis of Evil: American racism, sexism and imperialism.
Thank you, Mr. Prager, for your inspiring and thought-provoking words. Looking forward to more in 2008.
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