Please read the column below, and then respond to the questions. Write between 400 and 450 words, rooting your answers in the questions asked.
For a Day, Our Political Troubles Were Eclipsed
It was beautiful: Up and down Madison Avenue, people stood together and looked upward
The Wall Street Journal
Aug. 24, 2017
By Peggy Noonan
In Manhattan on eclipse day I had planned to go by Central Park to witness how people would react to the big celestial event. But I didn’t get there because of what I saw on Madison Avenue.
It was so beautiful.
Up and down the street, all through the eclipse, people spontaneously came together—shop workers and neighborhood mothers, kids and bank employees, shoppers and tourists. They’d gather in groups and look up together. Usually one or two people would have the special glasses, and they’d be passed around. Everyone would put them on and look up and say “Wow!” or “Incredible!” and then laugh and hand the glasses on.
Walking south I saw the clusters form and re-form. On Madison and 77th there were 10 people, including a neighborhood woman who’d brought a red plastic colander, which she held so that the shadow it cast on the sidewalk showed the changing shape of the sun. That was a hit with the kids. There were grade schoolers who’d made their own viewing devices from cardboard and cereal boxes. A young woman accepted a pair of glasses, looked up, and said: “Oh my freakin’ God.” Another said: “It’s remarkable.” “Beautiful,” a woman added. “It is, isn’t it?” asked a man walking by.
In front of E.A.T. by Eli Zabar, more than two dozen people filled the sidewalk and street. Four had the special glasses that were being passed back and forth. A woman named Beatrice who works at a local real-estate office saw me taking notes and smiled. “Do you wanna see?” I did. She gave me the glasses, and I saw the sun half covered. I told her she would be in The Wall Street Journal on Saturday. Hi, Beatrice.
In front of St. James church small groups formed. A UPS man stood for a long time in the back of his truck on the loading step, looking up, rapt. On 67th Street there were more than two dozen people, everyone looking up, pointing. “Do you see it?”
There was a tattooed man in a heavy metal band T-shirt, with his teenage son. “You want?” the man said. He was lending his glasses to everyone who came by. “Are you doing this just to be nice?” I asked. “Yeah,” he said. “We got them free.” Something nice had happened to him so he was spreading it around.
So that’s what I saw, uptown to midtown—sharing and wonder and friendliness, along with a continual refrain: Here, take my glasses. Do you see?
There was something about it that left me by the end quite moved. Witnessing spontaneous human graciousness and joy is stirring. And we were seeing something majestic, an assertion of nature and nature’s God, together. It was tenderly communal.
And it was this: Everyone was normal. These were regular Americans being nice to one another and to whoever walked by. They were all ages, conditions, races, sizes. They were generous and kindly. No one kept their pleasure to themselves.
They were not fighting in the streets with scarfs covering their faces. They were not marching and chanting anti-Semitic or racist slogans. They were not shutting down speakers on campus. They were not ranting at a rally.
They were not even deciding that a man named Robert Lee shouldn’t call a game down South on ESPN because Americans are so stupid they’ll think he’s Robert E. Lee and cover him with tarp and knock him down.
They were normal, regular people. They were who we are.
That’s what so moved me.
When the news is bad, as it has been lately, you can lose a sense of perspective. But we are a nation of 325 million. How many of us are neo-Nazi, KKK, Antifa or any other dreadful group? Maybe, in all, a million at most? It’s not much. They’re way outnumbered! You can lose this knowledge watching the news.
We are a great people in a nation founded on great beliefs, and though things are troubled at the very top, in Washington, on the levels below and beyond we tend to hash things out and make it all work.
* * *
And now, here, the dread political part.
Maintaining perspective is going to be useful in the future, because our national politics, the news of which pulses nonstop through our many platforms, is probably not going to get better anytime soon.
We are in a place we’ve never been. No matter how politically sophisticated you are, you’ve never been to this particular rodeo.
We have a president half the country thinks is crazy, insufficient, not up to the job, unsuited for it by temperament, personality or character. But there’s about a third of the country, among whom are some I love, that passionately supports Donald Trump, has faith in him, sees all the forces arrayed against him and pulls for him in the way an American roots for the little guy. If they see him removed and believe it was done unjustly—the swamp strikes back—they will be left embittered and will lose faith in the entire system.
This on its own is quite a division. It speaks of basic human perception.
Congress will soon be back and is unlikely to get anything major done—not tax reform or infrastructure. The president deliberately insults and offends members of his own party. He thinks his core supporters will agree with his criticisms and blame congressional Republicans for what’s not working. And he’s right, they will. They don’t like the Republican establishment. But this is not a winning strategy.
Mr. Trump has simply replaced the old dysfunction (the one that got him elected) with a new dysfunction of his own making. If Republicans on Capitol Hill get nothing done and continue to be attacked by their party’s president, their reelection will be endangered. Mr. Trump may be ensuring that Democrats retake Congress in 2018.
Does he understand that the first thing they’ll do when they assume power is launch investigations and move to impeach him?
They’ll do it for at least two reasons. One is that hating Mr. Trump is one of the few things that unites their party. The other is that busying themselves with impeachment will allow Democratic leaders to avoid hard fights over what their own party stands for. For it too is warring and riven. But Democrats don’t have to face that while they’re busy with the Trump Removal.
Quieting himself now would be wise. But he likely won’t or can’t. If Mr. Trump continues to be unable to get major legislation passed with a Republican Congress, he will become angrier. He’ll hold more rallies to vent. These rallies and what he says at them may well contribute to disruptions, including in the streets.
So we’re all stuck.
What will resolve this? I think a lot of a quote often attributed to Harold MacMillan about what dictates political fortunes: “Events, dear boy, events.”
Maybe the special prosecutor will find impeachable offenses. Maybe not. Maybe Mr. Trump will get tired of it all. Maybe not. Maybe he will magically learn how to be president. Maybe not.
More likely, the grinding, scalding Trump wars will continue daily. Which will be hard on all of us.
What to do when the mess gets you low? One thing is to have perspective on who we are. We have gotten through much. We’ll get through this. We are a great people and a good one who show this to one another every day. Here, take my glasses. Do you see?
QUESTIONS
Write between 200 and 400 words, addressing some of these questions. Answer in complete sentences, please. The questions meant to inspire you:
- What is the ambition here…what is Peggy Noonan trying to do?
- If you were Noonan’s editor, what would you change?
- What do you think of the content, the substance and the argument being made? What is the writer saying?
- Do you agree with what she is saying? Why or why not?
- How would you describe the voice that Noonan uses here?
Eclipse, New York, Trump, impeachment, what…? Peggy Noonan’s article is quite interesting, to say the least. As she writes about the eclipse, it is one part of writing and as she writes about the political situation – it is completely different, unattached, part of her writing.
If I was Noonan’s editor, she would probably hate me. I can’t say that I am a fan of her choices made in this article. While this is ultimately a political inspired work and it does a fine job doing what it was designed to do, the first half of the story can, and should, be condensed and compressed to at most the three paragraphs in length. It would definitely convey the same message but it would be the less watered-down version of the story of her long odyssey through the Manhattan on the day the sun eclipsed. She introduces characters that are less than relevant to the main point of the story while we, the readers, are trying to immerse ourselves into the world she is creating and describing. Just as we start to visualize the beautiful day she has spent in the Manhattan looking at the sun eclipse with all the different people and experiences, Peggy Noonan pivots and takes us to the political agenda she wants to introduce to us.
And as we journey into the second part, Peggy completely changes her voice in her narrative. In the second part she distinctly using her gloomy, or the “dreaded political” voice. This voice is drastically different from the happy, upbeat voice she used to describe her experiences while bonding with strangers during the eclipse of the sun. This is where the article starts to shine, in my opinion. Peggy Noonan masterfully takes us on the overview of how divided we, as a country, are right now. And the division right down the middle means we are stuck. Stuck politically with no end in sight as long as Mr. Trump is in the president’s seat. Peggy uses her gloomy voice to point out that even the Democratic Party is so busy with the Mr. Trump’s removal that they forget everything else that might hurt the Party in the future.
And then we come to the last paragraph. Peggy’s offer of the glasses to her readers is a beautiful reference to the first part, where she did talk about the regular people and the way we persevere all political troubles to carry on with our lives. So now the first part makes sense, even though it looked like a non sequitur, a total meaningless insert. Even if it could have been a few paragraphs shorter.
I liked how speedily you responded to this one, and what you said. You got at how much she was trying to do in one essay.
Peggy Noonan is trying to convey her message. She’s trying to display that we will pass through the horrific reign of Donald Trump, the president of the United States. The nightmare will be over soon. She uses the story, in the beginning, to display that we humans are actually united. It may not seem like it most of the time but in times of peril, we become closer than ever.
If I was Noonan’s editor, I would change her transition to a very beautiful scene to politics. It’s a very harsh transition. I would elaborate more on the relationship between how close people are and politics. Not only that but I would take out the line, “and now, here, the dread political part”. I don’t think it’s a necessary line due to the fact that all she talks about is the beauty of people coming together and how we can unite to go against one force.
The writer is saying that no matter how a situation may be, it’ll never overcome the great nation with 325 million people. The argument being made it does not matter how bad our political situation gets, we still have each other.
I most certainly agree with what Noonan is fighting for because, in times of need, our humane side comes out in all of us. For example, not too long ago a girl got run over in the city. The car halted and one guy dropped to the floor to check on her. In a matter of seconds, 30 people came running to the car and managed to pull her out and get her medical assistance.
A very relatable voice is used by Noonan. Her piece is compelling because its a very rare sight to see, so many people just enjoying others company especially in New York City. Her piece was meant to make people see another side to humanity.
You totally engaged with this piece. Well done.
What Peggy Noonan is trying to convey to us is that America is only great when united. It was the founding fathers intention to include discourse when selecting a president to run the country. This article is not intended to bash Donald Trump the way The Wall Street Journal is used to doing but instead, the consequences of not having faith in the system. If the people of the U.S. are too busy complaining and fighting amongst one another, they will miss their opportunity to have a proper discussion about the next election.
I think this is quite a well written piece, the only thing I would change as her editor, is where she mentions Nazis, KKK, etc. From such a positive and encouraging message in the first part, there is no need to create such a negative image in the reader’s mind. I see the intention of creating a juxtaposition, but i do not think that is the best way to do so. Maybe instead I would put forth the idea of the ideal situation for america.
The content in my opinion is not necessarily drawn out, however the message is great. I like her style of writing that creates a sense of unity in the first part of the peace. But she breaks her own argument by separating Americans, into Liberals and Republicans. I agree with Ms. Noonan to a large extent, especially about giving Mr. Trump a chance in office before removing him from presidency before his term is over. As Trump was elected by the American people, even though he did not win the popular vote. By attempting to remove him(which failed) the American people will lose faith in the system.
I think it’s well-written too!
Peggy Noonan attempted to take her readers out of the fishbowl, to give us the ability to view what’s going on in a reflective way. When you take yourself out of the picture and just observe you are given a new view. This is what Noonan experiences during the eclipse, she observes the way people got together despite their race, or age, she saw people be just people, just Americans.
At first I was confused after the transition from eclipses to Donald Trump, but as you read you become more aware of Noonan’s choices, especially after reading her last sentences. If I was her editor I would give her a pat on the back and maybe a thumbs up. I like the way she found a connection between looking at eclipses and observing the political state of the United States. She took apples and oranges and found similarities.
Noonan is trying to show us that we have a natural ability to come together during hard or unnatural times. People were able to look over their external differences during the eclipse, and came together to share the experience. Noonan says that we should do the same during Trump’s presidency. We as Americans should look over our political differences and endure this moment together, which is mirrored in her saying, “We’ll get through this”. She doesn’t say “me” or “you” or “Democrats” or whatever, she says “we” because despite all our differences in the end we are just human.
Peggy Noonan uses a reflective voice to convey her message. I also believe that in addition to using the eclipse to show us how people can come together, she is trying to show us that Trump is an eclipse as well. His presidency, like the eclipse, will come and go. Her reflective voice makes you realize that this is temporary, and that we have been through worse as humankind, and because we have survived those events, we will survive this together too.
Peggy Noonan’s piece, “For a Day, Our Political Troubles Were Eclipsed”, paints a vivid picture of the New York City street, I can see the exact street she is talking about because I know it well– the Upper East Side. As a reader from New York, I read this piece through that lense and so will most of the audience that reads it being published in The Wall Street Journal. That is a big factor in what makes this powerful. I enjoyed reading the descriptive interactions Noonan talks about because it allowed me to travel through her piece.
However, she lost me when she segwayed into politics. This is not because I don’t have interest in politics, but in some parts, she was so cut and dry, matter of fact, it felt forced and definitely didn’t match the tone of the beginning of the piece. The lack of flowery language left the two parts of the piece juxtaposed against each other that isn’t very effective. She doesn’t lose my attention entirely however because she reports back to a casual warm tone from time to time.
She wraps it up in a brilliant way with the last sentence, “Here take my glasses, do you see?” tying back to the initial antidote of the story. I just wish she expressed the middle of the political section in a clearer, easy to follow way, when she talks about Trump replacing dysfunction with a new one, I was unsure on what she was really referring to. Noonan also is trying to use her antidote to prove her claim that as a country, we are a good people but I am not really convinced by that just from her observation on Madison Ave, I may be critiquing too heavily but this piece is not in a vacuum, it is very much influenced by the environment is was created in. It is all about current events! When reading this with prior knowledge about the injustices that happen in this country, it isn’t so convincing that everyone can rejoice together and sing “kumbaya”. I think she could have made her argument stronger but I appreciate a lot of her descriptive work and love the last sentence.
In this article, Peggy Noonan is trying to emphasize how a single natural phenomena made the people that were there to be kind and gentle to each others, despite their race, age or gender. The author sustain that he is amazed by the beauty of the eclipse and If those are the consequences, things like this should happen more frequently. The author tells us how good it feels when people are nice to you. This should be the normality and I really like when the author says “they were who we are”, people should always act nicely and kindly. Unfortunately, we live in a society that nowadays is constructed above other values that are futile and this obscure what should be the real values. If I was Noonan’s editor, I would not change anything. I personally think that her work in this article is amazing because she is capable of introducing a specific political problem that United States is going through by first talking about a natural event. She uses the eclipse as a metaphor to indicate that under certain situations, “we” as the American population, should stay united and together we have to try to go through this critical political moment.
Peggy Noonan speaks about two contrasting situations to allude to a possible solution to the negative one. She speaks about the natural unity and kindness that she witnessed at Madison avenue to show us that we are capable of overcoming difficulties and resolving anything. She then speak about political issues as it relates to the two major parties of the United States. She attempts to show us that we can fix this situation through unity, because it is in our nature to do so.
If I was Noonan’s editor I would restrain from using the word “normal” to compare the attitudes of the people on Madison avenue with the other people who were fighting and so on. What does it mean to be normal? Noonan implies that the word “normal” means to be happy, kind and friendly. This is wrongly used because it is “normal” for everyone to be angry, sad, happy, annoyed etc. Normal doesn’t always mean something positive.
I think that what Noonan is trying to bring across is that the good will always outnumber the bad. Hence, we can always rely on each other to get through problems like political issues. This piece is beautifully articulated in my opinion. It is creative how Noonan first grabs our attention with a scene at Madison avenue then jumps into political issues that seemingly had nothing to do with the first section of the piece. However, throughout the second piece we are able to see how both pieces relate to each other.
I see eye to eye with what Noonan is saying, because I think much of the issues we face has a lot to do with division. For example, slavery was a major issue in the past because there were divisions among the races. Once the races began to unite, there was eventually an end to slavery. Though we may not always agree with the same things, I think that unity is vital for any form of progression to take place.
Noonan uses an optimistic and encouraging voice in this piece. Throughout the piece you are able to decipher that she is confident in herself and all of us because she believes that regardless of the situation which may arise, we are capable of getting through it. By expressing such confidence in humanity, it encourages the reader in to live by what she is preaching.
If I was Noonan’s editor, it’d be much easier for me to rewrite the text completely instead of trying to make corrections here and there. Although the text itself has some good underlying intention of uniting people during a difficult time of a divided society, it is realized quite poorly and there are many things wrong with this article.
First of all, the main idea of this text, as I see it, is to resolve a deep social conflict of people being divided into two camps and hating each other just for one’s beliefs or political affiliation. Undoubtedly, this problem is very serious and people shouldn’t go to such extremes, blindly trusting either republican or democratic media sources. Such an attempt to unite people was made in this text, however, even the author herself couldn’t resist expressing her own political views. She should not have expressed her beliefs through sentences like “Maybe he [Trump] will magically learn how to be president” or “More likely, the grinding, scalding Trump wars will continue daily. Which will be hard on all of us.” Regardless of whether she or her auditory are affiliated with the left or right party, this evil sarcasm and obvious expression of one’s viewpoint definitely does not help to develop the idea of a need to unite.
Secondly, I do not agree with the style and word choice being used in this text. Although I don’t know much about this particular media source, I expect “The Wall Street Journal” to be slightly more serious than High School student’s essay turned in a few minutes before it is due. I never did my research about the Journal’s main auditory but, judging from its name, I expect its articles to be targeted towards more serious and mature readers by providing neutral, unbiased information and building solidly justified arguments. Of course, being close to average New Yorker is important but you have to know certain limits when it comes to composing your text.
Overall, I’m unsatisfied with the proposed text and further expression of my discontent will take slightly more than a 400-word limit. I was also quite surprised to have this article as one of my assignments and I hope to see more neutral, non-political texts written by mature and well-known authors in the future.
After reading the article assigned I believe the ambition here is to show how despite the turmoil stemming from political views and Mr. Trump being our President, people still had ways to come together and find happiness and joy in something exciting, such as a Solar Eclipse. I believe the writer, Peggy Noonan, is trying show us how special events can bring all different types of people together. These are ways to distract us from the realities of our day to day and what is actually going on in our land. Noonan is very descriptive and informative as to what is happening around her in our great city of New York. All different manners of people were intrigued by the eclipse, ranging from children to adults to even workers around Madison Avenue and E 77th St. She used three distinct words to describe what she saw “sharing”, “wonder”, and “friendliness”. Overall she is referring to the goodness in people despite the joke that is the, audacious Trump administration country we call home.
The content I believe, is the showing of human decency and the aptitude to be gracious. There is an excerpt in the reading where a man decides to share the glasses he got for free asking if others would like to watch the eclipse. This is a good example of a gracious human being. The substance of this reading is more or less how the good will out weigh the bad. Despite the many people who support Trump, the number of those against him, greatly outweigh those for him and do they’re best to not let his ways deter them from their pursuit of happiness. The argument being made is seen all through out the reading, that Trump and his administration are just awful. Hearing about him or his administration on the news can be disheartening. It is a time in American history that most of us wish we didn’t have to experience, which is saying something with our nation’s dark past but unfortunately this is the reality we have to live with.
I strongly agree with Ms. Noonan in what she is saying in this piece. I believe in times when things may not be so bright it is always good to find way to keep ourselves uplifted. This doesn’t just have to pertain to an event such as Eclipse day. It can also be just spending time with family, going to the movies, going on a vacation, playing sports, working out, playing videos, and the list goes on. I am a strong believer that Trump and his administration are not good for our country. Ever since he has been in the office a lot of things have come to light which are quite embarrassing our country instead of being a solid figure. His presidency has brought back a lot of racism and discrimination against minorities. It has made those who have a lot of hate in their heart feel brave enough to speak out and at times act on it.
The voice of this piece comes off as someone who seems happy and in awe of the versatility of humans, but then sounds down in the dumps when touching base on Trump and his administration. At the same time she attempts to sound hopeful that he be found guilty of any offenses that can get him impeached. She ends the piece by saying “One thing is to have a perspective on who we are. We have gotten through much. We’ll get through this. We are great people and a good one who show this one another every day.” Simply put we have been through worst we can get through this as well.
You are so right that lessons go beyond that one day…
Peggy Noonan has done a wonderful job with this piece. She was able to make us feel like one of the observers during the eclipse and then she effortlessly switched our attention to the political crisis in the United States. Many may argue that it feels like she combined two different stories in one and her ideas seemed to be scattered all over the place, like she wasn’t sure which story to talk about. However, her last sentence “Here, take my glasses. Do you see?” proved this wrong. It creates a bridge between her two main ideas and wraps up smoothly the story. Furthemore, she quoted what other peopled said during the event making it seem more real. If I was her editor, I would have congratulated her. However, I feel like giving the name of each streets can become repetitive. I get the fact that she was trying to give more details to the readers, however instead of naming the streets she could have described something particular about the places. This way, the reader will feel a sense of familiarity and be more immersed in the story this way.
Noonan highlights various topics. The first one is how easily it is for us to focus on negative aspects in our society. But who can blame us when the press is continuously bombarding us with devastating news each passing day? To remind us that we aren’t living in the apocalypse, she portrays a night where people from diverse backgrounds gathered in the streets to stare in awe at an eclipse. People were overflowing with joy to the point where they wanted to share their happiness with others by simply sharing their glasses. She encourages us to pay attention to the people willing to love rather than wasting our time discussing about a small minority, blinded by their hate, who prefers to wreak havoc.
Moreover, she discusses the ongoing tension between the Democrats and the Republicans. After Trump’s election as the president, there has been many protests against his reign. As soon as Trump jumps on Twitter to post “#FakeNews”, his die-hards are ready to support all his arguments, even when he has numerously proven to be unfit for his position by promoting violence and hate speech. At the end of her piece, Noonan is left with unanswered questions about the future of both parties and the fate of our beloved president. Since this piece was written three years ago, it’s actually nice to have an answer to her questions. However, it’s pointless to lose sleep on situations we have no control over. We should focus on spreading love in our community.
Reading Response #3
Peggy Noonan paints a vivid picture of what’s happening during the Solar Eclipse. There are people everywhere from midtown to uptown Manhattan sharing googles and having a good ole time regardless of race, gender, or age. The unity of these people during a once in a lifetime opportunity shows the beauty of the American people and portrays the unity with which this country was founded. Peggy then goes on to talk about politics in this piece. I believe she’s trying to juxtapose the two events, being Trump’s presidency and the Eclipse. Similar to the eclipse, Trumps presidency will come and go. I agree with what Noonan is saying because all nightmares eventually come to an end. Her voice in this piece is optimistic as she believes we can get through this presidency if we remain united as a people as opposed to falling apart like the Republican and Democratic parties. If I was Noonan’s editor I would change the transition between topics. It’s relatable, but I believe it isn’t smooth enough. However, I did like the way she ended the piece with the use of circular writing. It allows the reader to not only envision the eclipse, but also see that Trump’s presidency isn’t so bad as eventually it will come to an end.
Peggy Noonan uses her stories as a weapon to give us a strong message that no matter how bad the circumstance become, if there is unity, we will always find a way out of it. Here the first story of her reflects a story where the kindness and unity of diverse group of people mesmerizes her. She uses this story as a possible solution to the second story where she writes about the “dreadful political” situation under President Donald Trump. It is the unity of us that can help us overcome the situation. I completely agree with her view in this case since I also believe that unity plays a vital role in overcoming any crisis.
These stories are really well written but if I had to change anything, I would change how the President was portrayed in the second story. I would have told the story in a much lenient way other than attacking the President. I don’t agree with her when she wrote “Mr. Trump may be ensuring that Democrats retake Congress in 2018.” No one would want the opposition to take hold of power.
I love the ending of this piece “Here, take my glasses. Do you see?”. This links up both the stories as in the first case she was offered to see the eclipse with someone’s glass and in the second one she is asking us to do so to see the issue how she sees it to be.
I rarely ever stumble upon writings that grasp my attention in the first few sentences, and this was one of them. The way she paints the picture of a New York street brought me into the moment as if I were a third person viewing that crowd, an art most people fail to achieve. Through this one scenario, she shows us the value of these occasions and how they bring people together. Proving that despite their impolite reputation of these people New Yorkers tend to have a soft corner to share love and joy in moments of happiness. “Here, take my glasses. Do you see? ” says a lot more about New Yorkers then a simple act of courtesy.
In the first part of the writing, she had me in her grasp. However, moving on she sways in her way into politics. That was where my opinion about this piece shifted. I can blame that on my lack of interest in politics, but it was not only that. Her tone had changed. From something joyful to a less capturing subject, that is, of course, my opinion. She definitely touches matters of importance in her piece, but I feel like, being put in her shoes, I would try maintaining the environment that brought me into this reading, instead of me wanting to skim through it.
Something that fascinated me was how she wrapped up her writing. She refers to the earlier established concept and puts it to use in a completely different context. Yes, though the ” political talk” made me lose my attention, making me feel lost and out of it, her last words pushed me back into what she was trying to say. She does an excellent effort of showing different perspectives.
Her piece holds the potential of grasping your attention and bringing you towards a matter most reader, as of myself, would not go out of their way for, which seems to be noteworthy.
Journalist, Peggy Noonan, published a piece entitled “For a Day, Our Political Troubles Were Eclipsed” in the Wall Street Journal. There are numerous things she could have done differently. She attempted to connect an astronomical event to what is going on in the political world which honestly lost me as a reader. She went too deep with her tangent and the change between the two topics was drastic. One minute I was reading about how various New Yorkers from all walks of life were coming together to view the eclipse while helping each other out. The next minute she went insanely in-depth into the political world while also offering her biased opinion and on the multitude of topics she brought up. I would honestly have left out the whole political tangent she went off on and focused on issues affecting humanity globally. Instead of just jumping off the deep end into her perspective of politics, she could have discussed other topics plaguing the nation. She went into details about all the things that would happen to Trump, saying how he is going to be impeached the minute Democrats retake congress in 2018. These couple of sentences didn’t add any beneficial value to her paper other than just offering her opinion yet again. Noonan then goes even further to provide her reasoning why she believed the Democrats would go after Trump with the end goal of impeaching him. She also went into excessive irrelevant details at the beginning, instead of describing every scene she witnessed that morning, she could have narrowed it down to a select few and her point still would have made it across to the audience. She attempts to use a motivational voice to inform the audience that we will get through this political climate as a community.
This piece was an absolute pleasure to read. Peggy starts with an example of human unity. People working together and being nice to everybody, without meaning to get something out of it. Not excluding anyone of any gender, race, creed, or belief. As it is what I assume was a solar eclipse, this attitude manifested in everyone sharing their glasses so that others could enjoy this rarity too. People give because they want others to be happy. If I understood it correctly even a tough biker was giving out free glasses. Because he had gotten them for free and then decided to pass down the good deed. I think that is how we should work as a society, do good for the sake of it. Not because we are forced to. When we are forced that good can come off as something much worse and just hurts everyone. Then unfortunately this piece turns to politics. But honestly, this one was a breath of fresh air. Continuing to appreciate people for who they are and not their appearance the writer does not criticize people just for their beliefs. But instead explains why they believe what they do. In this day and age we do too much talking and not enough listening. We never try to understand the point that others are making, just trying to put our own out there. Because of that we never find solutions. After all how can you fix something when you don’t know what is wrong in the first place?
Peggy starts off with idea of unison. Although, in a massive city with enormous amounts of people, the sense of togetherness was something that really moved Peggy. No matter what town you were from, or what the color of your skin looked like all people seemed to exist in harmony. It does not take a war, or virus to break out in order for people to come together, just a good old solar eclipse. With smiles on their face men and women gave out glasses in order to share in the amazing experience. No one had alternative motives just do good for the sake of doing good. If we can somehow take this day and translate into a week and then that into a month and so on, the world would be a better place.
I do like this piece immensely, but do feel she could have left her opinion out of it a little. She started off so well, yet as you near the end she brings in her political views. Even though I mostly agree with her, I do feel this piece does not necessarily need this added. She is attempting to draw correlations where maybe she should just take it for what it is.
The ambition Peggy Noonan is trying to bring here is that we as Americans are good people based based on good values and good beliefs. We aren’t racist or Anti-Semitic like the media can portray, but we have a president that can come off that way.
If I were Noonan’s editor I would like to emphasize more on the fact that the media is the one that portrays Americans a way that we are not. She talks about it a bit earlier in the reading, but I feel that it should be emphasized more as it is such an important topic that I very strongly agree with. If I was the editor I would also try to make it more clear of how the two pieces, the story with glasses and Trump, connect. She sort of takes a nice anecdote that takes about Americans in a positive light, and turns it into something political and how Trump isn’t fit to be president. It comes in very forced and doesn’t flow as a piece altogether.
As far as the content, it’s very good but the argument of how Trump is not fit to be president and the anecdote, don’t necessarily connect. I understand that she is saying “here take my glasses, do you see?” so that we can see her point of view, but I don’t think the argument about Trump is fit for this anecdote. I agree with the fact that the media portrays Americans in a negative light with thing such as the KKK and that in reality Americans aren’t like that, and I agree with some of her arguments that Trump sort of throws a tantrum and takes bad a political rallies, but I feel that they are overly exaggerated and taken out of proportion.
The voice that Noonan uses is a voice that people can relate to. Her anecdote is one that most Americans can relate with, and it exposes a light of Americans that is hard to find.
Peggy Noonan tries to remind readers that us as Americans — or more so as humans — are unified; we just have to reignite the bond because it has deteriorated over the years. Noonan begins the article with a humane experience she had in New York City. People were all watching the eclipse through a pair of with glasses everyone was sharing with each other. It was a beautiful moment in which New York Citizens — from all backgrounds, jobs, races, sizes, ages — were valuing nature, together. She goes on to talk about political tensions in the United States regarding newly president elect, Donald Trump, and the effects its had on the American people’s unity.
Though the two topics may not exactly correlate, they are good for a comparison to demonstrate the true nature of humans. Because of the political divide in America, we are now focusing on our political beliefs and letting it overcome us. Americans have a feeling of distrust between their closest friends, neighbors, or strangers who support Donald Trump. When some Americans think of Trump, they think of xenophobia, racism, sexism, tyranny, hate. And although this may be true of some Trump supporters, not all of them are evil and close-minded. Noonan says we need to hear out other people (the “good” Trump supporters) and address their concerns – because they are just as important as anti-Trump Americans’ concerns.
Noonan is trying to express a point about the functioning of society. If we are to share one nation and entrust our lives into a Democratic government, we must be able to endure the consequences when the same form of government doesn’t shift in our favor. We must find ways to maintain our bond to live with happiness and cooperation – like sharing a pair of glasses to view the centennial eclipse.
Additionally, Noonan purposely formatted her writing with short sentences and small paragraphs to maintain the reader’s attention and allow emphasis on certain words or sentences. She transitions smoothly between topics.
Noonan is employing a common trope in this passage, something along the lines of, “even though we’re divided on politics, we’re still united in other ways, and look out for each other…”. She paints a picturesque scene of people coming together in wonderment and awe to witness something special, and there’s no animosity or division to be seen. The display of generosity and kindness warms her heart, and she sees the similarities between people rather than differences. What surprises her is how all this harmony and cooperation can coexist with the hyper-partisan state of American politics. This polarization is now more pronounced than ever, with equal parts of the country either absolutely despising trump or absolutely adoring him. In the end, as she implies, they’re all Americans, and that shared identity binds them together in the face of all this adversity.
She uses this comparison a means of dulling the edge of the despair that the next half of this passage evokes. She goes on to describe just how divided America actually is. Despite aiming to take a somewhat impartial view on things, she is woefully incapable of hiding her bias against Trump. Additionally, I failed to see a point to her section on politics. She just outlines everything she sees wrong with the current administration, and gives a brief warning about how things will only get worse, while failing to give constructive advice on what she thinks should be done.
If I were her editor, I would’ve pointed out her glaringly obvious cognitive dissonance. In the beginning, she describes to us how the mainstream media tends to blow things out of proportion, and then goes on to do the very same thing herself. The rosy picture of happy American life she paints in the first part is inconsistent with the dystopian, hopeless America she describes below.
“No matter how politically sophisticated you are, you’ve never been to this particular rodeo”, she says, implying that America is in a somewhat uniquely dangerous political situation, whereas that is just not true. Political division always has and always will continue to exist; left-wing and right-wing political groups will always be at each other’s throats. With the Brexit situation in the UK, they’re not particularly any less divided than we are, just to give an example.