Peggy Noonan, for One, Is Not Offended

Peggy Noonan wonders if there's something wrong with her for not being upset over Jeremiah Wright’s extremist sermons. No, she decides in the Wall Street Journal, she just doesn’t “think his views carry deep implications for our country”—and indeed understands the bitterness, drawing on the experiences of a young Irish-American friend who still likes to sing about rising up against the British.

“He knows the dark days are over,” she says, but wants to declare, "I'm still loyal to our bitterness." So while hate is not a motivating force in malleable and tolerant America, we must accept that some things are “human and messy and warm-blooded,” that “it’s not so bad to take a little free-floating anger, apply it to politics, and express it in applause.” (More Jeremiah Wright stories.)