On the Right

New York, Dec. 21—There are dividends in this business, as witness that I have recently been prayed over—that the Lord should “forgive” me. For what? (I mean, beyond my workaday capitulation to the seven cardinal vices?) For my indifference to pain and suffering. The circumstances were an Equal Opportunity Day dinner given by the National Urban League in New York. The National Urban League is headed by Mr. Vernon Jordan, and the prayer offered by the Reverend Charles Cobb (“May God forgive William F. Buckley, who lives in an academic ivory tower, away from the pain and suffering”) was in retaliation against a column that appeared in this space making the point that Mr. Jordan is unwise in committing the black community to a set of social programs which ought not to be labeled as “black” any more than, say, Social Security should be labeled as a “white” program.

Mr. Vernon Jordan, who is bright and quick-witted, has renewed hostilities by sending out his own column in which, however amiably, he returns my compliment (I called him the leading spokesman for the black community) by calling me the spokesman “for the kind of conservative thinking that went out with the demise of Louis XVI,” though the conservative thinking with which I associate myself is of the same kind as that of the last two guys (Professors Hayek and Friedman) who got Nobel Prizes for economics.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

New York, Dec. 21—There are dividends in this business, as witness that I have recently been prayed over—that the Lord should “forgive” me. For what? (I mean, beyond my workaday capitulation to the seven cardinal vices?) For my indifference to pain and suffering. The circumstances were an Equal Opportunity Day dinner given by the National Urban League in New York. The National Urban League is headed by Mr. Vernon Jordan, and the prayer offered by the Reverend Charles Cobb (“May God forgive William F. Buckley, who lives in an academic ivory tower, away from the pain and suffering”) was in retaliation against a column that appeared in this space making the point that Mr. Jordan is unwise in committing the black community to a set of social programs which ought not to be labeled as “black” any more than, say, Social Security should be labeled as a “white” program.

Mr. Vernon Jordan, who is bright and quick-witted, has renewed hostilities by sending out his own column in which, however amiably, he returns my compliment (I called him the leading spokesman for the black community) by calling me the spokesman “for the kind of conservative thinking that went out with the demise of Louis XVI,” though the conservative thinking with which I associate myself is of the same kind as that of the last two guys (Professors Hayek and Friedman) who got Nobel Prizes for economics.