Flannery O'Connor Country [Peggy Noonan]

Opinion Journal ^ | March 17, 2005 | Peggy Noonan

[Irish Rose]

Flannery O'Connor Country The amazing story of how Ashley Smith stopped Brian Nichols's killing spree.

Thursday, March 17, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

Ashley Smith and Brian Nichols were together for seven hours. This is Nichols's mug shot. This is Nichols's face after he gave himself up to police Saturday.

Something changed.

Something happened.

This is from the transcript of Ashley Smith's testimony when she met with reporters in her lawyer's office on Sunday, March 13:

It was about 2 o'clock in the morning...

[Irish Rose]

This is quite a story; I hadn't heard it before. I haven't been following the Brian Nichols story closely, so I don't know how widely it's been reported.

[sailor4321]

A wonderful column. However, it is clear Ms. Noonan either has not read or has forgotten Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find"...

[beckett]

...so I don't know how widely it's been reported.

Very widely. The same transcript Noonan reproduced was posted all around the net, including here on FR, on the day the drama ended.

Ex-Hostage: "I Wanted to Gain His Trust"

[b9]

You will love this.

[Eagles6]

I'll have to read that one again. Don't have it handy. I'm a fan of Flannery. All in all a good column by Ms. Noonan. All except for the fact that I don't believe it. Not that Ms. Smith is lying, I just believe that nichols is a cowardly, manipulative, sociopath who saw Smith as the only way to save him from meeting the God he so fortuitously found in that apartment.

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

What a pantload. "Something changed. Something happened." Yeah, someone took another photograph from a different angle, in different light, with a different expression on the subject. You can see plenty of examples of this phenomenon in the supermarket checkout aisle. When one of the tabs wants to push a good story, the subject photo looks angelic or attractive, depending on the story angle. If they want to sell a negative story, the cover shot looks like the devil or death warmed over. One of the major weeklies, either Time or Newsweek did the same thing when they "overdarkened" O.J. Simpson's mug shot after his arrest.

No one will ever know what actually happened with Nichols and Smith, but to conjur up such drama queen crap out of a couple of photos is hysterical nonsense. I thought real conservatives eschewed such touchy-feely psychobabble.

[sailor4321]

It is quite clear that you have read "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (and, I suspect there are other, much deeper reasons why you think the way you do). I couldn't agree more with your assessment of why Nichols behaved the way he did.

[nimbysrule]

Flannery O'Connor is my favorite writer. This is frankly an insult to her art and legacy, with not too well hidden Northern contempt for "primitive" Southerners' religiosity.

[nimbysrule]

AGMIHTF is awesome - as are "And the Lame Shall Enter First", "Good County People" and "Revelation." ALL of them!I think I read somewhere that she was conservo, too!

[sailor4321]

She certainly was.

[singletrack]

No doubt your right about him being a scumbag. Still odd he would break into the house of a woman whos husband was murdered 3 yrs earlier.

[goldstategop]

It calls to mind the song, "Tis Amazing Grace." We live in a country in which some people seek to do good even in the unlikeliest of circumstances. We should seek worth in every one and even persuade the wicked to desist from their ways. The presence of God is everywhere.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[goldstategop]

As a real conservative, I do believe faith can touch every heart. We need more of it, not less. Our lives are oft transformed to a Higher Purpose in ways we can't even conceive of yet. In a culture of death, we need to hear the Word Of God as much we can from his humblest servants.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Malesherbes]

Fulton County is not Flannery O'Connor country.

[Quilla]

I love Flannery O'Connor as. Here's a link, junt in case anyone hasn't read A Good Man is Hard to Find. Good Country People is available online as well.

[Trust but Verify]

"A Good Man is Hard to Find"...

This story happens to be part of this weeks assignment for my college english class.

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

REAL faith is just that: real. It saves your soul, not your "heart". It is to be distinguished from "women's intuition" where Peggy Noonan can "feel" something just by looking at a photograph. That is not "the word of God" any more than it is on "Medium". That's fine is she's pitching a spinoff to NBC, "Psychic Pundit". It's not so fine if she expects thinking people to buy this crap.