William F. Buckley: The Passing of a Great Man
Buckley created the modern conservative movement almost ex nihilo.
by Rod D. Martin
February 27, 2008
William F. Buckley's passing today surprised everyone, and greatly saddened millions who have been touched by his life.
Perhaps the greatest sadness in this -- for Buckley is surely with his Lord this day -- is that it is mere millions and not billions who will miss him; for surely the entire world has benefited from his wisdom and tireless advocacy for freedom, the transformative global change his ideas begat, and the spread of a renewed belief in liberty which had been all but exhausted when his work began.
From Prime Ministers to Presidents to a little girl -- my Sherri -- sitting with her daddy watching Firing Line, those indelibly marked by his insight are all around us, in a world far better than that which Whittaker Chambers and Joseph Schumpeter imagined possible, believing in the inevitability of Communism as surely as they passionately promoted a different path. They did not believe their work could bear fruit; but Buckley did, the impetuous yo…