Terry Pearson’s Blog

In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
————————–

I don’t think that there could be any song that is more appropriate this Christmas than “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” For the seventh Christmas in a row, our nation, and the world, is wrapped into a struggle that has forever changed our lives.The fight against the Islamic Jihad, had spread from the Middle East, Somalia, and Indonesia, to New York, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. As our nation reacted to the atrocities at home, we mobilized for war against Al Queda, and those who preached the destruction of the west.

Our soldiers began fighting back the enemies of the free world. Our allies were attacked in Spain, Britain, and more. With courage, we stayed in the fight, knowing that a better world could be made, if we prevail.

After seven Christmases of war, many have given up hope. They have proclaimed that the Wrong have indeed prevailed. Hope has given way to despair. It is easy to believe that there will never be peace again.

It was nearly a century and a half ago that a man, by the name of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, felt as many feel today. He began to write a poem, that would describe his journey from despair to hope.

To understand the context of this poem, you must understand the time and situation of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He was a man with scars on the inside and out.

Just three years before, he had tried to rescue his wife as she burned alive after her dress caught fire by a candle. His face was so charred from the fire, that he could not attend his own wife’s funeral.

At the time of this writing, Longfellow’s own nation was in the midst of the greatest struggle it had ever faced. The civil war was in it’s darkest moments and the states were anything but united. Men fought and killed their own brothers and fathers. The tensions between the north and the south created an emotional chasm that appeared as though it would never be bridged.

Longfellow lived at a time when peace may have been desired, but peace was not visible, not even on the horizon.

In the midst of this dark time, Longfellow cried out in his writing:

“There is no peace on earth, for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men. “

This was in the context of a struggle that looked as though it had no end. Many believed that wrong would prevail, and the the Right would fail. They only saw death in the future. Though they believed their cause was just, they had no faith, because they could see no victory.

Longfellow was then reminded that there is hope. With a burst of the bells he was reminded that

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail With peace on earth, good will to men.”

With those timeless words, came encouragement, not just to Longfellow or the people of his time, but to the entire human race. We are reminded that there will be struggles and we will face circumstances that we see as all but lost, but in the end, the Right will prevail.

Take heart, our struggles here at home, and those of insurmountable proportions around the world, will be victorious. The wrong shall fail, the right will prevail, with the result being peace on earth and good will toward all men!

Merry Christmas!

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound the carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn, the households born
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

This Tom Tancredo video on immigration is eye opening. However, t is amazing that certain members of the media have twisted the words of the ad so much.

On 100.3 KTLK, the morning show host, Langdon Perry, completely misconstrued the message. He said that Tancredo was making a direct link between migrant workers and terrorists. This is not the case at all.

What Tancredo is showing us, is that the immigration issue goes beyond migrant workers. This is a much bigger issue.

His ad basically says that the liberals have distorted the immigration issue, so that it is only about jobs. They have diluted the substance of the argument and spun it to be class warfare (rich vs. poor).

Tancredo is taking back the issue and showing the bigger picture. If any person can get across the border when they are seeking a job, how much more will a terrorist, or person with outside backing, be able to come across the border and wreak havoc in our cities.

Even worse, since we have so many people who come here for pseudo-legitimate reasons, it is difficult for us to stop those who come to bring harm to our country.

Take this analogy…

If you were waiting in line at a popular baseball park or state fair, and all of a sudden, five people jumped the fence to perpetrate some crime in the park. In this case, it would be very easy for the authorities to determine who these people were, and due to their actions, they could assume that the individuals were acting out of malice.

Now assume that you are waiting in line at the same park, but this time, there are no gates. There is simply a sign that reads “Pay Here, but once your inside, you get all the benefits.”

You, being a good citizen, wait in line with hundreds of other people. Meanwhile, thousands of people around the park simply walk in without paying. The authorities would have a very difficult time figuring out who were paying customers and who were not.

But, there is a bigger issue. Remember those five individuals who entered the park to cause malice. They do not want to be recognized by the ticket taker, nor do they want to risk the possibility of someone figuring out their intentions. Therefore, they decide to mix in with the non-paying customers.

The five bad individuals understand that the authorities within the park have no effective means of enforcing their park boundaries and that they have no ability to stop those who do not pay. Furthermore, these five troublemakers can blend in as simply some of the nonpaying park-goers.

Now, if the authorities want to determine if people are trying to sneak in due to malicious intentions, it will be near impossible. The park designers built it in such a way that there is no incentive to be a person who pays before entering.

If word gets around that some people entered the park to commit a crime, the authorities will have to scrutinize many people who are not acting out of malice, just out of self interest. They will waste many hours and resources scrutinizing people that for all intents and purposes, entered the park just to have a good time.

Since the park decided not to address the issue at the root, they will have no way of addressing the issue when it becomes important. By that time, there are too many in the park that have broken smaller rules, and therefore, it will be hard to use the pattern of rule breaking as evidence to find the bad guys.

In the introduction of the dictator of Iran, the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger made it very clear what he thought of this tyrant.