Vox Pop - All I want for Christmas is Peace on Earth and good grammar
Vox Pop
Dear Editor, or Whom it May Concern: Once again I am enclosing my yearly subscription fee for our weekly hometown paper. My dear wife puts it first on her “wish-list” each year, even though The Star News arrives here in Ohio a week after its publishing date. I felt led to address a couple of issues that concern me about the last couple of issues. First and foremost, your editorial approach to Christmas. “Be a Light,” you say. That is well and good, IF you are reflecting the ultimate Source of light, the Person without Whom the holiday would not exist, except in some pagan, Druid, or vague Festivistic sense. The Apostle John, the sole survivor of the A-team, wrote in his account of Jesus’ life, that the Messiah was, and is, the Light of the World. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” Our world today is shrouded in darkness, the darkness of violence, war, willful ignorance, and hate. I agree with Mr. Wilson, but I cannot “Be the Light”, unless I “Know the Light”; i.e., the One Who said “I AM the (only) Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me.”
Our Savior told his disciples (and all who call themselves Christians) “You are the light of the world.” Don’t hide it under a bushel basket, but “Go, tell it on a mountain”, not just that the Christ was born, but that He grew up, lived a perfect sinless life, and died on a Roman cross to defeat sin and death. Also that He’s coming back to take His Bride (the Church) to be with Him eternally. This is the light of the Gospel, the Good News, the glad tidings of great joy” that the shepherds heard and shared.
H.W. Longfellow, that great American poet, wrote the song “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”, in 1863, in a very dark era of American history, in the face of national and personal tragedy. “There is no peace on earth,” he wrote, “the hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men.” But then he was inspired by the sound of those bells, and concluded his poem by writing “God is not dead, nor does He sleep; the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.” I believe he realized, that for those on whom God’s favor rests, there is indeed abundant grace and mercy in time of need, and that the Prince of Peace “has overcome the world”, in spite of all the many “dangers, toils, and snares” that beset us. And so He tells us “Be of Good Cheer!” We have His Word: “He ever lives to make intercession for us.”
Best wishes for a blessed Christmas, and a prosperous New Year!
— Phil and Kristin Tice, Springfield, Ohio P.S. As far as good grammar goes, I have to mention two things. My 5th grade teacher at Holy Rosary (Mrs. Kress) would take serious issue with your use of the verb “lay.” I constantly read about people and things “laying” on the ground or in the road. My question is always “What were they laying? Bricks? Eggs?” Perhaps they are “laying themselves” in the road? Please be specific. Also on page 4 of the Dec.7 issue, you speak of a Commission “putting the breaks” on something. That sounds painful! It certainly hurt my old eyes/ears. Don’t they teach these things in school anymore? Perhaps the robots will do a better job.
