Thursday, January 15, 2009

Letter from a reader

 hi dr. orly, you are doing a great job and millions of your fellow citizens appreciate it. when i think of what our men and women serving our country in afghanistan, iraq and various other places in our troubled world are doing to preserve our constitution and the freedoms it provides, we all must continue the fight here in the homeland to do as much as we can to do the same. your efforts have been in the category of what some may say are 'beyond the call of duty", but i know, based on your background, you realize the dangers our republic will face if we don't take a stand for what we know is right. it's sad that so many americans have no idea of what is happening to their country. the following quote by abraham lincoln comes to mind as we face these issues and should encourage us to continue to persevere until the truth is found: :"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time". also, i have come to understand not to be outcome based, but rather principles based, which is embedded in rudyard kipling's poem 'if", which i have copied and pasted here: [IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


--Rudyard Kipling


God bless you. bill grantsouth boston, massachusetts