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Weekly Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country
of West Texas
Opinion
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Squarely Pegged
By Peggy McCracken
America the Beastful
or un-united we fall
Last week I wrote about Internet fraud that invades our homes through e-mail and/or surfing the web. It hasn’t taken the place of telemarketers, though, who also pull scams on trusting souls. One lady told me she gave her social security number and other personal information over the phone to someone who claimed to be from her credit card company. That’s a no-no. Never give out personal information to anyone over the phone unless you call them at a number you know belongs to that company.
This morning, I got another email claiming to be a credit union, trying to prevent fraud in my account. Now I don’t use a credit union, so I knew it was a fraud before opening it, but I read it anyway. Then I ran my cursor over the link that said CreditUnionofTexas and read at the bottom of the screen some numbers, like 75.250.11, which I recognize as a computer location where my personal information would actually go. No thanks.
Another of the 61 messages listed by my browser is from the Bank of Texas. And the link actually goes to bankoftexas.com. But I don’t have an account there either, and I doubt such a bank even exists. They wanted personal information “to prevent fraud.” They didn’t get it.
Too much junk in the email box starts the day off all wrong, and a whole lot of it is forwards from family and friends who should know better. I got a forward this morning that has some truth in it, although I am not sure it was written by Judge Roy Moore, who is given the credit. It is entitled “America the Beautiful.” It fits right in with the Internet fraud theme. Though I’m told many of the fraudulent sites are located in other countries.
“American the Beautiful, or so you used to be. Land of the Pilgrims’ pride; I’m glad they’ll never see babies piled in dumpsters, abortion on demand. Oh, sweet land of liberty, your house is on the sand. Our children wander aimlessly, poisoned by cocaine, choosing to indulge their lusts, when God has said abstain.
“From sea to shining sea, our Nation turns away from the teaching of God’s love and a need to always pray. We’ve kept our God in temples, how callous we have grown, when earth is but His footstool, and Heaven is His throne.
‘We’ve voted in a government that’s rotting at the core, appointing Godless Judges who throw reason out the door, too soft to place a killer in a well deserved tomb, but brave enough to kill a babe before he leaves the womb.
‘You think that God’s not angry that our land’s a moral slum? How much longer will He wait before His judgment comes? How are we to face our God from Whom we cannot hide? What then is left for us to do but stem this evil tide?
“If we who are His children will humbly turn and pray, and seek His holy face and mend our evil way, then God will hear from Heaven and forgive us of our sins. He’ll heal our sickly land and those who live within. (2 Chronicles 7:14, paraphrased) But America, the Beautiful, if you don’t - then you will see a sad but Holy God withdraw His hand from thee.”
I know first hand the power of prayer. A year ago I found a huge tumor in my left breast that turned out to be malignant and had spread to my bones. After a mastectomy, I saw an oncologist who predicted I would be dead by November. Many Christians started to pray for me, and when I decided to cooperate, my pain went away and cancer markers in lab tests fell from 852 in September to 78 last week. Hallelujah.
”Use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will still be standing up.” Ephesians 6:11, TLB
EDITOR’S NOTE: Peggy McCracken is Enterprise business manager. Contact her at peg2@pecos.net
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