Newtown and Christmas Bells

From a friend I was reminded of Longfellow's "Christmas Bells."  The second of the three stanzas below contains what many of us must feel this day after the terrible violence in Newtown, CT.  And we await for our neighbors and ourselves the feelings of the third stanza.  Our waiting must be active and not passive.  We have much to do to with regard to finding new ways to deal with the violence in our culture that interrupts like an earthquake even those places that seem so tranquil.

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."

"Christmas Bells," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow