FOR TOO MANY, this holiday season will be remembered as something shot of merry. The economy is bad, the wars continue.
Too many food banks are scrambling to gather food to share with the needy. Too many American families are depending on food banks to put meals on the table.
And then, of course, there are the families who no longer have a table to put a meal on. The collapse of the housing bubble and an epidemic of job layoffs have led to foreclosures. Some families are winding up on the streets. Their dearest Christmas wish is for simple shelter.
The state of the nation is frightening and frightened.
There have been such Christmases before, and not that long ago.
For almost a decade during the Great Depression, many Americans lived from job to job and meal to meal, always a few dollars away from utter poverty.
The Depression ended, replaced by world war, and Christmas remained a time of uncertainty for most and — for some — loss.
But even in those dark times, hope was always in season. One Dec. 24, 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt made his Christmas Eve radio address to the nation. He took stock of a year of loss and victory and looked ahead to better times. He closed the broadcast with a prayer:
On behalf of the American people — your own people — I send this Christmas message to you, to you who are in our armed forces:
In our hearts are prayers for you and for all your comrades in arms, who fight to rid the world of evil.
We ask God’s blessing upon you — upon your fathers and mothers and wives and children — all your loved ones at home. We ask that the comfort of God’s grace shall be granted to those who are sick and wounded, and to those who are prisoners of war in the hands of the enemy, waiting for the day when they will again be free.
And we ask that God receive and cherish those who have given their lives, and that he keep them in honor and in the grateful memory of their countrymen forever.
God bless all of you who fight our battles on this Christmas Eve.
God bless us all. God keep us strong in our faith that we fight for a better day for humankind — here and everywhere.
It was a good prayer for a dark Christmas and it is still a good prayer.
The economy is bad, but it will get better. Our soldiers are at war, but we will have peace again.
Christmas is not the season of sugarplums and presents, but the season of hope. It is not a holiday from fear, but a time to confront fear and drive it back into the shadows.
We are all in this together and, as Tiny Tim said, “God bless us, every one.”
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor
Happiness09 (anonymous) says...
Observation: That was quite a shot below the belt you took there. I am ASSUMING that you realize "shot of merry" was meant to be "shoRt of merry". The article was beautifully written and touched my heart.
December 26, 2008 at 2:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )