Posted on 12/21/2007 5:11:00 PM PST by Aristotelian
We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
Dear Editor—
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon 115 West Ninety Fifth Street
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
I love this story and this old editorial... I once saw a biographical clip on Virginia and learned that she attended Columbia Teacher's College, graduating, I think I recall, in 1913... making her a classmate of my grandmother who would have also been in that class. Glad to see the NY Sun back in business and doing well. I sure trust their editors more than the NY Times or WaPo.
Correction... make that the class of 1912.
A reminder that the purpose of life is the discovery of faith.
Who writes like that anymore? I have always loved this piece for it’s beautiful symmetry and the hopeful hearkening back to a simpler time.
I wish I had the name of a writer, journalist or author or whatever. But no one writes like that anymore. :-(
Dear Editor—
I am 21 years old. Some of my neo-con friends say that Jesus Christ existed and is the son of God. My Professor of my "Liberal Open Minded Thinking On Everything The DNC Agrees With", says, "God is a myth and had no son, and if he did, he was gay!" I just don't know what to think, since my family took out a huge loan to have a Liberal Collage tell me how to think. I was taught by my professors that if its in the New York Times, its true and to shut the hell up with any dissending opinions. So please NYT tell me the truth, is there a Jesus Christ?
Virginia O'Hanlon
115 West Ninety Fifth Street
Virginia, how dare you question a Liberal! There is no Jesus Christ! There is no God! Use your mind for Christ sakes....and I don't mean that in a Jesus way! Your Professors are right! How dare you pay an institution tens of thousands of dollars only to question them? THEY ARE YOUR NEW GODS!!!!
You unfortuniately are starting to watch Fox News or listen to that drug attict Limbaugh! Comeon! You think that if there was a God, Bush would be President, not once but TWICE? You think an Almighty God that can create a solar system would not allow hanging chads to be counted? Or allow Bush to blowup the Levees in New Orleans? Or get us involved in an unwinnable war that we are winning? Nietzsche was right, but you probably have no idea who the hell he is, so just Google him or something!
There is no God, except the ones we make, like socialism, Global Warming and 4th Trimester abortions! Stop trying to think for yourself, that is what the Government is for! You pay your taxes! Why should you think! We'll help do that for you! Progressives are becoming successful getting rid of the Christ fairy tale, by unleashing the ACLU flying monkeys to sue any on and anything that even thinks about Christmas in a holy way!! The world will be much much better with no God, Christ or religion! We can then get better holidays, like Solistic Worship Day and Carbon Credit Awareness Day!
No Jesus for Christmas? Thank Gore we are making it so! You want to be a Huckabee bible thumper? Comeon! Just read what we tell you, go to DNC Underground and listen to only Progressive radio shows, like......ah....umm.....Oh PBS! That will never go away!
The NY Time wishes you and all athiestic socialist Progressivesa "Happy Non-denominatioal Celebration of Commercialism!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes,_Virginia,_There_is_a_Santa_Claus
Here’s a Wikipedia link that provides a bio for the author of that editorial, Francis Pharcellus Church. Interesting that he had been a war correspondent during the Civil War becuase this op-ed reminds me of the beautiful letter written by Sullivan Ballou, quoted in the Ken Burns series The Civil War, to his wife Sarah on the eve of the first major engagement in the Civil War, the Battle of Bull Run (where he would be killed in action). Especially this paragraph:
“But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights . . . always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again . . .”
That this kind of writing was done by an ordinary soldier (although Sullivan Ballou was highly educated and accomplished but there were scores of other examples in that series of the excellent writing by everyday soldiers and other participants) during the Civil War speaks volumes about the lost art of good writing thanks, I suppose, to our modern education.
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