OUR VIEW: Christmas thoughts from years past

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OUR VIEW

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EDITOR’S NOTE: For the remainder of the week, The Daily Republic will publish Christmas-themed editorials from years past. Included with each is the date it was originally published, along with the names of this newspaper’s executives at the time.

Dec. 24, 1941

The observance of Christmas tomorrow will be saddened in many homes by the absence of family members who are in the armed services of the nation. In three Mitchell homes, the celebration of Christmas will be given a somber atmosphere because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Christmas this year will not have its usual gay quality, but it should be a significant occasion for us all. Tomorrow, we will remember the birth of the Founder of Christianity. The fundamental teaching of that faith, which is a recognition of the importance of the individual, has made possible the way of life which we are now at war to preserve.

Our system of democracy legally and politically makes possible the application of our daily lives of the teachings of Christianity about the dignity and importance of the individual. It is only in Christian nations that the way of life which we are defending has flowered into a full and ripe existence.

Of our enemies, one nation, the Japanese, is frankly non-Christian. The other two, Italy and Germany, profess Christianity and many of the citizens of both lands believe in it. But in neither land is the practice of Christianity possible. In both, dictatorial governments have denied to their citizens the right to consider themselves important as individuals. In both cases, they hold that the state is more important than the individual.

We would not want to see this war develop any cheap slogans to the effect that the success of our armies is divinely underwritten. But we all can and should realize that the war is being waged to make possible the practice of fundamental tenets of the faith whose Founder we honor tomorrow.

W.R. Ronald, president; M.B. Ronald, managing editor

Dec. 23, 1978

The season of Christmas is a special time of year that brings to mind all that should be good and lets pass all that should be forgiven and forgotten. We look to the season as one that provides us an opportunity, more than any other, to take stock of ourselves as individuals and the things that affect us.

To our best intentions, it is a time when we seek to preserve something holy and religious about our lives. To our misfortune, we as citizens have been subjected to something other than that this year, and for that we are a bit poorer.

But for the most part, the commercialization, the legal repercussions and the blatant misuse of the season cannot remove from the strongest of individuals the true meaning of the season. We cannot submit to individuals or courts the opportunity to legislate our minds, and for that reason, with our own self determination, we can keep Christmas in its rightful significance.

Making the season special is important to most. All that accumulates in a year’s time in terms of good can be reaped at Christmas. All that has dented our lives and our spirits during the new year has been given new meaning and the season gives us an opportunity for understanding.

The meaning of the season needs no reiteration. It has its place in history and in individuals in an indelible position that will make it survive the most bitter of challenges.

We can be thankful we have such a time.

So with the simple words “Merry Chrsitmas,” we hope that the impression left is the one that started out to be so many years ago in Bethlehem.

David Kranz, editor; Jerry N. Putjenter, publisher

Tags: opinion, updates, editorials, christmas