A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL. From President Roosevelt’s Christmas Eve broadcast to the nation --
"At this Christmastide of 1940 it is well for all humanity to remind itself that while this is in name a Christian celebration, it is participated in reverently and happily by hundreds of millions of people who are members of other religions or belong actively to no church at all. The reason is not to seek. It is because the spirit of unselfish service personified by the life and teachings of Christ makes appeal to the inner conscience and hope of every man and every woman in every part of the earth. It transcends in the ultimate all lines of race, of habitat, of nation. It lives in the midst of war, of slavery, of conquest. It survives prohibitions and decrees and force. It is an unquenchable spring of promise to humanity."
"Let us make this Christmas a merry one for the little children in our midst. For us of maturer years it cannot be merry. But for most of us it can be a happy Christmas if by happiness we mean that we have done with doubt, that we have set our hearts against fear, that we still believe in the Golden Rule of all mankind, that we intend to live more purely in the spirit of Christ, and that by our works, as well as by our words, we will strive forward in faith and in hope and in love. In that spirit I wish a happy Christmas to you all, and happier Christmases yet to come."
TAKING A BREAK. I’ll be boarding the Chesapeake & Ohio shortly for some extended holiday visiting. And since my kerosene-powered laptop is still not functioning...there’ll be no blogging until Jan. 12. Here’s hoping we can all enjoy a brief respite from the worries of this cataclysmic year, and that the courageous struggles of all who love freedom will result in lots of good news throughout 1941.
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