Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus

This is my all-time favorite editorial. It’s always amazing to me how relevant it is still today even though it was written 110 years ago. That’s really incredible. I think it also says a lot about newspapers and newspaper editors. I just hope that newspapers are around in one form or another 110 years from now. I hate to think of a world without newspaprs and not just because I’m a newspaper editor. There’s so much that newspapers do for communities and I’m afraid people won’t really appreciate them til they’re gone. Well, here’s a very Merry Christmas to everyone who reads my blog and a special thanks to all those who take the time to post to my blog. May everyone find peace and happiness in the coming year ahead.

IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?

We take pleasure in answering at once and 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 (what) 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.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.

There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal life with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world, which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

O.J. a “sweet” guy

See, O. J. Simpson isn’t such a bad guy after all.
According to a story written by By Melissa Aresenuik, O.J. bought sweets and snacks inside the Clark County Detention Center where he awaited sentencing for one misdemeanor and 11 felony offenses following a run-in with two memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas Palace Station hotel room last fall.
Yes, what a gem of a guy. A guy who richly deserved what he got last Friday when he was sentenced to 33 years in prison for those charges with no chance of parole for nine years. His attorneys naturally will appeal the decision.
The sentence was cheered by many, including the family of Ron Goldman. Ironically, Simpson’s Oct. 3 conviction of the Las Vegas charges came 13 years to the date that he was cleared of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman.
“Some sort of karma. And good karma,” Fred Goldman said Monday of the conviction on that anniversary. “It is remarkable that, ultimately, now, we have seen him go to jail.”
Ron Goldman’s sister, Kim Goldman, called Simpson’s Las Vegas sentencing a “good day for us. … It’s been a long time coming.”
In a 1997 civil trial, Simpson was found liable for the deaths and ordered to pay a $33.5 million judgment to the victims’ families.
Simpson’s lawyer Gabriel Grasso said his client has been burning through his prisoner expense account buying food and candy for his fellow inmates.
“The jail has what’s known as a commissary where you can actually put in a written order and say, ‘I want two Snickers bars, a couple of ramen noodles, and whatever,’ and they actually will come to you within a day or two and you can actually eat those things and not have to eat the jail food, or not just have to live off of the jail food,” Grasso said.
“O.J. is actually buying stuff for all of these other guys who don’t have anybody on the outside (to buy it for them),” he said. “Candy bars, soup, chocolate, whatever you can buy at the commissary he’s been actually buying it for them, using his money to buy it for them.”
“You can’t buy anything like clothes or TVs,” he clarified.
“It’s basically Snickers bars,” the former NFL star’s other attorney, Yale Galanter, said.
“I was saying, where is all of this money going? How many candy bars can you eat?” Grasso said.
The inmate accounts are financed by felons’ contacts on the outside and are not funded by the state. Simpson has not used any public or tax dollars to buy his new jailhouse friends any treats.
Simpson was painted as a popular personality who makes friends quickly throughout his three-week trial in Las Vegas. Describing the scene at the Palms pool just hours before the infamous confrontation took place on Sept. 13, 2007, several witnesses told the court how strangers gravitated toward the former All-Star running back as the co-conspirators schemed by the pool.
Secretly recorded audio of the poolside planning session was used as evidence against Simpson, 61, and his co-defendant, Clarence “C.J. Stewart, 54, during their joint trial.
The recorded conversation included several interruptions that were caused when passers-by stopped to say hello to the aging star and ask for autographs.
Due in part to Simpson’s resilient charisma, Grasso indicated on Friday that he isn’t overly worried about his client’s safety in prison.
“When he does meet people in jail, when he does have to interact with people, they’re going to treat him well because he treats them well,” Grasso said.
“He’s very adaptable,” Galanter added, “(But) O.J. Simpson certainly carries with him some unique (problems) and we fully expect the officials in Nevada to … make sure that his safety is assured.”
Hmmm, if only Simpson had only assured the safety of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.