-Caveat Lector-
Here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Mike
PEACE HEALTH HAPPINESS
+ *
"X"
* "XXX"
"XXXXX"
*
"GOD JUL"
* "BUON ANNO"
* * "FELIZ NATAL" * *
"JOYEUX NOEL"
"VESELE VANOCE"
"MELE KALIKIMAKA" *
* "NODLAG SONA DHUIT"
"BLWYDDYN NEWYDD DDA"
"""""""BOAS FESTAS"""""""
"FELIZ NAVIDAD" *
* "MERRY CHRISTMAS" *
* "KALA CHRISTOUGENA"
"VROLIJK KERSTFEEST" *
*
* "FROHLICHE WEIHNACHTEN"
"BUON NATALE-GODT NYTAR"
* "HUAN YING SHENG TAN CHIEH" *
*
"WESOLYCH SWIAT-SRETAN BOZIC"
"MOADIM LESIMHA-LINKSMU KALEDU"
*
"HAUSKAA JOULUA-AID SAID MOUBARK"
* """""""'N PRETTIG KERSTMIS"""""""
"ONNZLLISTA UUTTA VUOTTA" *
*
* "Z ROZHDESTYOM KHRYSTOVYM"
"NADOLIG LLAWEN-GOTT NYTTSAR"
*
* "FELIC NADAL-GOJAN KRISTNASKON"
* "GLEDILEG JOL-NOELINIZ KUTLU OLSUM"
"EEN GELUKKIG NIEUWJAAR-SRETAN BOSIC"
*
"KRIHSTLINDJA GEZUAR-KALA CHRISTOUGENA"
* "SELAMAT HARI NATAL - LAHNINGU NAJU METU"
*
*
"""""""SARBATORI FERICITE-BUON ANNO"""""""
* "ZORIONEKO GABON-HRISTOS SE RODI"
*
* "BOLDOG KARACSONNY-VESELE VIANOCE "
"MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR"
"ROOMSAID JOULU PUHI -KUNG HO SHENG TEN"
*
*
* "FELICES PASUAS - EIN GLUCKICHES NEUJAHR"
"PRIECIGUS ZIEMAN SVETKUS SARBATORI VESLLE"
"BONNE ANNEBLWYDDYN NEWYDD DDADRFELIZ NATAL"
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"As food for thought at this time of year, below is my 'Political
Animal' published Wednesday in The Daily Journal in Manassas,
Virginia."
--Bill Kling
____________
Bill Kling
POLITICAL ANIMAL
The Daily Journal
Prince William County, Virginia
December 22, 1999
Remembering Christmases past
CHRISTMAS MEMORIES come readily to mind during this last
month of the year, happy remembrances of childhood and children,
and often poignant recollections of Christmases in other places
and other times.
Christmastime is that kind of looking-back season.
Especially in my thoughts this particular looking-back
season are the Christmas of 1944 and another one a decade later.
Both times, America was at war. In 1944, it was World
War II. In 1954, the conflict was the Cold War against the
then-Soviet Union's aims at world domination.
Those times seem far removed from the here and now of
present-day Northern Virginia. For the young among us, they are
the stuff not of memory but of history books and old newspaper
clippings. But for those of us who remember, they're
crystal-clear and defining.
Christmas 1944 was when my younger brother Joey and I got
our bicycles. How Mother managed it, I don't know. Our father
was in Burma with Gen. "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, fighting the
Japanese. The European war against Germany continued.
In America, meat and gasoline were rationed, as were many
other items. Manufacturing plants were producing weapons and
other war materiel. Automobiles and bicycles weren't being made
for civilian markets.
Nevertheless, there in our living room that Christmas
morning stood two brand-new bikes -- thick-tired, pre-war
Schwinns with Bendix brakes, battery-powered lights on the front
fenders and bells on the handlebars. Blue for me; maroon for my
brother.
They were the best bicycles in our rural community in
south-central Pennsylvania. We put red cellophane over the
fender lights so German bomber pilots wouldn't detect us if we
had to ride out during nighttime blackouts.
They were the only bicycles my brother and I ever had.
Over the years, they lost their sheen and picked up dents,
scrapes and rust spots, but their value in our eyes never
diminished.
The thought of those bicycles made Christmas 10 years
later all that much more heart-wrenching.
The Army was my home in 1954, a Signal Corps detachment
assigned to Southern Area Command headquarters in Munich,
Germany, the Bavarian capital. I sang in the post chapel choir,
comprising Army personnel, civilian Defense Department employees
and military dependents.
For that Christmas Eve 45 years ago, the post chaplain,
Maj. David Reardon, arranged for our choir to sing carols at a
Munich camp for "displaced persons."
Only weeks before, these refugees -- hundreds of men,
women and children -- had fled to the freedom side of the Iron
Curtain, driven from their homes in Eastern Europe by Soviet
oppression. They were being "processed" for relocation to new
homes in other countries.
We gathered in the mess hall of the camp, a German Army
post during World War II. In a corner of the vast room was a
large Christmas tree, tinseled and alight with real candles.
The choir sang a number of Christmas carols, trying to
include many we hoped would be familiar to the refugees.
There was little applause that night. We did our best,
but we could tell from the solemn looks on the faces in our
audience, sitting at metal tables across the mess hall, that for
them this wasn't the joyous time it was for us. They had left
behind families and friends, worldly possessions, heritage --
everything but their lives -- to escape Soviet tyranny; to pursue
the freedom we Americans so often take for granted.
Our closing carol that night was the universally loved
"Silent Night." For it, all the lights in the mess hall were
turned off -- except the candles flickering on the Christmas
tree.
Our choir sang the beautiful words of that carol in
English -- "Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is
bright..."
And as we sang, the hundreds of refugees slowly rose to
their feet and joined in, singing along with us in German and
Czech and Polish and Lithuanian and Hungarian and Yugoslavian
and...
Tears streamed down many faces, glistening in the soft
candleglow. And when we finished singing that loveliest of
Christmas carols, there came spontaneous hugs and kisses, too --
and smiles.
To this day, the memory of that night nearly half a
century ago makes me misty-eyed and choked with emotion.
So, if you should ask me what I remember best about other
Christmases, my voice is likely to grow husky as I tell you,
"Bicycles and 'Silent Night' sung by candlelight."
And you'll understand -- won't you?
Have a merry Christmas. Remember the reason for the
season is Jesus, who is the Christ -- and may God bless and keep
us, every one. _______________
Bill Kling, former national political correspondent for the
Chicago Tribune and The Washington Times, lives in Coles
Magisterial District and was chairman of the Prince William
County Republican Party from January 1992 through March 1996.
His "Political Animal" column appears Wednesday and Sunday. His
e-mail address is [EMAIL PROTECTED]
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
=================================================================
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