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A post by Pat

Christmas is traditionally a time for gathering with family and friends. It has special meaning for Christians but the day is an opportunity for all to reflect on the treasure of love, the great gift of life and the wish for a better tomorrow. We’d like to forget the intruding worldly concerns bombarding us for just one day. Often the burdens of the world will not budge.

For those of us who gather here, our hearts and minds are troubled by the assault on the founding principles of our country. Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, the Senate is going to pass an odious piece of legislation after a spectacle of contempt toward the American people. Many are feeling utter discouragement over this. May I remind you of another Christmas Eve when things didn’t look so good for the country we love.

Without arrogance or the smallest deviation from truth it may be said that no history now extant can furnish an instance of an army’s suffering such uncommon hardships as ours has done, and bearing them with the same patience and fortitude. To see men, without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lie on, without shoes, by which their marches might be traced by blood from their feet, and almost as often without provisions as with them, marching through the frost and snow, and at Christmas taking up their winter-quarters within a day’s march of the enemy, without a house or hut to cover them, till they could be built, and submitting to it without a murmur, is a proof of patience and obedience, which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled.
——-GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to John Banister, Apr. 21, 1778

At the Battle of Trenton on Christmas Day 1776, prior to embarking, the Continental troops were read the words of Thomas Paine. “These are the times that try men’s souls.” They were in rags and starving. They had been retreating all summer after suffering numerous defeats.

The Hessians were well-fed but unprepared. The Continental troops crossed the Delaware in nasty weather. Their gunpowder was soaked and useless. They marched 25 miles in freezing rain. They had not eaten during the 48-hrs of the attack. They returned as victors.

It was not the end of their challenges before winning independence nor the end of challenges to the country they fought to establish. We are their heirs. Don’t let the worries of the day spoil the Spirit of Christmas. If you start to feel discouraged, remember the Spirit of ’76.