Archive for December, 2012
Jann Scotts Journal: Is there a Santa Clause ??
Dec 10th
Posted by Jann Scott in Jann Scotts Journal
In a time of so much cynicism, war and unrest, It brings to mind a time long ago when a young New York city girl was having her doubts. “Her father In 1897, Dr. Philip O’Hanlon, a coroner’s assistant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, was asked by his then eight-year-old daughter, Virginia (1889–1971), whether Santa Claus really existed.
O’Hanlon suggested she write to The Sun, a prominent New York City newspaper at the time, assuring her that “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” He unwittingly said.
Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.”
September 21, 1897
To the editor of the New York 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 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 to 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 light 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 supernal 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.
Jann Scotts Journal: December 7 1941 71 years later : My dad landed on Omaha Beach on D-day plus 14
Dec 9th
Posted by Jann Scott in Jann Scotts Journal
“President Franklin D. Roosevelt: Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
I had written about this previously in My Life in Boulder
My Father Joseph M Scott I would be 102 if he were still alive today, but he was there on the beaches of Normandy on June 20th 1944.
“Oh I was in the war alright and I wasn’t in the rear with the gear either. I was right up front in the fighting getting shot at everyday. I was a dog face private first class. They tried to make me a Sargent . I didn’t want any part of it. I was 31 years old, while most of the guys were in there 20’s . I mean, Christ guys my age were Majors and Colonels. When I joined I was president of a company. I had a business, a wife and a family and I wanted to get back to them. So I was mostly concerned with staying alive. Yes, they wanted me to go to Officers Candidate school, but that meant I would have to stay in for another year. I didn’t know if I was going to get out of there alive. A lot of guys I was with were getting killed. Eventually I did get wounded and that was bad enough. I was in hospital for 6 months and it took me a few years to convalesce.
What was it like ? You don’t want to know about that. All you need to know is that a lot of men went there to do a job to rid the world of the scourge and get back home. That’s what we did. There was no glory in it.There was just a lot of pain and suffering that I never want you to see.”
My Dad did join Patton’s 3rd Army on August 1 and was soon wounded in the push across France. He never liked to talk about it, but he was a real war hero. He had ribbons and medals. He qualified expert in the M-1 carbine, M-1 Garand, The BAR, the 38 and the 1911 Colt 45. He was dead shot and everybody wanted to be with him. He did become squad leader and was awarded a battlefield officers commission just before he was wounded. He insisted on turning it down but to no avail. However, he refused to sew on his 2nd LT bar. “Hell no I didn’t want to become an officer. They are the first person the Germans killed.” But the Army forced it on him after all of the officers in his company were killed.
The war had a bad effect on him. He saw a lot of killing. One thing that troubled him were all of the civilians who were wandering, starving and lost. “You are so lucky to live in America”, You never had to live through that. ”
I know I am. We all are. God bless you dad and thanks for your sacrifice.
Jann Scott’s Journal
Boulder, Colorado
In the heart of America