Dear Friends,
This holiday season has begun with darkness—the murder of Jews and the killing of American personnel seeking to establish security in the Middle East. Our cheerful wishes for a Happy Hanukkah to our Jewish friends and to those in the midst of Advent preparing for Christmas now confront the reality that this is not a time of peace and joy. Instead, it is a time of pain and righteous anger. We must keep the memory of the fallen alive and pray for them. We must pray for their family and friends who suffer and grieve. And, it is a time to stand up and fight back.
In the face of these vicious events, we should recall that our Judeo-Christian faith and tradition is the foundation and strength of America. It makes us the great nation we are today. More than ever, we should come together to celebrate the religious holidays that are the continuing wellspring of America. Today's dark events led me to look back at the words of Winston Churchill in his 1941 Christmas message from Washington, DC:
I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home. Whether it be the ties of blood on my mother’s side, or the friendships I have developed here over many years of active life, or the commanding sentiment of comradeship in the common cause of great peoples who speak the same language, who kneel at the same altars and, to a very large extent, pursue the same ideals, I cannot feel myself a stranger here in the centre and at the summit of the United States. I feel a sense of unity and fraternal association which, added to the kindliness of your welcome, convinces me that I have a right to sit at your fireside and share your Christmas joys.
This is a strange Christmas Eve. Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and, with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other. Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the land or wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field. Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart. Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace. Let the children have their night of fun and laughter.
Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.
And so, in God’s mercy, a happy Christmas to you all.
From our trustees and all of us at Hudson, thank you for your friendship and support. You carry us onward in our work for the security of America and its allies. And this holiday season you help fuel our resolve not to be robbed of our inheritance or denied our right to live in a free and decent world.
May you stay safe and enjoy the love of family and friends for all the days of your holiday,
John P. Walters
President and CEO
Hudson Institute