A Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper
This famous editorial, written by Francis P. Church, first appeared in The New York Sun on Sept. 21, 1897, in response to a letter to the editor from an 8-year-old girl. The Storm Lake Times Pilot is happy to reprint it annually at Christmas.
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 measure by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists 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 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 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 man 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, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Lake Animal Hospital closes Dec. 23 as owner Dr. Diane Johnson found no interested buyer. Part of the problem, no doubt, is the care she provided to strays for which the city would not fully reimburse her. She donated the care.
We asked the city if it has a plan. No. Of course not. It can barely keep the streets passable.
We still have the strays even though we have no place to put them. A group of volunteers called Caring Paws is attempting to set up a pet rescue center. That takes money. It takes a community effort unless you expect mangy cats and stray dogs wandering the streets. Please consult www.caringpawsstormlake.com if you can spread some Christmas spirit.
Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republicans, are among 23 senators who sent a letter to US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins urging development of a plan to vaccinate livestock. Lead authors were Sen. Mike Rounds, R-SD, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., both of whom serve states with large poultry industries like Iowa does. The letter was received as a Hamilton County turkey farm was hit by bird flu.
The senators advised USDA to come up with a strategy this winter. Rollins had made vaccinations a priority. Last March she set aside $100 million for vaccines, Reuters noted, but by May cancelled a $700 million vaccine contract with Moderna. Since then, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has waged a successful campaign to dismantle the human and animal vaccine regimen while Grassley and Ernst stood by. It is good to see that they regained their senses by signing on to this letter. We would like to see it as a statement of support for science over trade interests.
We have argued since 2015 in favor of vaccinating egg-laying hens. That idea has been thwarted by the broiler industry for fear of losing export markets. The letter sent last week advises Rollins to consult affected industries but to proceed with a vaccine.
Avian flu has been spreading across species. Recent research from Iowa State University says that it can be spread from mammary glands. It is so relentless that some produces are giving up their barn contracts on turkeys. It’s one thing for RFK2 to mess with measles in children but now we are talking about business. That gets attention. Whatever it takes. Avian flu is a dire threat to humans, poultry and swine around Storm Lake and Buena Vista County. Imagine once it mutates to infect hog confinements. That would be among our worst nightmares.
You could get by without widespread livestock vaccination when you didn’t house millions of chickens under one roof. So long as we insist on this arrangement, vaccines are necessary to protect the people living here. It is good that Grassley and Ernst finally paid attention. They will have to neutralize Kennedy next but that train is well down the tracks. At least the senators are showing some fortitude by signing on to the letter.
Area farmland values remained stable this year despite the abuse heaped on commodity markets by the Trump Tariffs. Farmers who stashed away large sums of cash during the Biden years let loose the moths from their wallets and bid with gusto without having to bother a banker. Strong hands, they say. Those hands are hold. Two-thirds of the acres are held by farmers older than 60.
Into those hands fall the divided sum of $12 billion in Trump Tariff Welfare for destroying Asian export markets this year. It will be used next year to bid out farmers to whom not much trickled down from this bailout check. The market is stable, a good thing during a period of chaos. It gets squeezed into fewer hands and farmers. They hope you don’t mind.
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