“THE ARMY’S CHRISTMAS”

On Dec. 25, 1917, The Oklahoman’s front page included stories on the Christmas membership drive for the Red Cross, 14 women killed in a holiday traffic accident in Pennsylvania and numerous stories relating to the war.

This ran on the editorial page and is as true and appropriate now as it was then.

“THERE IS REJOICING in many homes because soldier sons were permitted to come home on a Christmas furlough, complete the family circle and get their feet under a regular table once again. And for the many who couldn’t come, here’s wishing them a Merry Christmas, too. They have been kindly remembered as a million gifts from friends, relatives and sympathetic strangers will testify. It is hoped they are not too lonely in cantonment or trenches, or sailing a dangerous sea on the way “over there.” Wherever they are, by land or sea, the heart of America goes out to them, with a feeling which the simple tokens sent cannot fully express.

“And how well they deserve the gratitude and good will of the nation and all Christendom. For theirs is in its finest sense a holy war; a conflict to make safe that freedom, democracy and brotherly love which were part of the teachings of the lowly Nazarene; to save that civilization which is based on Calvary from the ruthless hands of ultra-savagery and the base philosophy of crass materialism. So in this season, dedicated to peace on earth, though war is raging, may the soldiers of our service and the armies of our allies know, amid all their martial surroundings, something of that inward peace which comes from knowledge of duty done; unselfish duty in behalf of a worthy cause.

“When some blessed day, the engines of war are stilled and the world is made safe to humanity, may they come back again, to a better Christmas in a brighter land. That is the civilian’s Christmas wish for the army, but whatevever the fates may hold or the fortunes of war bestow, those boys in khaki shall live in the hearts of their countrymen while human gratitude shall last.”

The major change today from the editorial written so many years ago is how the soldiers reached the areas of conflict.

The sentiment above is what we wish for all the military serving at home and abroad.

Mary Phillips

mphillips@opubco.com

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