Wednesday, December 22, 2021
A4
OPINION
GUEST EDITORIAL
Yes, Virginia,
there is a
Santa Claus
T
he following letter is perhaps the
most famous example of a child
wanting to know if Santa Claus
is real.
Letter to the editor
The New York Sun, 1897
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
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 lit-
tle 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 com-
pared 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 enjoy-
ment, 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 danc-
ing 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 rat-
tle 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 stron-
gest 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 thou-
sand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten
times ten thousand years from now, he
will continue to make glad the heart of
childhood.
LETTER to the EDITOR
Misinformation to
blame for COVID
deaths in Trump areas
Here is something to think about as we
enter the winter months, with the poten-
tial for an uptick in COVID-19 and the
variants of delta and omicron. This infor-
mation was updated as of Dec. 5, 2021,
and heard on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
The print article (link below) was head-
lined “Pro-Trump counties now have far
higher COVID death rates. Misinforma-
tion is to blame.”
Since May 2021, people living in
counties that voted heavily for Donald
Trump during the last presidential elec-
tion have been nearly three times as likely
to die from COVID-19 as those who
live in areas that went for now-President
Biden. That’s according to a new analy-
sis by NPR that examines how political
polarization and misinformation are driv-
ing a significant share of the deaths in the
pandemic.
The trend was robust, even when con-
trolling for age, which is the primary
demographic risk of COVID-19 mortal-
ity. The data also reveal a major contrib-
uting factor to the death rate difference:
The higher the vote share for Trump, the
lower the vaccination rate.
The analysis only looked at the geo-
graphic location of COVID-19 deaths.
The exact political views of each person
taken by the disease remains unknow-
able. But the strength of the associa-
tion, combined with polling information
about vaccination, strongly suggests that
Republicans are being disproportionately
affected.
Misinformation appears to be a major
factor in the lagging vaccination rates.
The Kaiser Family Foundation’s polling
shows Republicans are far more likely to
believe false statements about COVID-19
and vaccines. A full 94% of Republicans
think one or more false statements about
COVID-19 and vaccines might be true,
and 46% believe four or more statements
might be true. By contrast, only 14% of
Democrats believe four or more false
statements about the disease.
The full report, found on NPR.
org, can be accessed at: https://
www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2021/12/05/1059828993/data-vac-
EDITORIALS: Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Wallowa County Chieftain editorial board. Other
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New meaning for Christmas
All infants born into a family, regard-
less of what kind of family, are meant
to bring joy to its world. If joy is the
response as the child grows it feels val-
ued. But if the situation into which it is
born does not feel joy the child grows to
feel inconsequential, or worse.
This is the meaning of Christmas for
me. I like to think of Christmas as a col-
lective birthday where we share gifts and
let each other know the joys of knowing
and valuing one another. It doesn’t really
matter if one celebrates the literal birth of
Jesus or the meaning of birth generally.
Everyone who sees value in others can
celebrate it no matter what belief system
one embraces.
The gift of Christmas is life itself in
those around us.
Don Scully
Joseph
infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters must be signed by the author and include the city of
residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will
not be published.
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Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884
VOLUME 134
cine-misinformation-trump-counties-
covid-death-rate
Dan and Jan Blair
Joseph
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