It’s a special time of year.

Time to thank the countless Americans who are overseas, not able to share the family time that the rest of us can at homes and hearths. Time to thank the emergency service personnel stateside who are sacrificing their special time with loved ones to be there to take care of all the rest of us, 24/7.

For some, it’s a deeply religious holiday.

For others, with other belief systems and even for the skeptics and atheists, it is a time American society sets aside for a short vacation, and an opportunity to visit those we care about, in an atmosphere of giving and caring. It’s a holiday that makes people happy, especially kids, and that’s OK too.

Belief systems aside, let’s all take time to make someone feel good. To share a memory or celebrate a personal bond. There’s a reason why secular people still exchange gifts in this society at this time of year, and why you don’t need a particular belief system to drop some green stuff into the Salvation Army pot for the less fortunate.

Celebrate core human values. Love. Not just appreciating others, but taking the opportunity to tell them how much you appreciate them, as we at the Backwoods Home group appreciate all of you. Values that include the strong helping the weak, and the protection of the innocent from evil.  Amidst the Christmas wreaths that adorn this park in Skokie, Illinois, we find the Holocaust Monument…

It is significant that the dominant figure in the Monument, standing tallest, is the Jewish Resistance fighter…note the bandoleer of ammunition across his chest. And remember that when bordering Morton Grove banned possession of handguns, Skokie voted not to.

Whether you have a white Christmas…

…or a green Christmas…

…or even a gray Christmas…

…all of us on this end wish you a peaceful, renewing, MERRY CHRISTMAS.

1 COMMENT

  1. In reference to the Jewish freedom fighter in the Skokie monument:

    There is a movie, Defiance, about a group of Jewish partisans who held out against the Nazis in the forests of Belorussia. It was based on real events which are described more accurately in a book of the same name by Nechama Tec.

  2. Merry Christmas to you all. Ours here in Wisconsin is white and getting whiter and icier. I’m hunkering down with some good gun books. When the storm’s over I’ll do my socializing

  3. Meir Kahane, a right-wing American rabbi who was killed by an Islamic terrorist in 1990 in NYC, had a slogan “Never Again”. His other saying was “Every Jew a .22.” My guess is that he would have said .45 if he could have rhymed it…

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Mas, always look forward to your posts.

    Steve

  4. Brother Mas.

    You are a Master of the Written Word!

    Heres to you and yours, from me, Cindy, Tiff and family wishing you a Joyfull Holiday!!!

  5. Merry Christmas to every good American like Mas and those on this list, and especially to our military personnel serving away from home. It’s fairly warm and raining in the Florida panhandle at this time, so I hope Santa brought his umbrella along.

  6. Happy Holidays to all ,God bless our Troops and thank you Mas for all you have done and continue to do by your great insight to firearms and keeping us abreast of our constitutional rights as a fellow American. God Bless.

  7. I had the opportunity to thank a young US Marine in his dress blues yesterday after a Christmas Church service. As I thanked him for helping our country, he said “It is my pleasure, sir”. I thought back on this later and my feelings are that it is an honor to have these warriors fight in our new thousand-year war. He had plenty of battle color bars on his uniform and to be honest, it made my Christmas to think of his service and the men and women like him. Obama may have slept through the attempted attack on Detroit ( our most Muslim city), but like Orwell said, rough men in the night keep our citizens safe. Most people are oblivious.

  8. We were away from the internet for Christmas so this greeting will be just a little belated. A Viet Nam vet, it took over twenty years before anyone gave me a simple “Thank you for your service,” and quite frankly came as something of a shock to me. To see this as a common occurrence today is very gratifying, especially as there are three blue stars in my window (two sons-in-law and a grandson). I hope that the Christmas holiday was as blessed for each of you who read this as it was for my family and me.

  9. Happy Birthday Jesus!! You are the reason the world celebrates “Christmas”. GOD bless our military,what kind of shape would we be in without them? Jesus is the ultimate soldier,He gave it all.For you and I.God did not spare his only son from pain and suffering why should we expect him to spare us?Look, I’m not Billy Graham I just hope everyone will stop at Christmas time and take a deep breath and say, thank ya Jesus.

  10. Lt. Weinberg: Why do you like them so much?
    Galloway: Because they stand on a wall and say, “Nothing’s going to hurt you tonight, not on my watch.” — lines from “A Few Good Men” (1992)

    A special Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you who have served, or are currently serving, at home or abroad. Thank you for standing on the wall.