First of all, let me greet you with an old and trite greetings that is always new: Merry Christmas.
* * *
Everytime I hear people make fun of Santa Claus and demolish our belief in Santa, I recall what Frank Church wrote in his editorial in the New York Sun many years ago. He said:
* * *
“Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairness ... Nobody sees Santa Claus but that is no sign there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those which neither children nor men can see. Nor Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and he lives for ever.”
* * *
This is just part of the New York Sun editorial on Sept. 21, 1897, in reply to a child’s question about the existence of Santa Claus whom her friends said he (Santa) did not exist.
* * *
The entire editorial is reprinted Christmas after Christmas in thousands of newspapers all over the world. It’s so nicely written that newspaper readers never tire reading it.
* * *
Let me ask my good friends Ben Ypil, Daido Angel and Loy Jurado: “Do you believe in Santa Claus?” Never mind if you don’t believe. Just let the traditional Christmas gifts coming. Hehe!
* * *
This Christmas, Santa Claus will be coming your way in “human form”... attired in barong or simply maong and t-shirt. He’ll be lingering on until May.
* * *
Have you seen Andal Ampatuan Jr. as he was being brought to the hearing on the Maguindanao massacre in which he is the principal suspect? He looked at ease. There was a smile on his face. He seemed confident he could get off the hook.
* * *
But he failed to evade the mild attack of some angry journalists who vented their ire over the murder of their colleagues numbering more than 30.
* * *
One reader of this column proposed: “Let Andal Jr. walk alone from the DOJ hearing venue to his cell in the NBI headquarters. If he reaches the NBI unscathed, set him free.”
* * *
Thanks to all those who remembered me this Yuletide season. God bless. Merry Christmas!
* * *
Email nitzjab@yahoo.com