Editorial: Yes, Greenwich

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In 1897, newspaper magic happened. An eight-year old girl, Virginia O’Hanlon, wrote a simple three sentence letter to The New York Sun newspaper asking if Santa exists. Her father suggested she write: “Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’” The power of the fourth estate. What transpired has become legend. The editor who wrote the response, Francis Pharcellus Church, who had been a war correspondent during the Civil War, used it as an opportunity to not just say whether Santa exists or not, but to highlight the importance of faith and in believing in something larger than yourself.

It is difficult to imagine what Francis Church must have experienced as a war correspondent and how this affected him afterwards. The Civil War ravaged our country; more than 600,000 Americans died. It was, at times, brother fighting brother as our country tore itself apart. During the four-year conflict there was extreme suffering, and we can assume that Church saw this and that it left an imprint on him. At its conclusion, the South’s infrastructure was destroyed, and the long, hard process of Reconstruction began. Many felt that society was broken as a result and that there was a collective loss of faith. When Virginia’s letter came in, Church must have jumped at the opportunity to craft such a brilliant reply—a reply asserting that if there were no Santa, “The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.”

Newspapers are an interesting thing. You never know what will make an impact. Church’s editorial appeared on page seven of The Sun, below a piece on the “chainless bicycle.” You would not think it would have gotten much notice, but it did. It was read and the magic began. Today it is the most reproduced editorial, in part or whole, in the English language. Its words and phrasing are both quick-paced and soothing. We like to imagine Church wrote it quickly, in a fit a passion. “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.”

We do not begin to believe our editorials are as impactful as Church’s most famous one. However, we do have faith. We have faith not just in our paper (and faith that you are reading the editorials), but in our community and our neighbors. We believe that Santa abounds in Greenwich in large ways and small. We see it in all the toy drives throughout our community; including all the Toys for Tots efforts, the Giving Trees, and the toy drive at the Boys and Girls Club supported by newcomer Lincoln Motors of Greenwich, already into the spirit of giving and not yet even officially open. Thanks to the generosity of many civic groups, businesses and individuals, children who might not have otherwise will now feel the warm embrace of holiday magic.

At the heart of Church’s editorial this question: how can you believe in something, have faith in something that you cannot see, especially when others tell you it does not exist? To the doubters and naysayers, he responds, “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.”

As you gather in the coming days with family and friends; as the race to Christmas suddenly finishes with the arrival of Christmas itself, we hope that everyone will take a moment to see those things which, we agree, in all this world are spectacularly real: love and generosity and devotion.

One business with a new division in Greenwich told us that he had never experienced a place where charity volunteers were so devoted. Greenwich, he said, takes giving to a whole new level. 

Yes, yes we do. And, yes, there is a Santa Claus.

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