WARNING THIS ARTICLE IS NOT CHILD BELIEF SAFE...
An editorial was written in the New York Sun on September 21, 1897 in response to the following question:
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.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.
What Follows Is the editors response, In between the paragraphs is my response to Virginia today:
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little 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 compared with the boundless world about him, as measure by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
· Virginia, Liberals are now the new skeptics of this skeptical age and want no one to publicly show their faith as it offends them. They want the government to remove any reference as to where it places it’s faith. They (the liberals) think that any reference to faith is offensive to all. You are no longer to believe in Santa Claus because he represents a faith that is no longer permitted, as it is offensive to the liberal mindset. All liberal minds, Virginia, are little, faithless, and are incapable of grasping the whole truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists 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 enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
· Yes, Virginia, there was a Santa Claus. He existed certainly as love and generosity and devotion once existed, you knew they once abounded and gave to your life it's highest beauty and joy. Alas the liberals have taken it all away to fulfill their faithless agenda to bring forth a dreary world with no Santa Claus! There is no more childlike faith, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We have no enjoyment, except in what liberals think is right for us to enjoy. The eternal light which childhood fills the world has been extinguished by a liberal agenda of faithlessness.
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 dancing 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.
· To believe in Santa Claus! You might be seen as a person who believes in faeries! Liberals want you to believe there is no Santa Claus, as it is wrong to have faith in something that is not there. The liberals only believe in what they can see, liberals cannot conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen in the world, that is why they want to deny your faith in Santa Claus. That is why they are offended, as they have no concept of faith.
You tear apart the baby's rattle 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 strongest man 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 thousand years from now, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
· Liberals have killed Santa Claus! They have taken away faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance that pushed aside that curtain to view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Was it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there was nothing else more real and abiding. liberals took away Santa Claus! The liberals took away god! Santa Claus lives no longer, no longer do we have faith, a thousand years from now liberals will be to blame for the loss of faith and belief in Santa Claus. Liberals have killed Santa Claus. Liberals have killed faith.
