I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. It's christmas, and I hope it's a glorious day for you and yours. At some point during the Christmas Season, you've probably heard the famous "Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus" letter – but probably only that line. The whole thing is much more.
It was written by a New York Sun newspaperman named Francis Church in 1897, and it was much more than a letter about Santa to an eight-year-old girl; it was a defense of faith.
Near the conclusion, Church writes, there is a veil covering the unseen world whichnot the strongest man, not even the united strength of all the strongest 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? In all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. Yes, there is a Santa Claus.
Pretty heady stuff for an eight-year-old, but not bad for us all.
Those are my ideas, and at the NCPA we know ideas can change the world. I'm Pete du Pont. Next time, a final — I promise — election note.