My Holiday Message

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 11:17am

I was watching The Today Show this morning and Katie Couric had a story on that touched even my cynical heart.
The soldiers in Iraq participated in a lottery this year where the winners would get to go home for the Holidays. The story goes that a single soldier came up with a winning ticket but donated it to one of his fellow, married soldiers so he could go home and see his wife and son. A true example of the holiday spirit that had me shedding a tear into my morning coffee.
Here's hoping that by some miracle all of the soldiers in Iraq are home safely for the holidays next year. And may we all be touched by a little of the holiday spirit displayed by that soldier in Iraq.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 11:18am

OMG. They should have had a tribal council and voted one person who had to stay! That woulda been a ratings grabber.

(Still cynical, and yet as easily moved as you Erik.)

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 11:27am

Amen. I saw it, too.

Erik, you've got me looking forward to the Ralphie fest coming up tomorrow. They show CHRISTMAS STORY non-stop here on one station in the metro area. I never get tired of the Old Man and the furnace/turkey, the bar of soap punishment, the weary Santa and elf, and especially the dinner in the Chinese Restaurant.

On dark days, I want to live in the world of that film, knowing well that those times were no better. But as they say in the GO BETWEEN, "..the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there..." Sometimes, just different looks good. Merry Christmas.

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 12:05pm

That's excellent. It really takes some guts to give up seeing your family for a friend. This whole war makes me sad...sometimes it just seems pointless. I hope you are having a nice Christmas, Bush! All cozy in your White House...

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 12:23pm

It's OUR White House. And as such, we can evict him.

PS So of course it's all over the local NBC News and you start to wonder how much of this incredible gift of genrosity was just fabricated. I can't stand this crap anymore.

[mebice]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 2:37pm

Namo...please just say one thing for me...I have been wanting to hear you say it.... bah humbug...I think this is your phrase..
Good day Mr. Scrooge...
and merry christmas everyone

I just want you to smile...for one second without inserting any cynicism
that would be my christmas present.

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 2:58pm

Mine too. But I don't think this will happen.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 4:06pm

As a matter of fact, Scrooge was the first lead role I ever had! And I *do* have a black and white santa hat that says Bah Humbug across the ridge.

But, I'm sorry, the more this "spontaneous act of one soldier's generosity" gets played and replayed on the local NBC affiliate, I am beginning to think it was more orchestrated than the completely fabricated "daring rescue of Jessica Lynch."

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 4:25pm

I don't think it was orchestrated. I just think the network jumped all over it like the leeches they tend to be.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 4:27pm

Having said that, the guy with the shaved head on the Today show, I'm assuming he was the guy who got to go home, was H-O-T HOT.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 5:22pm

And no offense at all to the soldier who stayed in Iraq, but he wasn't very talkative. I think if they were to have orchestrated it they would have picked someone more chatty.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 5:40pm

Well, did you see that poor monosyllabic Jessica Lynch? What I bet happened was, they said, "you know what would be cool, if the person who wins the lottery gives it to another person in the true spirit of Christmas?!" The good will that the story will generate will bring even the leftiest lefty to find a tear in her/his eye!

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 5:43pm

Back during the Vietnam War, people used to wear copper bracelets that had the name of a Prisoner of War inscribed on it, along with the date of his capture. Although I was absolutedly against the war, I *did* wear a bracelet. A couple of years later, on a holiday (Thanksgiving? Christmas?) I was sitting around with the cousins watching TV after a festive holiday toke, when a news story came on about some POWs who had been released. One of them was the guy on MY BRACELET !!! That was intense, let me tell you... And very moving.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 12/24/03 at 6:00pm

And I must admit it brought a tear to this lefty's eye, but did nothing to alter my support, or lack thereof, for the war.

[thirdrowcenter]

Posted: 12/25/03 at 4:25pm

iflitifloat that is a wonderful story. I don't remember the copper bracelets. I wish my head was in a different place back then. I should have had more compassion for the men who served in Viet Nam. I feel much differently now.

[BroadwayDiva]

Posted: 12/25/03 at 5:51pm

Those are beautiful stories. Some people really have the Christmas spirit. I wish there was more of that to go around.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 12/26/03 at 5:43am

Don't support the war, support the lives of those over there who are risking their lives when they shouldn't have to. I hate war, and thats the way I look at it. Its nice to see people like Letterman going over there to help the morale of those stuck over there. That was great to see especially when he has a kid at home which is its first Christmas, that would be hard for me to do.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/26/03 at 10:09am

I support the soldiers, I don't support the war.. I hope they had a good Christmas.. as much as they could. The thing that got me this Christmas was knowing that next year, someone I care about will be over there.