{"id":51769,"date":"2021-12-24T13:14:14","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T18:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=51769"},"modified":"2021-12-24T13:15:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T18:15:16","slug":"opinion-a-christmas-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/12\/opinion-a-christmas-message\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: A Christmas Message"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by John Grimaldi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s supposed to be the season of joy and hope. But, yet again, the fates have decided we need a lesson, a very stark lesson, in acceptance, acceptance of yet another year of pandemic solitude. It\u2019s a challenge: do we give in and give up a chance to be happy again? Or do we rise up and say I\u2019m mad as hell and I\u2019m not going to take it anymore?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is not to say that you or I should take our chances by resisting and celebrating as we did in the days of yore. But there are common sense ways of safe, sound and jubilant celebration that avoid the kind of revelry that increases the odds of coming down with the coronavirus and its variants. It\u2019s Christmas! Stand firm. Take care, of course, but rejoice and enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas, in the era of COVID, is different at best. But that doesn\u2019t mean the day can be dismissed. It\u2019s the time of the year when we profess what we are \u2013 the children of God. And, come hell or high water, God is with us. It doesn\u2019t matter what your religious beliefs are. He has protected us in the past and he will protect us in the present and the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, gather as you will, taking necessary safeguards and remembering that the season \u2013 a season that stretches from Hanukah to Kwanzaa — brings with it the promise of hope. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by John Grimaldi It\u2019s supposed to be the season of joy and hope. But, yet again, the fates have decided we need a lesson, a very stark lesson, in acceptance, acceptance… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":51770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[980],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51769"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51771,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51769\/revisions\/51771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}