Merry Christmas and to better days ahead | Editorial

Merry Christmas! As people gather around the Christmas tree this morning, it will be a celebration unlike any other in recent memory. Some will wonder if it should even be a celebration at all. Chastened and saddened by the absence of family and loved ones — due to social distance or, all too often, because of sickness or death — it may not feel much like Christmas. But it is Christmas, so let us rejoice and be glad.

History provides some help. Seventy-years ago, in December 1945, America had its most joyous Christmas ever. For the first time in years, the National Christmas Tree, darkened during the war years, blazed with light at the touch of a button by President Harry Truman on Christmas Eve. The future was limitless.

World War II was over at last, years of sacrifice and privation were over, and the Greatest Generation was returning home from the fight to start new lives and build a nation of hope. But just 12 months before, that dream had devolved into a nightmare for American soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge in the awful, frozen battlefields of Belgium. Not long before, G.I.s had hopes of the war ending by Christmas, having rolled back the reeling Germans after the D-Day invasion in June. Then Hitler launched one last assault and drove back the American troops, eventually killing about 19,000 Americans and wounding 47,500 more. Suddenly, the war’s end seemed far away on Christmas Day 1944.

But everyone rallied, in stories that still resonate today. One of only two nurses at a makeshift hospital in the besieged town of Bastogne was Augusta Chiwy, a 23-year-old Afro-Belgian woman. One soldier didn’t want to be treated by her because of her color, so the Army doctor suggested he could join the ranks of the frozen corpses outside if he didn’t like it. The nurse pitched in, ministered care and saved lives. Shared humanity trumped racism.

And so it is today, when we let the better angels of our nature perch upon our shoulder. This month, the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States was given to Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse who wanted to lead by example, both as a medical professional and a Black woman, to show the importance of the vaccine and of trusting science. She was inoculated by another Black medical professional on live TV. The importance of the symbolism couldn’t have been clearer during a pandemic that has hit Black Americans even harder than others — and this, in a nation that has felt so much pain and suffering this year, with more than 320,000 already dead and hundreds of thousands still likely to die even with a vaccine before the pandemic ebbs.

Just as those soldiers in the frozen foxholes couldn’t imagine the joyous Christmas that would come in December 1945, it can be hard to think that better times will return. But they will. Because just like those on the front lines in World War II, front-line workers today are up to the challenge, and we’ll all pull through this together, if we help them to help us.

So gather around the tree today, and celebrate the best gifts we can share. Our humanity. Our decency. And our willingness to think of others before ourselves. Never forget that we are more alike than different. Spare a thought for those less fortunate, who have suffered greatly this year, but in the spirit of the season, remember that a rebirth is at hand. Give thanks, and be glad.

Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Times Chairman and CEO Paul Tash, Editor of Editorials Graham Brink, and editorial writers Elizabeth Djinis, John Hill and Jim Verhulst. Follow @TBTimes_Opinion on Twitter for more opinion news