Published December 2000 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View
By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Holiday Blessings
The holiday season is upon us. Decorations have been hung, candles and lights placed in frost-rimmed windows, and seasonal songs drift across the chill air. In stores, billions of dollars worth of goods are being sold, wrapped, and mailed to happy recipients. Steamy kitchens along quiet streets are perfumed with the scent of crisp cookies, fragrant fruitcakes, creamy fudge, and other family specialties being prepared by loving hands. Churches and synagogues are filled with regular visitors and with those whose worship centers around the holy seasons. This season of the spirit is a good time to count our blessings. Americans are a fortunate people, blessed with a strong economy that offers opportunities for anyone willing to work hard. We are blessed with a strong military full of fine men and women who keep us and our interests safe around the world. We are blessed with a governmental system designed with enough foresight and care to provide a defined and orderly process for the transition from one administration to the next, in even the unusual circumstances in which we currently find ourselves. The Founding Fathers who established our Constitution were truly wise men, and their document for governance has proved to be a very precious gift, indeed. Other nations experience such turmoil with every government transition, or live in the dark shadow of religious repression and sharply curtailed personal freedoms that we Americans can hardly imagine. In the light of that perspective, our own partisan rankling over elections and Congressional majorities pales in significance. We can all take heart from the calm manner in which the public has shown its confidence in the eventual, if delayed, decision and transition to the next administration. I hope that the spirit of good will and the laying aside of our differences that usually accompanies the holiday season can be extended into the new year, and that Americans can draw together to celebrate the coming transition to a new administration, a new Congress, and a new opportunity to enjoy the blessings of liberty that we have inherited. Those blessings are a gift to every living American from the generations before us who fought to create and preserve our system of government. Those gifts are ours to treasure, ours to exercise and enjoy, and ours to safeguard for the next generation. As we celebrate the birth of His Son, let us remember and thank the Creator for all the blessings we share. December 13, 2000