God’s gifts
My Christmas Eve column today brings together several unforgettable stories over the past year that will be familiar to readers of this blog. It’s enriching, inspiring stories like these that keep me going when Washington politics wears me down — and remind me of how truly blessed we are.
***
God’s Gifts
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2008
The Wal-Mart stampede in Long Island last month exposed the ugliest side of the Christmas season. But not all Americans live by “The Blitz Line Starts Here” credo. Not all of us rush to store shelves in search of the greatest gifts. Sometimes, they can be discovered in the hearts and souls of total strangers. If only you look.
What an extraordinary treasure America was given in Dong Yun Yoon. The naturalized American from Korea lost his entire family in a San Diego military jet crash three weeks ago. The tragedy claimed the lives of his infant daughter, toddler daughter, wife, and mother-in-law. It wrecked his house and upended his world.
But Mr. Yoon refused to blame the pilot or bash the military. At a press conference near the site of the crash, the grieving father and husband urged his fellow citizens to pray for the pilot: “He is one of our treasures for the country…I don’t blame him. I don’t have any hard feelings. I know he did everything he could.”
In an age of shoe-tossing temper tantrums, anti-troop bigotry, and litigation gone wild, Mr. Yoon demonstrated both amazing grace and unbending patriotism in the face of unfathomable pain. His heart-wrenching plea for forgiveness resounded across the country — and around the world. Five hundred people from both the civilian and military communities came to lift Mr. Yoon up at his family’s memorial service. The assistant pastor of his church reported that they had received more than 1,000 phone calls and e-mail messages offering condolences and financial support.
Mr. Yoon’s suffering and sacrifice are powerful reminders of the preciousness of life — reminders that money can’t buy.
Haleigh Poutre is another of those priceless gifts. She’s the miracle child who was nearly beaten to death by her barbaric stepfather three years ago. Hooked to a ventilator in a comatose state, she was then nearly condemned to death by Massachusetts medical experts and the state’s criminally negligent child welfare bureaucracy, which hastily declared her to be in a hopeless vegetative state and wanted to pull the plug on her life.
God had a different plan. The government’s campaign to kill her was stopped after the then-11-year-old girl started breathing on her own and responding to commands. This little girl with an iron will to live has been nursed back to health by an amazing team of caring therapists. Her plight brought end-of-life issues again to the fore — issues that so many on both the left and right would prefer to ignore.
Haleigh the “vegetable” can now write her name, brush her own hair, and feed herself. Haleigh’s suffering and sacrifice carry powerful reminders against blind trust in the deadly duo of Big Nanny and Big Medicine — reminders that money can’t buy.
The life of Master Sgt. Anthony Davis gives us one more invaluable gift this year. On Thanksgiving weekend, his family learned that he had been killed while delivering humanitarian supplies in Biaj, Iraq. He had served in the Army for 26 years. He loved his job and he believed in his mission. The Baltimore native was married and had five children and one grandchild. His wife and daughter also served in the military.
Sergeant Davis was killed while distributing water and food in Biaj, about 250 miles north of Baghdad. He died, his family said, doing what he loved. “He was Army in every sense of the word,” Jorge Tardi, Sergeant Davis’ brother-in-law, told the Baltimore Sun. “He believed in our effort over there in Iraq. It wasn’t just a job. It wasn’t just a benefit. It wasn’t just hardship pay. He was a patriot.”
Sergeant Davis was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, but what his family will remember most is commitment to them. He was a peacemaker, they said, and a mentor to all. “‘A positive impact on somebody’s life can change their life for the better,’ That’s a quote from him,” his son Jerel said at his funeral. He “instilled in his children the importance of getting to know God.”
Sergeant Davis’s service sacrifice serves as powerful reminders never to take for granted the cherished gifts of family, faith, and freedom — reminders that money can’t buy.
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Michelle,
Thank you for your dedication to your readers, providing us with insightful news and analysis each day from a conservative’s viewpoint. I want to wish you and your family a blessed Christmas and a blessed New Year. May God’s Love be with you and your family every moment of every day.
nwsseeker
Thank you, Michelle, for help us keep up with these most wonderful examples of our heroes.
Americans. Ready. Resilient.
Wow, I could not have said it better myself nwsseeker.
I Just wanted to say Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all of you here. Stay Safe.
Semper Fi
On December 24th, 2008 at 6:47 am, Phiber0p said:
Thank you for reminding me, I should have included each of our Warriors, whether they are on the frontlines around the world as our military members are or here in the blogosphere, fighting each day to keep hope alive for our country.
May ALL have a blessed Christmas and New Year.
Yes Indeed, President Bush speaking at the convention said it well…
“Ignore the angry left”
The stories above are trully remarkable in this day and age.
Merry Christmas everyone, bless you all.
Enlisting death and suffering to further political ends?
Every bit as repugnant when it is done here as when the Left starts spluttering about it’s millenial “grim milestones” in Iraq.
The congruence between this column and Cindy Sheehan’s postmortem abuse of her own son is appalling.
Ugh.
Thank you Michelle for making it difficult to wallow in self pity and reminding us there are still people with values.
Me thinks Six Degrees is in need of some industrial strength ex lax.
Thank you Michelle for all you do. Many stories, many issues would never be noted without you and those like you. All we would have is the MSM, who do all they can to ignore the good news and promote the bad.
To compare you to Sheehan is beyond the pale, but typical of a koskid/soros suckup. Thats what happens when values are just words and morals are old fashioned values that have no place in modern society.
Where did you get your glasses? I can not for the life of me find where this column shows any signs of advancing a “political agenda”. To most of the people in this country it is Christmas Eve, so all i can say is if you don’t have anything nice to say today, just keep it to yourself. I for one, thank MM for posting this, it makes me remember and be proud of why I chose to fight and bleed for my country. On that note, Merry Christmas to you and yours, may you have a safe and blessed New Year.
Semper Fi
Mrs. Malkin, thank you for posting inspiring stories such as these. It’s easy to get caught up in the negativity of today’s world and forget that there are many wonderful people in our community who are courageously facing and overcoming the obstacles that life puts before them. Let’s keep these people and others like them in our thoughts and prayers this Christmas season. Merry Christmas to you, Mrs. Malkin, and all of your readers!
Thank you, Michelle, for everything you do.
Merry Christmas to you all, and a happy and healthy New Year. God bless.
Great column.
I hope the entire Malkin family has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year!
Thank you, Michelle, for that beautiful column, as well as for all your blogging.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Michelle, her family, and all her readers!
Semper fi!
Julie the Jarhead
That is an outstanding column. Merry Christmas.
Thank you Michelle for sharing these inspiring stories that touch the human spirit and demonstrate through their character, survival, and sacrifice that speak to the rest of us on how to try to live our lives for the good of our souls, families, friends, community, and nation.
To all of the liberals visiting this site: Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes.
To all my conservative friends on this site: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Thanks, Michelle, for reminding us that there is more to life than news headlines and that for all our problems today there is hope for a better tomorrow.
Have a great holiday!
Thanks Michelle for posting this warm and classy mention of some truly inspiring individuals.
God Bless you, your family and have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Hopefully being one of those friends,
MERRY CHRISTMAS BACK TO YOU BOOMER.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Thank you, Michelle, for a wonderful column.
Thank you for three powerful reminders of God’s gifts to us.
Let us also remember His greatest gift to us.
Merry Christmas to everyone here!
Have’nt posted in awhile, but have been keeping up. Thanks Michelle and all for what you do. Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year to all here. God bless our troops and families past and present.
Six degrees you are 180 degrees off the mark with your idiotic comment. Didn’t your mom advised you to keep your trap shut if you have nothing good to say about anyone? Well, can’t blame you since you’re just living up to your persona of a nitwit and mindless liberal. BTW, give thanks to my fellow military veterans who sacrificed a lot in serving our country to guarantee your right to spew vitriolic remarks and foulmouth your neighbors and also for me to wish you and your family the best and God’s Blessings during the holidays.
“Don’t Tread on Me” & Semper Fi!
I wish the Malkin Family the very best during this Christmas season and God Bless you for your insight and perspective on life.
Michelle, thank you for this wonderful column today, illustrating the blessings of others also bless all of us. Merry Christmas to you and your family!
To Six Degrees and all others who look for a political agenda in everything they read, I will pray for you. It must be a sad and tortured existence to be unable to see miracles and blessings all around you and instead see agenda and machinations.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Michelle,
What a wonderful column, we do have a lot to be grateful for. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Merry Christmas to all posters on this blog.
Seageat Davis, RIP and God Bless you and your family.
O/T, but here’s Larry Sinclair’s Christmas present to Obama…
That was a wonderful collaboration of humanity which is best served with respect for life, respect for each other and respect for those who gave their lives to help others.
To those who served, forgave, moved forward; Bless you.
Amen. Merry Christmas.
Michelle,
The article is exactly the right touch and tone for Christmas. It exemplifies everything that is good and uplifting about Americans and America.
Thank you very much. Merry Christmas to you and your family and to everyone that is following Michelle.
We are truly blessed to be Americans, and God makes His power and majesty known in the gifts He gives us in such precious people.
Thank you for the article MM, as usual your on top the important stories of life, 3 courageous individuals, once more giving me faith and hope in my fellow man.
Merry Christmas to you, your family and the posters here at your site. That includes the lefties, maybe they’ll receive the gifts of tolerance, patience, care and honesty… attributes they preach about but always seem to come up short on themselves.
MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL AND TO ALL, DO HAVE A GOOD NIGHT.
I would like to thank Michelle for all that she brings to us and wish her the merriest of Christmases!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka
and Happy New Years!
For our Atheist friends Happy Holidays! ( Holy days)
America, The United States of America was founded by honest and moral men, in order to form a more perfect nation, with Judeo-Christian values and deep understanding of the power exerted over man by governments. Hopefully, our nation will reverse the course that has taken us away from this core of our strength!
In the coming year this quote seems to be significant for our country!
“All that is needed for the forces of evil to succeed is for enough good men to remain silent. ” Burke
God Bless
HAVE A BLESSED AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!
God Bless and Merry Christmas
A Conversation at the End
Judas walk with me, Yes teacher? How much do you believe, trust, have faith, and love me?
With all my heart teacher Why?
I have a task for you and only you.
Name it and it shall be done.
Listen before you decide, you will be approached by those that wish to silence us. They will offer you money and prestige to betray me.
But master I could never do this.
Do this you must.
My message has been delivered, if I linger any longer there will be more than my blood that is shed. I can not allow this. My time here must end so that all to come can be saved.
They will offer you Silver and tell you all you have to do is kiss me. Then I shall be taken and crucified.
No Master how can I do this?
You can because it must be done, do it out of your faith and belief in me, and know even though you shall be marked as the traitor forever, it is your act of love that will save blood from being shed now and will help lead to the salvation of millions.
Is your Faith and belief in me strong enough to do this ?
For you my master it shall be done.
And to the rest of us on the Eve of the Masters Birth,
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Thanks for a great Christmas message: one of giving.
This has been one helluva year for me and my family. What has come to us was in direct proportion to what we gave. And give we did.
What i learned was that giving is from the heart. Anything else is bullsh*t. All three stories reflect the same.
I am so sick of the bullshit being proffered up in the media as somehow reflecting the best of humanity…… it is sickening how short shrift is given to real stories about the best of us.
Let’s hope 2009 sees the dinosaur media catch its lunch over the Obingo Presidency….and ultimately we get to see this group of phoney baloney “Professionals” lumber off and die a quick journalistic death. I am tired of their pimping life.
Tonite I pray that the Nation sobers up. Just sobers up and stops trifling with the sensational defects of peoples personalities- which although glaring- have nothing to do with what we the People must focus on in the coming year.
If it doesnt come from a mind lit by the wisdom of the heart- i aint buyin it. Life is too damn short.
Bear1909out
Michelle, thank you for pointing out what is truly important, and reminding us that there are good people out there.
We forget it because of the slime of politics.
My family wishes you and your family, and your dedicated readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Thank you, Michelle. Beautiful.