I can’t claim to be on Sandra & John O’Connor’s Christmas list – that’s Sandra as in Justice Sandra Day O’Connor – but I have friends who are, and this year’s missive, a legal-sized color-photocopied ‘Annual Report 2001,’ is simple, folksy, and to the point.
‘We were beginning to take life easy,’ runs the first headline above a photo of John taking a nap, hat over face in a recliner. ‘Then September 11th changed our world‘ – there is a photo of the two of them opening mail with surgical masks over their mouths. ‘But life goes on‘ – a photo of Justice O’Connor holding up a large fish she appears to have caught – ‘as we get back to basics – our Country, our Constitution, and the Bible.‘ The last photo has them standing at their front door, flanked by small American flags. ‘May God Bless America – and you too!‘
I don’t know whether Attorney General John Ashcroft sends out year-end greetings, but judging from his 1999 remarks at Bob Jones University – ‘We have no king but Jesus‘ – my guess is that they might be at least as pious.
The cards I get tend to be secular but no less heartfelt. ‘Let us cherish the gift of family and friends this Holiday Season,’ reads one. I like that sentiment very much. ‘Peace on earth, goodwill to men.‘ For my money, that one’s the best of all. All it needs is ‘and women.’
Wishing you all the best this holiday season, however you view the world.
