A couple of years ago Hallmark Christmas movies were being attacked as too white, too traditional, too heterosexual, and not enough gay, black and, yes, Islamic. As Slate.com put it in 2017, \u201c\u2026they all depict a fantasy world in which America has been Made Great Again.\u201d Salon.com agreed: \u201cThis is a cultural representation issue and one made especially disheartening when you take into account the way these movies sell a nostalgia for a false, if durable, vision of an America that never existed.\u201d Slate and Salon are leftist publications that criticize everything they perceive as traditional American values. So Hallmark changed, and now it is part of the \u201cwoke\u201d culture. But not all of America is like that, even today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wayland, Ohio is a small, rural burg even today. While Griff\u2019s old post office\/general store no longer exists, and the town hall and church built in the early 1800s were sold by the township trustees in the late 1970s, Wayland still recalls the strength and ideals of America and the American way of life. Wayland is connected to Paris, Palmyra, Deerfield, Charlestown, and Edinburgh\u2014each about five miles from the other. The people that lived in these communities when I was growing up were diverse\u2014Italian, Welsh, Hungarian, German, Black, White, Catholic, Protestant, very poor, middle class, upper middle class. They were farmers, factory workers, storekeepers, volunteer firemen, construction workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember one Christmas, the Umbaughs across the road from our church lost everything in a fire. They were not members of the church and they were largely first generation \u201cforeigners\u201d to the area. But everyone made sure they had food, clothing, housing, fuel and fellowship until they got back on their feet. Leonard Bell\u2019s father died. They lived next to Paris school. Everyone chipped in and made sure their needs were met. If someone\u2019s car stopped alongside the road, a neighbor would make sure they got what they needed to fix it and get back on the road. When it was harvest time, my Dad and our neighbors helped one another get the crops in. We took freshly baked cookies and pies to one another for no good reason except to be kind and neighborly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a connection between all the families in the area. And you know something, these traditions continue today. They are instilled in each of us. My wife\u2019s family lived only about 10 miles from mine. We knew each other from young ages. The American tradition depicted by Hallmark lives in them every day of the week, every month of the year, not just on Christmas. It reaches beyond differences in religious beliefs, politics, ethnic backgrounds, race, or all the \u201cisms\u201d the anti-America crowd likes to throw in our faces. We aren\u2019t perfect, but we are kind and civil. We follow a simple rule as spoken by Christ in Luke 6:31, \u201c And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise.\u201d The America that Hallmark once portrayed does exist in the hearts of those who love God, country and family. You and I are part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have a Blessed and Powerful Day!
Bill Wilson
www.dailyjot.com<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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