EDITORIAL – Merry Christmas to each and everyone

As with all past Christmases, The Freeman wishes its readers, advertisers, and all those who have become part of its storied history, the best of Christmas and the holidays. May everyone who you love stay close and warm, and everything of value remain worthy of their keeping. And may God in his infinite wisdom give the mercy that makes all worthy of his creation.

In keeping with the desire to provide all the members of The Freeman family the opportunity to be just like any other Filipino family, they will have no work onDecember 24 and 25. Consequently, there will be no issues of the paper on December 25 and 26. Regular work resumes on the 26th, so the first issue after the break will be on the 27th.

This brief respite is mentioned here to allow the community in which we operate and for whom we serve a clear picture and understanding of what their newspaper is all about. Their newspaper is not just a sheaf of newsprint folded in the middle and on which is printed the latest news and the most interesting information. Your newspaper is made up of people too like you who need to be in the spirit of the season as is everybody else.

There are no supermen and superwomen in the organization, just a bunch of dedicated and hard-working personnel who strive daily to bring you what you expect in a newspaper, people who go to most of the same places you go to, who go through most of the same experiences as you. There is a need to stress the point in order for us to touch base and reconnect, especially in this season of cheer, peace, and understanding.

This is being done in recognition of the fact that it is not all the time that good tidings come your way. Indeed, it is more often than not that news that make people uncomfortable are what gets offered in the news. Let it be said that we are not harbingers of doom. We are simply the mirrors of the society in which we all live.

That said, there are great lessons to be learned from knowing what is happening and where these happenings tend to bring us. This is the role of the newspaper, the role we have acted out for nearly a century, a role we are confident you have learned to trust. And that is the simple goal of this newspaper – to keep that trust by earning it with each edition, day after day.

Knowing that, and expecting you to know that too helps to make Christmas just a little bit even more meaningful. And so we take this opportunity to thank you and to wish you the best. From all of us in The Freeman – a very merry merry Christmas to you all. May you all stay safe not just during the season but throughout the years that God has blessed us with.