Page 54 2013 Home for the Holidays Special edition of LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com
A message for the season and all through the year 2014
From Lincoln Mayor Keith Snyder
Hope. We use that word a lot during this time of year. “I hope you can
make it to the party.” Or, “I hope I get that PlayStation 4 for Christmas.
Or, “I hope Aunt Bertha brings something different for Christmas than
that green Jell-O mold with the white stuff on the bottom.”
Hope is more than just a wish. The dictionary defines it: “to cherish a de-
sire with anticipation; to desire with expectation of achievement; to ex-
pect with confidence.” Hope is expectation and desire wrapped in opti-
mism and confidence.
During the Christmas season of 1860, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the
well-known American poet, had every reason to be full of hope. He and
his wife, Fanny, had been blessed with five healthy children, and he was
enjoying great fame and professional success. One of his most famous
poems, “Paul Revere’s Ride” (“Listen my children and you shall hear of
the midnight ride of Paul Revere …”), was published that year. He was
elated over the election of one of his fans, Abraham Lincoln. Longfellow
thought Mr. Lincoln’s election signaled the triumph of freedom and the
end of slavery for the nation.
Tragedy followed for the nation and for Longfellow in 1861. The opening
shots of the Civil War were fired on April 12, and in July of that year, Mrs.
Longfellow was sealing some locks of her daughter’s hair with candle
