Dec. 24, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: Everyone in town loved the two boys and what they stood for. Some thought of them as identical twins. They were not. Far from it. Their parents certainly knew the facts of life. Before they were conceived they would have raging arguments over the kitchen table on names for their boys. That’s how Peace and Freedom came into this world.
Now it was Christmas 2025 and soon it would be 2026. The past year was especially rough on the two boys, what with a couple of real wars going on far from town and a national election closer to home.
Peace would constantly talk about the needless destruction of buildings and the loss of life in the Middle East and why Palestine and Israel could not just sit down for a few hours and settle their differences peacefully. After all, it will take years to rebuild what has needlessly been destroyed, he argued. He had seen the pictures on television. Pictures were the way Peace learned.
Freedom thought differently. He, along with his supporters, would point to the war in Ukraine as why without freedom everything is lost, not just your land, but the freedom to speak in public what you think in private. He learned from words.
And so it went. The disputes between Peace and Freedom also hit home. Those on the right and the left became angry. They failed to understand that clear differences on issues is a fundamental step towards better laws. It’s called consensus; it’s how America works.
So what to do? The boys had an idea. Peace and Freedom would write a joint letter to the local paper. They were tired of the town using them as punching bags. Since it was Christmas they thought of a prayer: May the peace of understanding on both sides of any dispute and the freedom to write letters to the editor be with us. Always. Amen. DAVID REYNOLDS Rockbridge County
