Finding Hope This Holiday Season
The holiday season usually marks a time when family and friends gather together, but many Americans are planning different types of celebrations this year, choosing to help keep their loved ones and communities safe by following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines. We all hope the hard decisions we make this year will allow us to be together next year.
Sadly, for too many families, the holidays are forever changed as they grieve the death of a loved one whose life was taken by this dangerous virus.
This year has also brought different hardships to many other American families — far too many people are struggling just to keep a roof over their head and to keep food on the table.
Despite this season of joy, we cannot minimize the gravity of the situation. But we can still find reasons for hope. In fact, I wholeheartedly believe it’s the only way we can get through this. If you’re struggling to find hope this year, I understand. So I wanted to share with you how I’m finding hope at this moment.
Just this week, I felt hopeful as Congress came together to pass a long overdue, additional COVID-19 relief package. This package will directly help struggling Americans by extending the eviction moratorium and providing direct relief, housing assistance, and extended unemployment insurance benefits. While this deal isn’t enough on its own, it is a promising step after months of gridlock. As part of the bipartisan group that helped negotiate major elements of the package — and push leaders of both sides to move forward — I saw that despite the national political climate, it’s still possible to find bipartisan common ground.
I also found hope earlier this month while watching health care workers in New Hampshire and across the country receive the first vaccinations. They have battled this virus — often at their personal expense — in an effort to save lives and quell the ongoing pandemic. While we still must continue to social distance, wear a mask, and wash our hands, having both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines receive emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration is nothing short of a holiday miracle.
As always, what gives me the most hope is the generosity and resilience I’ve seen across the country, but especially in the state of New Hampshire. Throughout this year, Granite Staters have shown up for one another over and over again. That all-hands-on-deck spirit has always been at our core, but at a time like this, it makes all the difference.
If we continue to approach this challenging time with that same compassion and earnestness, we will get through this and we will be stronger for it. I know we can do it.
So from my family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. May you find peace, solace, and joy in this season of light.
