Dial 211 for help

There are lots of worries on almost everyone’s mind these days. Bail-outs in the billions of dollars go to mismanaged corporations. Interest rates have been slashed to the point there’s little left to slash, leaving the possibility of a true depression on the horizon.

There are two warfronts where Americans put their lives on the line every day, leaving loved ones home to fret about their safety.

Alaska is facing a budget conundrum because of the falling price of oil.

And in many local homes, families wonder how they will be able to pay the bills.

So it wouldn’t be surprising if people feel less upbeat this holiday season.

There’s still plenty to be thankful for as we head into Christmas and look forward to a new year.

People have rallied all over the Valley with holiday dinners for the less fortunate, and in the case of the Christmas Day Dinner at Wasilla High School, even the fortunate can get a fine meal.

Food banks continue to receive donations so the hungry can have full bellies as winter winds blow outside.

Local police departments and Alaska State Troopers have combined forces to make sure underprivileged children and lonely seniors get a gift to cheer them up.

It may be cliché or corny, but giving is better than receiving, and the Valley continues to be a giving community, even in the face of the worrisome times these days.

Still, there may be someone you know who needs more than a meal or a small gift to lift their spirits. There is a simple phone number that many people haven’t heard about that could be helpful.

It’s 211.

Similar to 411, a 211 call can lead to a variety of sources to help people who may be suffering.

This is how its Web site — www.alaska211.org — describes the service:

“Alaska 2-1-1 is a free, confidential, health and human services information and referral system brought to you by United Ways of Alaska. Getting connected to the help you need is easy. You may speak directly with an information and referral specialist live by dialing 2-1-1 or 1-800-478-2221 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or you may search our online data base 24/7.”

It doesn’t matter if you live in Adak or Point Hope, there is help available from numerous experts at 211.

For example, if you click on the “Individual and Family Life” category you get information that ranges from care and support of elderly or ill people to spiritual enrichment.

And, of course, dialing 911 is always an option.

It’s important to make sure these last days of 2008 don’t end in tragedy. Reach out if you sense someone needs a helping hand or a sympathetic ear.

You’ll both be glad you did.

Here are some Web sites that might come in handy over the holidays and the coming new year:

• www.alaska211.org

• http://suicidehotlines.com/alaska.html

• http://focusas.com/Alaska-Hotlines.html

• www.ndtc.ak.org

• www.al-anon-ak.org

• www.area02alaska.org

Yes, Virginia …

Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun newspaper, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial. Here is her letter and that famous response again:

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.

Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.

Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’

Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O’HANLON.

115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.