In the few years I have been a newspaper editor, I’ve never had the privilege of answering a letter quite like little Virginia O’Hanlon’s. But, I know if I did, my response would be very similar to the one published a little more than 115 years ago by New York Sun editor Francis Pharcellus Church.

Because I know there is a Santa Claus. I know it with every fiber of my being.

In tough times like these, I am frequently reminded of the tough years that hit my family during the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. That economic downturn all but killed off my grandfather’s civil engineering firm.