{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://adriansmith.house.gov/optimism-new-year", "Optimism for the New Year", "2013-12-20", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "NE", "Adrian Smith", "S001172", "adriansmith.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "During the holiday season we gather with family and friends to celebrate our many blessings, remember the past, and look forward to the future.\u00a0 This year, it would be easy to be pessimistic about the future of our country.\u00a0 Our nation and our government face many challenges.\u00a0 However, President Reagan\u2019s Christmas Address in 1981 reminds us of the many great obstacles we have overcome before.\nIn the spirit of President Reagan, I believe our nation\u2019s best days are ahead of us.\u00a0 I remain grateful to our men and women in uniform and their families for defending our freedom, which makes us the greatest nation on Earth.\u00a0 I wish all Nebraskans a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.\nPresident Ronald Reagan\nRadio Address to the Nation\u00a0\nDecember 23, 1981\nTonight, in millions of American homes, the glow of the Christmas tree is a reflection of the love Jesus taught us. \u00a0Like the shepherds and wise men of that first Christmas, we Americans have always tried to follow a higher light, a star, if you will. \u00a0At lonely campfire vigils along the frontier, in the darkest days of the Great Depression, through war and peace, the twin beacons of faith and freedom have brightened the American sky. \u00a0At times our footsteps may have faltered, but trusting in God's help, we've never lost our way.\n...\nLike the National Christmas Tree, our country is a living, growing thing planted in rich American soil. \u00a0Only our devoted care can bring it to full flower. \u00a0So, let this holiday season be for us a time of rededication. \u00a0Even as we rejoice, however, let us remember that for some Americans, this will not be as happy a Christmas as it should be. \u00a0I know a little of what they feel. \u00a0I remember one Christmas Eve during the Great Depression, my father opening what he thought was a Christmas greeting. \u00a0It was a notice that he no longer had a job. \u00a0Over the past year, we've begun the long, hard work of economic recovery. \u00a0Our goal is an America in which every citizen who needs and wants a job can get a job.\n...\nA few months before he took up residence in this house, one of my predecessors, John Kennedy, tried to sum up the temper of the times with a quote from an author closely tied to Christmas, Charles Dickens. \u00a0We were living, he said, in the best of times and the worst of times. \u00a0Well, in some ways that's even more true today. \u00a0The world is full of peril, as well as promise. \u00a0Too many of its people, even now, live in the shadow of want and tyranny.\n\u2026\nOnce, earlier in this century, an evil influence threatened that the lights were going out all over the world. \u00a0Let the light of millions of candles in American homes give notice that the light of freedom is not going to be extinguished. \u00a0We are blessed with a freedom and abundance denied to so many. \u00a0Let those candles remind us that these blessings bring with them a solid obligation, an obligation to the God who guides us, an obligation to the heritage of liberty and dignity handed down to us by our forefathers and an obligation to the children of the world, whose future will be shaped by the way we live our lives today.\nChristmas means so much because of one special child. \u00a0But Christmas also reminds us that all children are special, that they are gifts from God, gifts beyond price that mean more than any presents money can buy. \u00a0In their love and laughter, in our hopes for their future lies the true meaning of Christmas.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://adriansmith.house.gov/optimism-new-year"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7440840601921082, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}