My name is John Thomas Rourke, some call me The Survivalist. I want to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and Bob offered me the use of this venue to do so.
I saw my the world go through turmoil and it ended long ago; Bob watched it die. It was shaken, changed and finally destroyed by man’s greed and insane ego, but I want to leave you this message of hope.
You can survive… my family and I did; but YOU must get involved and fight to survive. And in the process you must be willing to change, not who you are… but what you might become.
You see, while you and I have lived different lives… we have seen many of the same things and suffered many of the same hurts and pains. We both have known fear and loss and have suffered because of things outside our ability to control. Most of the time we did nothing to deserve the pains we suffered.
This is the way life is—sometimes we have input into what happens to us… and we should exercise that input. Sometimes we have none; and it is not what happens to us that is important but how we respond to what happens.
I’m not being melancholy, just twice a year I have these feelings. Once in October when we celebrate the birthday of an old Russian soldier named Ishmael Varakov and again at Christmas. Like you, I find that experiencing these feelings can be… painful and troubling. But, we are at least still alive to experience them and that beats the alternative all to pieces.
Remember, peace is seldom perfect and neither is love. As long as you are alive… success is NEVER certain, failure is NEVER final and goodbye does NOT mean forever, so PLAN AHEAD.
Now from me, John Rourke, my wife, Emma, my son, Michael, and his wife, Natalia, and my daughter, Annie, and her husband, Paul, and all of our children…Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah. From Sarah and Otto Croenberg and everyone in my world, to each of you in this world, let us pray for peace on Earth and good will to men.
-JTR
PS: From the Andersons and the Aherns… May you have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed Holiday Season!
Merry Christmas to you and yours, as well!