Πρέπει να προβάλουμε αυτά που μας ενώνουν και όχι αυτά που μας διχάζουν. Τα θετικά είναι πολλά. Τα άλλα ας μείνουν στο χρονο της ιστορίας. Το χθες, πέθανε. Το αύριο, δεν γεννήθηκε ακόμη. Καλή Χρονιά, με αισιοδοξία!At this time of the year, most of us adopt a new resolution in anticipation of the challenges in the new year. Equally, the birth of a new year also offers all of us the opportunity to recommit to work for a better future for our country Greece as well as our people all over the world. So let us begin 2014 with a commitment to the objective of national unity through courage with a renewed confidence in our collective strength to ensure the continuity of this democracy.
The tasks before us are large and difficult, and may discourage us at times, but let us not get weary. Faith and courage will give us the strength to solve them, or at least allow us to get around them. All we need to do is promote unity, work together as a community, remain calm and steadfast. Keep in mind, that people only lose wars and uphill battles from a lack of self- confidence and will.
The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms and rights require courage. We need courage to speak and act for truth and justice.
This is the legacy that HellasFrappe will leave behind to all future generations. This blog, and each of its members bear a crushing and awesome responsibility which is to absorb the wisdom of what has happened in the past and to apply it to the problems of the present, in order that future generations may be born, and live, and die, in preservation of this peace.
So let us all look into ourselves, into the depth of our souls and become something we have never been before. Let us become bigger than we have been, more courageous, greater in spirit and larger in outlook.
Join hands with me and ring in 2014 with courage. After all, Greece has displayed remarkable heroism throughout its history. We may be covered with scars, but we always recover. Besides, we are not the type of nation that ever stuck its head in the sand, but rather raised it high and offered it to fate. None of us should lose courage. Only he who thinks he is lost is lost.
We owe this to mankind, our children and their children and generations to come.
On a more personal note, I want to express my noblest respect to all of HellasFrappe's contributors, readers, fans and even its foes. I especially want to thank my HellasFrappe Forum Fans who gather every single day to discuss the issues that affect Greece, as well as the Greek people. I want them to know that I am proud of their spiritual awakening to the truth, and tell them that I appreciate them for standing by my side during some of my more weaker moments in 2013.
Equally, I also want to thank all the people who made donations to HellasFrappe in 2013 showing this blog that they trust and appreciate all of the hard work that everyone has poured into maintaining it. I personally thank each and everyone from the bottom of my heart for believing in this mission, and in me personally.
Finally I passionately congratulate all of this blog's readers for making HellasFrappe one of the most talked about blogs in the Greek Diaspora. I am proud that they have finally awakened and want to tell them that this is not the end of the journey, but actually just the beginning. As the song at the bottom of this article states "these times we're in together ... are changing us forever."
In these last hours of the year, I also want to publicly state that I am grateful for living in an era where technology has allowed me to document my thoughts, to share my opinions, to report the news to all of you everyday and to express my views in a journal that will stay timeless long after I am gone. Having lost my loved one in 2013, I have come to an understanding that what he left behind will always be remembered because our time on this earth is short, and after we are gone, all that’s left is the effect we’ve had on others.
And I am proud to say that HellasFrappe has had an effect on many! And that is why our common aim in 2014 should be to courageously write the next chapter in this journal, united with a sense of sharing the same principles and values.
So let us join hands in gratitude for all the things that both blessed, and hurt us in 2013.
Happy New Year! Thank you, and God bless you all
Signed
Marina Spanos
Editor/Publisher
HellasFrappe