In keeping with the season, I offer a little political anecdote about Christmas.

More specifically, it’s about the moral teachings of the biblical Jesus, which formed the ethical foundation of Christmas and gave Christianity itself its true gravity.

The story is about a political clash some 60 years ago in Houston, when a boorish right-winger accosted the feisty mother of a renowned progressive populist lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Bob Eckhardt. Bob, whom I later got to know and learn from, was a fierce battler for racial equality in a time when not all Texans were singing in Kumbaya harmony.

Sure enough, at a public forum where Bob’s mom was representing him, this bonehead loudly demanded to know why her son was trying to make “them (Black people) equal to whites.” Ms. Eckhardt cut off the fellow’s ugly diatribe by, of all things, offering an........

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