To be what, exactly? The season where we are to be jolly, merrily rolling along, overspending on nonsense that will shortly be stuffed in closets, to be donated or regifted a few months later. Part and parcel of the whole season, along with the intricate planning and logistics necessary to gather the clan. This year, though, is different. A space wanderer who left earth a year ago would not recognize the season here and would wonder what the hell happened.
What happened is that the chickens came home to roost or the wages of sin were fully repaid, or any other cliche or idiom that all state the same thing: We goofed - major. We are now reaping the crop of what we planted, and it ain't fun, is it? We pushed, shoved, encouraged, and developed a society where we forgot the others of the world. Smug and snug, or so we thought, in our own little pods, before the pods of today, we pushed away images of growing homeless encampments, including the growth of family population of said camps. We stepped over the increasing numbers, once again, of those sleeping on the sidewalks of our cities, in doorways and on subway grates. Oh, a time or two, or in a fixed routine with a "pet" beggar, we would throw in a few coins or bills into a cup, a hat, or an instrument case and marvel at the talent one finds in subway tunnels. And on we went with our lives.
But life tends to catch up. Nothing is for nothing and bills come due. We are now in the bill paying phase of life and it is a struggle, not a pretty scenario. Frankly, I wonder if and when we can ever get out of this phase, how long it will go on and should we be lucky and talented and wise enough to rebalance, to fix and mend, to unite in a search for a fair and equitable society - well, will we? Ever? Or have we totally lost our way, beyond all bread crumbs, GPS and Waze help, no British accented sexy voice to guide us home or to whatever destination we aim for.
The milk of human kindness. That is the ingredient we have shed along the way. We ignore the fact that some "improvements" crush the hopes of others. They trash the dreams of others. That need not be. For the sake of a few dollars or even millions, why do we cede to the corporations the right to amass revolting amounts of money, even as they lay off people? Why do we tell people to tighten their belts, to buck up, tough times are coming, are here already, even as there is overconsumption by others to the point of nausea? Why do we throw out such excess food while other families are staring into the windows, the hunger gnawing away at their insides, the hunger not only for food, but for a life, for a future for their kids, for a fair shot?
We have allowed elected officials to degenerate into a crowd of incompetent, selfish, corrupt individuals whose interest in governing grows only as it attaches to their bottom lines, be it in power or wealth. The people they represent are of concern during election and campaign season and then back in the closet of who cares they go, not even to be regifted!
We have elected and then enabled a deranged man in the throes of growing dementia to rule the day, to drag along the moral weaklings of the GOP who to this day cannot find their spine, their balls, their moral point of gravity to call Joe Biden the President-elect. They allow the utter dangerous nonsense to go on, to challenge the foundations of our democratic society. All because they are afraid of that deranged man. Worse, they continue to give him credence and allow him airtime to spout his dangerous garbage.
Even as there are good people who struggle to care for others, for themselves, to keep a steady hand on reality, there are so many that fight against that. In one place they paste up stickers that they are all around, along with their swastika symbols. In another they leave nooses, drawn on walls, or hanging from a doorway. Or we hear about the brown criminals ruining our society. Well, do I have news for you! And no, it is not raining men - though we could use some real men right now! It is we, us, who are ruining our society, from top to bottom, from left to right.
So from a petty dictator in the Village, along with other petty people to madmen in office, brother! Do we have work to do. An editor of a useless piece of propaganda here in the Village styles herself as the lord of all that is printed. Never mind the motto of a free press, for she favors censorship, particularly censorship of anything that might smack of criticism of her Lord and Master, David Israel, even as he descends more and more into a paranoid state of secrecy and opaqueness of mind and action. And meanwhile, as nothing of opposition gets printed, letters to the editor thrown out, the Village descends into perilous times.
People who are encouraging reform, pushing for a better society, are demeaned, called names and one name in particular puzzles me. That is the term socialist, which has come to be a pejorative one. People are 'accused' of being socialist. Well, okay, one can differ in thinking, but those who shout the loudest are the ones who benefit the most from that 'socialism'. Medicare. Social Security. SNAP. Agriculture subsidies. Federal education funds. Funding for infrastructure. All taken even as they shout socialist, with a venomous tone of accusation. They forget that it was the socialists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, fighting and shouting in the streets, striking, even as the scabs and the cops beat on them, even then, they persisted and to them we owe the thanks for the better life that we have been lucky and blessed enough to have. Should we turn back the clock on all this because some call it tainted, 'socialist' - ooohhhh! Should we send the kids back to work for ten hours a day?
And now, we are in an era that is losing it all. We shoot missiles at other missiles, so other countries build better ones, even as people starve, lose jobs, fall ill and die. We marvel at the huge and many homes of the absurdly wealthy, the conspicuous consumption, even as too many in the world live on streets, shacks and shanties, tin sheds and cardboard boxes. We argue over trillions of dollars even as a few dollars would help so many back onto a ladder of life, of hope, of goodness and dreams.
So 'tis the season to think, to evaluate, to come down strongly on the side of humanity. Let us give the gift of life to those who need it so. Let us remember the true values of Christmas, Chanukah, and Kwanza, a triumvirate of holidays with moral, ethical, and human rights underpinnings - if we continue to recognize those values.
There is always hope if we but look for it in the right places. Let us certainly give gifts, but make them gifts of purpose, of fun, and yet gifts of seriousness and commitment as well. That will indeed be a good season and despite that deranged man's rantings - A Happy Holiday Season to all - Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanza and any other seasonal holiday that I have missed or do not know of. We are all G-d's creatures and so our holidays remind us. Let us share those reminders, share in their values and spread the joy.
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