Yule Tide Greetings

Well, once again, Christmas is here. And soon Santa will drop off some gifts and head back north again. The rest of us will celebrate by giving presents, eating turkey or ham and pumpkin pie. This is the time of “peace on earth and goodwill toward all men (and women).” And what a wonderful time it is!

It’s also a time to test our integrity. When we say “goodwill toward all men” do we really mean everyone or just those whom we qualify to be the recipients?

It’s hard to tell these days. I read so many stories of ill-will justified on moral principles. Like boycotting commercials on a TV show that characterizes American Muslims as regular Americans trying to raise families and make a contribution to our country. Like characterizing people of difference sexual orientation as evil and justifying it on Biblical quotes. Like one church preaching that another church is the home of the anti-Christ. None of this sounds like goodwill toward others to me.

Why am I writing this in a Christmas column? Because Christmas is one of the greatest American illusions. It is represented as an 8x10 glossy image of happy families sitting around the perfect dinner table enjoying all the benefits of being American. But Christmas time is one of those times our illusions are especially vulnerable. Why? Because we proclaim them openly and when they’re exposed, can be examined more closely.

Peace on earth? We’ve just ended an unnecessary nine-year war that killed tens of thousands of people, including our own brave military. We are still prosecuting a war that should have ended when we drove Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan. Our military budget is larger than all other nation’s combined while our schools and social programs are on the chopping block and our infrastructure crumbles.   

Good will toward all men? Let’s see. Condemning those whose lives have been devastated by Wall Street criminals and corporate Banksters because they need food stamps and welfare to survive. Oh! How about those who need medical care and don’t have insurance? Yet there is a persistent effort to repeal the new Health Care Law so they’ll never have coverage. And finally, let’s blame their problems on them; they just don’t try hard enough. Fifty percent of Americans are now classified as in poverty or near-poverty. Is it possible that all of these 150 million people are simply lazy welfare cheats?

I know this doesn’t read like a Christmas column. I just couldn’t ignore the duplicity of  celebrating a holiday as though we actually practice the love and good will reflected in it.  

If I sound like Scrooge, it’s because I just know that too many people will scrimp and save and still not being able to celebrate this season as they have in the past. I feel that hot shot of adrenalin in my sternum when I think of the spirit of Christmas juxtaposed over the cacophony of political rhetoric blaming our economic conditions on the least of us.  I think of the actual societal ills that could be fixed with the money spent on the accoutrements of the season. It pains me when I read the comments in our newspapers written by good Americans that condemn and demean other Americans because of their ill-fortune.

Well, I doubt the ghosts of Christmas are going to visit any of us as they did in Dickens’ tale. But I can hope that the messages that old Ebenezer learned can somehow sink into our national psyche. Not just at Christmas time but all though the year.

This was a difficult column to write. But it’s a good time to reflect on the distressing economic conditions in our country for far too many people. When viewed through the prism of the Christmas season, the duplicity in the American narrative becomes glaringly obvious.

Merry Christmas to all.

Robert DeFilippis