The December Blues

By Hank Silverberg

It’s a cold winter Sunday in December. It’s the 8^th and final day of Chanukah. It’s snowing. A few miles from where I write this, thousands of people are crowded into the shopping malls. The music is festive, and with the economy in fair shape, if you believe the so-called experts, people are spending their hard- earned money on things they really don’t need.

The Sunday morning talking heads were all gabbing about the latest revelation in the Russia investigation which appears to be no revelation at all and @realDonaldTrump is tweeting nonsense again.

We are in the middle of the “holiday season” that seems to start these days with Halloween and end on January 2^nd. For many people it is a joyous time of the year. They spend lots of time with family and friends, and worship in a variety of ways depending on their faith.

But as we approach December 25^th, my blood pressure rises.  You see, I don’t care how many shopping days there are left until Christmas. I don’t care if Mommy is kissing Santa Claus, nor am I looking for a place to hang mistletoe. This year I don’t even want to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Why, you ask?

Because Mr. Potter seems to be running the country, and a large group of our countryman don’t seem to care. The people around the self-centered moneybag don’t even want to pick Grandma up off the ground after she was run over by that reindeer because she has no health insurance.

The holiday hype seems more ridiculous than ever this year after the United States of America separated immigrant children from their parents and put them into cages. Peace on earth and good will towards men seems hypocritical as we move closer to the 18^th year of war in Afghanistan, and our government is NOT outraged by the murder and dismemberment of a reporter by the Crown Prince of a country that is supposed to be our friend.

Lots of people don’t seem to care about the hate that led a Nazi to run over a young woman at a protest in Charlottesville, but they get all bent out of shape over the use of the words “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”.

The sight of the Chanukah lights every year always makes me smile, and it did so again this year. A celebration of religious freedom is a good thing. But as they burned out on the last night that statistic I wrote about a few weeks ago, the 37 percent rise of anti-Semitism in the United States, comes back into my mind. It doesn’t seem to go away.                                 

I am hoping the town comes through with donations to replace the money uncle Billy lost. But this year Mr. Potter has total control of the military, the Congress and banking regulations, so the common folk probably don’t have the resources. 

I hope to spend Christmas Day doing the same thing I did last year, helping prepare a meal for the homeless at a local shelter. And when New Year’s Eve arrives and 2018 fades away, I will hope for something better in 2019 

But if the pattern holds, as soon as the ornaments are packed away, the tree is put out on the curb and the wrapping paper is in the trash bin, the public will go back to focusing on who gets kicked off the island and the entertainment value of Superbowl commercials. Congress, new faces, similar rhetoric, will go back to holding hearings that accomplish nothing and investigations that lead nowhere and the only people with smiles on their faces will be Vladimir Putin and Mr. Potter.  

(Your comments and suggestions are welcome, see section below)

(Great holiday gift--special prices on my book with signature. Send quiery to hanksilverberg@gmail.com)