As we stand on the cusp of yet another pagan variety abortion of what is supposed to be a religious holiday of celebration, let us reflect on the values we hold as a predominantly Christian nation. Christmas is supposed to be a time for Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It should be a time to reflect on his teachings and examine our behavior in light of his lessons.
Right after I get past the Black Friday sales…
Right after I get done with this week of work, after school activities, homework, Christmas shopping, cooking dinner, cleaning house, taking the family to pick out a tree and then decorating it and the house….
Right after another week of work and kids and house and cars, and oh yeah, Christmas parties and sending out Christmas cards spouting off phrases that hardly anyone epitomizes with their actions. No time for reflection yet…
Another week goes by. Christmas is almost here. Still have all the usual errands and have to race around the over packed shopping malls to get last minute gifts…
Before you know it, Christmas is here. Damn. The kids opening presents, family coming to dinner or driving to some other family’s home for dinner. Thank goodness, we’ll finally say a prayer at dinner time. We’ll say we’re thankful for baby Jesus and for all our blessings, offer up a prayer of hope for the less fortunate, and stuff our faces like gluttonous animals.
Meanwhile, in our own towns and cities and in the rural American countryside, and all around the world, children and adults will go hungry. It is easy to forget about them though; when little Capitalist Jr unwraps his new video game system and jumps around the room screaming with joy as Dad video tapes the ignorant display of greed so he can later post it on YouTube for friends and family near and far. Never mind the third world countries where indigenous people were forced out of the lands that they have survived off of for hundreds, or even thousands, of years so that huge transnational companies could rape the earth of the natural resources required for video games and cell phones and computers and ostentatious flat screen televisions. Never mind the children who will lose their homes and slowly starve all the while working as slave labor not even making enough to feed themselves on a daily basis while the lands are deforested and polluted so badly that they will never be able to return; all so we can buy another Xbox, iPad, or 60” flat screen.
Never does it cross our minds while we are out getting family pictures for Christmas post cards, or taking our kids to sit on Santa’s lap that thousands of children of “illegal immigrants” are sitting in foster care across the nation. That isn’t “our” problem. “We didn’t break the law.” Their parents broke the law and got what they deserved. Never mind that they sit in for-profit prisons that have no incentive to aid in these prisoners ending their sentences by deportation, or validation of their status which shows they are here legally. Never mind that the system is so broken that many of the parents have absolutely no idea of where their children have been placed, or how to get them back. We can sit here in the knowledge that they are bad people. They are less than us somehow and don’t deserve basic human dignity or concern. They are ruining our country. Meanwhile, crops rot on the vines in Alabama after the state passed a series of laws so strict that it terrified the farm workers into fleeing. Many are quick to jump up and down and talk about how much these people are costing the taxpayer. That rant is so easy to spread. In our materialistic world, money is our God and King. Heaven forbid our tax dollars went to support someone less fortunate. I have to wonder in this largely Christian nation, why we don’t ask ourselves, “What Would Jesus Do?” Would he let the children suffer? Would he condone our treatment of these unfortunate people whose economy has been gutted; in no small part due to the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement which was designed specifically so our American transnational corporations could benefit with little thought of the effect on Mexican (or American) citizens?
The list of transgressions of our corporately owned government doesn’t end with illegal immigrants. They wrongs are too numerous to discuss here. But the sentiment is obvious. We hate these and other people. It’s as if the Golden Rule was rendered obsolete and replaced with some fascist dictate. The question that keeps me awake at night is, “Why?” I know why, or at least I have a pretty good grasp of the manner in which we got to this dismal state. The unfortunate reality though is that many Americans don’t even realize there is a question. Some have a sneaking suspicion that there should be a question, yet the system is set up to distract them from reflection and to keep them in the mind trap that says we live in America, “The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.” “We spread democracy across the world and seek out evil wherever it hides!” The America I was told about as a child never did exist; history lessons for American children are full of myths, all designed to nationalize children so they will grow up and defend the flag without question. The problem is that America is far worse now than ever.
America has become a place where not only is acceptable to hate groups of people, it is cheered when these hatreds are publicly announced! It is acceptable to hate immigrants, both legal and illegal. It is acceptable to hate prisoners, if they are there; they deserve it, especially those on death row. Never mind if we know we have executed innocent people or that our justice system is not often just. Never mind that America, The Land of the Free, has 5% of the world’s population yet 25% of the world’s prisoners. It is okay to hate people who support abortion; after all, we should cherish life. But we don’t consider that our endless wars kill millions of innocent civilians or that our state sanctioned murders of hundreds of death row inmates teach people that only some life should be cherished. Well, if we are only going to cherish some of it, who are you to tell anyone to cherish the life of an unborn child? It is okay to hate homosexuals, it is okay to hate Muslims, it is okay to hate anyone whose political views contradict your own – the list goes on and on.
And while we sit here and fight amongst ourselves about who to hate and who not to, the corporations continue to grab power. With the Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court broke the last barrier. Now, with the passage of the 2012 National Defense authorization Act, our corporate puppet of a President will wipe out all that remains of Constitutional protections for the American people. The final piece will be in place. The government has already taught us to hate one another for various reasons. The President will have the power to indefinitely imprison anyone he deems a threat – he has already authorized the murder of American citizens without providing any due process – and American citizens will have nowhere to hide. The corporate owned media doesn’t tell us the truth, rather they add to the fear, hatred and misinformation while working in collusion with the government. The stage will be set for a repeat of the fascism of Nazi Germany.
I watch otherwise kind and generous people spew hatefully language - in sound bites provided by mass media - regarding these “others” who are far removed enough to be more of an abstract idea than human beings of flesh and blood. My heart and stomach are tied in knots of anxiety. I think of the world my grandchildren will inherit and I cringe inside. I worry about them growing up in a world where hatred and authoritarianism are the norm. I wonder why Americans cannot pull themselves away from worrying about buying ‘stuff’ to look at what is going on around them and to realize that this country, founded on freedom and tolerance, has become a world leader in intolerance. The ideals this nation was built on are slipping through our fingers. There isn’t much left to grasp.
Merry Christmas.
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