So this is Christmas...

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red one
Let's stop all the fight

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
A new one just begun
And so happy Christmas
~John Lennon

Today, when I got up and first logged into Facebook there was this stupid little "Happy Holidays" video that played at the top of my queue and I'm fine with that. It's Christmas, and I suppose Facebook has to do something to mark the occasion...and that's fine. I've already done all my Christmas stuff for the year, and I'm just enjoying a nice quiet day and giving the ferrets some extra playtime. I "liked" it and I would have moved on immediately except that I noticed something, one of the top three emoji symbols that show was the "Angry" one. I looked at the numbers, as of that time (about six this morning) there were over 36,000+ "Likes" 4,000+ "Love" hearts and 979 "Angry" emoji symbols.

Interesting, there were 979 people out there who thought Christmas was something to get angry about.

(For the record, I went and checked, the numbers currently stand at almost 154,000 "Likes" almost 15,500 "Loves" and almost 3,800 "Angry" responses.)

I guess for some people a holiday just isn't a holiday if everybody gets to be included, but then a friend of mine who is Native American (and doesn't celebrate Christmas) posted twice yesterday about going to Wal-Mart and seeing people literally fighting and screaming at each other over toys in the back of the store.

Not to mention, Trump keeps posting various messages with "MERRY CHRISTMAS" in all caps as if it must be shouted to make some kind of a point...

...And Friday morning at work, while I was pushing a couple of hundred pounds worth of dirty kitchen rags and mops over to the hotel laundry, I paused in my exertions to wish an old man that I know who works as a kitchen custodian over there a merry Christmas. I rarely ever see him, and I usually try to wish him a merry Christmas every year because he's kind of a miserable old man and I guess it just seems like the right thing to try and do...

Now this dude, known at work as "Hawk-eye" (who is naturally, 72 years old and blind as a bat, he's always been nearsighted, hence the nickname) is one of our few Trump Supporters (as opposed to generic Republicans, of which there are more) comes mooching over to me and, with an air about him as if he is going to impart great wisdom, says "Just between you and me, let's keep America great." To which my response is, naturally, "No, I don't think so, you know I don't like that guy." So then he tries to start an argument and I'm like "No, man, I got laundry to sort. These republicans have passed one law all year, and it don't benefit either of us. Ya'll have a good one."

I'm not gonna tell this old dude what he wants to hear, nor am I gonna have an argument when I've got half an hour and only one guy to help me sort a gigantic cart full of laundry. So I just kept going.

I've gotten Christmas greetings from Muslim friends of mine, I see Facebook and all other sorts of groups or various other things making some effort to be inclusive, and I myself sit here typing this essay, surrounded by ferrets either still playing, sleeping in the dog bed under my desk, or enjoying their own Christmas dinner of treats mixed in with their food. Even the usual social media mess on Facebook and Twitter seems muted, and it's nice and quiet outside. I'm not kidding...I sneezed while taking the dog out this morning...and it was so quiet that it echoed.

Literally everybody but a certain percentage of conservative white Christians (and Trump) seems to get the point. Christmas is not about YOU, it's not about your politics and it's not even about your religion. A LOT of religions have various celebrations this time of the year, and they always have. If the recognition of that offends you, then I don't know what else to tell you except that you're a terrible person. Like I've said before, some people have just had it too good, for too long, and can't appreciate anything. A lot of these fools seem to think that life is a zero-sum game. Christmas isn't Christmas unless somebody doesn't get to enjoy it. Heaven isn't heaven unless they're the only ones who get to go...

No. That's not how any of this works.

I have a proposal for the Trump administration, supposedly "Trump digs coal" right? I say we as a nation pay some of these miners (many of whom are sitting on their butts waiting for Trump to give them their coal jobs back anyway) at fair market rates...hell, I'll do ya one better and say we'll pay the best market rates from the last 20 years for the coal...to go out and mine up as much coal (while enjoying full Union-level benefits and as much overtime as they can work) as they can until Black Friday of next year. Then, you know how all these Trump Supporters seem to think Trump is going to be some kind of a right-wing Santa Claus, giving them everything they want while giving all the people they've been conditioned to hate nothing but a boot in the face? Okay, I'll bite. After Black Friday next year, then the government should take all this coal, and fill Christmas stockings with it and give one to  every last one of these angry, ignorant people that spends so much of their time dreaming of some kind of social revenge on the rest of the world or who fights over toys at the store or turns Christmas into some kind of a political thing, so that they can have exactly the kind of Christmas gift they deserve.

Maybe then, they'd stop and think about their behavior, and how it reflects poorly on both Christ and Christmas and the holiday season in general.

Look here, I quite often speak via Facebook to a guy named Joseph from Uganda. His United Methodist church runs a center for orphans, many of whom have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. We talked at length about the impacts of HIV/AIDS on Africa and on how the impact on the United States has been forgotten with time by most outside of the gay community, where in Africa AIDS is primarily transmitted through heterosexual sex (and both sex education and simple measures of protection like condoms are often lacking.) I mentioned that I had read that there are many towns and villages where there is no one left at all except for children and the elderly. He told me that he lives in such a place (he works as a teacher) and about the Christmas program they're running this year, in which there will be prayers, a poem reading, speeches by community leaders, games including Football (soccer) and Netball for the kids, and each child will get a pair of shoes for Christmas.

Shoes, and I'm quite sure Joseph wasn't talking about no $200 Air Jordans neither.

I'd bet you money that if those kids had the kind of stuff that those people were fighting over at Wal-Mart there wouldn't be any fights, but then I see stuff on sale in the toy aisle at Wal-Mart that costs more than a lot of people in Uganda make in a month.

I think if a Ugandan person, whether an adult or a child, had access to 10% of what the average angry American Christmas shopper this year has...they would at least appreciate it.

The poem to be read, is not about Christmas, it's not about Jesus, it's not about any of the things Americans wax poetic about at this time of year. It's about AIDS, and it was written by a Ugandan seventh-grader named Jane:

HIV/AIDS Poem 2017

AIDS, AIDS, AIDS!

You are hurting me

You are hurting my family

You are hurting my school

You are hurting my community

You are hurting my country

You are hurting the world

AIDS, AIDS, AIDS!

We have lost parents

We have no food, no books and no money

Families are looked after by children and elderly

Schools are struggling with orphans

Health centres are full of patients

AIDS, AIDS, AIDS!

Communities are busy with burials

Crying over the loss of their beloved ones

The community is losing youth and useful people

The world is losing the old, the young, wealth, time and happiness

But there is hope;

Lasting hope

That hope is:

“Positive living”

~Written by Jane Auma (Primary Seven)

Ya'll go ahead and let that sink in. A lot of the rest of the world simply doesn't have the option to get all worked up about the made-up things that we Americans put so much energy into fighting about.

We can, and we should, do better than this. For the sake of the world, ourselves, and future generations we're going to have to.

Just give this some thought, no, really. Stop, read, breathe in and out, and actually reflect on the words and their meaning.

(...And if you think this message of peace and goodwill applies only to Christians, or to your specific kind of people, you're part of the problem...)

Luke 2 King James Version (KJV)

2 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

If we want a better nation, we have to be better citizens. If we want to live in a better world, we have to be better people.

Merry Christmas, everybody. Let's try and remember what it's really about next year.