The Spirit of Christmas

This is a picture of my daughter Whitney with Santa at 20 months old.

Christmas is here again and it brings with it a great deal of change for a great deal of families. The economy will force some to be more creative for Christmas and others will feel a great deal of pain. Using this time to count your blessings is the best thing that one can do, because if you have life and health, you are truly blessed and have the chance to once again accumulate stuff. More than likely, accumulating stuff will become less and less important, other than the stuff that you need to be comfortable in this life; and many will do with out those for now. America has come back from the Great Depression and we will again recover from this economic down turn.

The meaning of Christmas started to change for me many years ago when my daughter was about six years old. We had been living in Atlanta, Georgia and I had been laid off from my job at MCI about five months before, forcing me to move my young daughter back to Savannah, Ga. to live with my parents. Well that move was a strain on all involved. Seeing the disappointment in my parents eyes was extremely painful, but something I had become accustomed to. In the early days of December I ran into an old friend that was now a psychologist and shared and office with another psychologist in a beautiful old house in Thunderbolt that faced the water. She invited me and my daughter to a Christmas party that they were having at their office for many of their patients and their families who either had no family or were away from family for various reasons. I decided to go and she said the only requirement was to bring a Christmas ornament for the tree and a potluck dish. This party was taking place on Christmas eve and it was quite cold that night, but the sky was clear. I was in a house full of people that I didn't know, where we decorated the tree, chained popcorn, laughed, talked, and ate all sort of food. After the kids chose a present from a grab bag, we were all going caroling through the neighborhood, and the smallest kids road in the back of an old pickup truck with wooden railings, filled with hay. We walked from door to door singing, badly I might add. The people came outside to greet us with hot chocolate and candy canes for the kids. It was the first time that I had done anything like this, but it was the most wonderful experience. I was with people whom I didn't know until that night and have not seen since. But there was a beautifully warm connection of peace and love like I had never felt before. It really restored my faith in people and love. I then realized that blood didn't equate to family, that you can have the sense of family with perfect strangers. I know it was only one night, just like you have chance meetings with people on the street, but that immediate connection, warmth, and acceptance you feel is something you carry with you through out your life.

This experience showed me that Christmas was not about shopping for that hat and scarf, sweater, or whatever gift you are buying for friends and family, it is mostly about what is on the inside than what is on or for the outside. That Christmas warmed my heart and has remained apart of me, and to me that is what Christmas is really about, that is the true spirit of Christmas. As each Christmas comes and goes, I want less and less of that tradition my family has created, which was wonderful for many years, but things have changed and I want to change with it. It has become about giviing of yourself instead of giving of stuff. Oh yeh, I know that giving of stuff can also be memorable, when someone gets something that they have been wanting for sometime, a new car, a new baby, a marriage proposal, etc., but most of these things are also for the heart. Most things that are purchased and put in a box are not. Christmas has also been a time of great loss for some and reconnection for others. It is important for us to reconnect to what is important in our lives and celebrate that. Always!

17.4 Million Dollar Emergency Loans to Only Two Auto Companies.

This is a first for me, but I applaud President Bush's decision to bailout GM and Chrysler on Friday. Chrysler is a privately owned company and after the parent company has dumped millions into its struggling entity, it decided no more. I don't blame them for not wanting to continually dump good money after bad, but I do blame them for allowing all of this bad decision making by the top executives to continue. The liquidation of these companies would have destroyed the American economy and many hard working American people with it. Even though most of their demise is from their not following the trends of today or merely listening to its consumers, these are decisions of a few, that would destroy the lives of many. It was important to give them a chance to make things better. It was a surprising decision of this administration to, for once, look after the interest of its people. This is mostly because of the outcry from many politicians to do something to help the people of this country and stop putting the business sector first, allowing them to continuously exploit its workers and its consumers.
Gratefully so, this decision came with quite a few restraints on the auto companies, which were completely necessary. Bush's decision was very much in line with the plan proposed in Congress earlier in the week that met with strong Republican opposition, who believe that the companies should go bankrupt. Even Bush, a Republican, believed that under ordinary circumstances these companies should not be bailed out by the government and should be allowed to fail. That is one Republican view that I agree with. Unfortunately, these are not ordinary circumstances, they are extraordinary ones, and to keep the economy from completely spiraling out of control, Bush is giving these companies a chance to restructure and help themselves with a short term loans. The way that this differs from Congress is that the money Bush is using comes from the 700 billion dollars already set aside by Congress for the financial markets as opposed to the 25 billion previously set aside for the auto makers in the plans to update the auto industry, with more fuel efficient cars, alternate fueled cars, and possibly electric cars.
This also holds the roof up long enough for the new administration to come in and make some decisions as oppose to having to undo one more thing, or shovel up one more pile of Bush dung, Making Obama look even more like the House Negro.

Economic Recession

It amazes me that our government is so out of touch with the people that they govern, they don't have a clue when we are suffering until things start to fall down around their own ankles. We have been in a recession for well over a year with unemployment at 6.7 % and over a million jobs lost this year alone. Last week they officailly announced that this country was in a recession, what do you think was the clue for them.
Did they think by not acknowledging the true state of this economy would not make it so. How did our government get so out of touch with the people. It is not just the executive branch of government, which you almost expect to be out of touch, but our legislative branch is something you want to believe is still in touch with it's constituents. That is why it is designed the way that it is. There are two senators that are voted from each state, but the House consists of 435 representatives taking a specific number from each state according to the population of that state. Most of these representatives are people living in the communities of which they represent. So how is it that after a short time rubbing elbows with power perceived in politics they soon forget why they are there. Their personal agenda immediately takes precedence and they never look back. I don't understand how they look themselves in the mirror once they start to sell out those who believed in them and worked so hard to get them elected. I truly believe that the day does come when they look in the mirror and not even recognize their own reflections, they see something totally different. Just like a person who suffers from eating disorders. They will be skin and bone, weighing a mere 75 pounds and on the brink of death, but what they see when they look in the mirror is someone overweight and unattractive. This is in serious contrast to what many politician see when they look in the mirror. Even when they have lost sight of what they were elected for and what promises they have made to get the majority votes, they see something larger than life, something beautiful to them, what they can become or what they want to become. They don't recognize GREED when they see it, and as time goes on that reflection, of which they don't presently recognize, becomes even more obscure.

I waited a few days before posting this to see just what congress would possibly put together for this bailout of the auto industry, because on the wall street bailout they just wrote a blank check. This time there is a two edge sword, the working class could lose either way, either through losing millions of jobs that would possibly put us into a depression; and as a taxpayer, that is going to bailout private industry that we have watched make bad decisions for the past 20-30 years. Decisions that didn't take into account the needs of the working class, of the average American. The need for less dependency on foreign oil and a way to use alternative energy sources, leaving less carbons in the air' that lists goes on.
Well I am surprised and equally elated about the bailout legislation that is being proposed. In the New York Times today there was a bit of an overview of what Congress had been working on so hard this weekend. The two things that radiated with me more than anything was the part of the legislation that states that the three automakers will not be able to own or lease private jets during the time the government loans are outstanding and that the top level executives will not receive any bonuses nor the stockholders any dividends during this time the loans are outstanding. Now this is the beginning of a real bailout. The first time that I have every taken note of politicians looking out for the working class, where the majority of taxes are generated.

It is a new day America, and I am glad that I am around to see it.