Some Chritmas Eve thoughts

      As our Christian nation prepares to celebrate the birth of its savior, many Americans are celebrating the gratuitous cruelty which has characterized our national discourse since the first day of tRump's administration.
      Instead of helping the immigrant children, of which Christ was one, instead we separate them from their parents and lock them in cages.  
       In our name, the administration has proposed new rules on food stamps which will cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose assistance.
       If Cheetolini should win the next presidential election, help for the sick via Medicaid will be withdrawn.
       These acts of cruelty, so unlike the gospels of the New Testament are a condemnation of a political party which acts more like Herod than Christ.   The nearest literary approximation of many of our fellow citizens is the character Ebenezer Scrooge in Dicken's A Christmas Carol.  But while Scrooge was a hard hearted miser who refused to help the poor, he did not positively gloat over the misfortunes of the poor.  Many in our country support the administration's social policies precisely because they inflict needless suffering on the poor amongst us.
      When we gather together with our families to celebrate the holiday and the season of Christmas, I hope we take the message of Christ to heart.   Healing the sick, helping the poor and succoring the stranger are the real "reasons for the season".   Merry Christmas to all who celebrate that spirit.