I found this National Lampoon video on one of my Facebook friend's pages. It's humorous but sad at the same time. Some humor always has some element of truth behind it. This video is a great example of this.
I hate Christmas. Every year and Every generation, it gets worse, and no doubt, more expensive for families as technology evolves, as the above video illustrates. More excess, more self-indulgence and more commericalism. People flocking to the shops being fooled by so-called specials from store pamphlets and catalogues but really getting gouged more at the check out counter.
We also tend to be more gluttonous at Christmas. In addition to expensive gifts and trying to out do the neighbour's electricity bill, we eat a hell of a lot more and more of the types of junk foods we tend to leave alone for the rest of the year.
Instant happiness purchased from the mall. Hmmm. Sends folks, especially kids, the wrong message; that happiness can be bought; that we can only be happy if we have lots of stuff; particularly stuff we don't need and probably won't use.
Society has gotten not only more shallow but they do live in a bubble and they tend to forget that Christmas is the worst time of year for most folks. Lots of people are too poor to keep up with with what's being marketed. They're too poor to look after their kids adequately.
I get that most folks are either non-believers or just not that religious to commemorate the Birth of Jesus Christ, which I totally get. However, can it also be a time to remember to help our fellow man who is less well off than we are and less concentrated on self-indulgence and excess?
I remembered when I was really young, my family had me donate one of my presents to the local church's Christmas hamper to help less fortunate children. Yes, my parents taught my brother and I at a young age the importance of charity, to always remember that there are folks worse off, especially at Christmas.
I have to say that in recent years, I have not been able to give much except for non-perishable food and cheap dollar store toys and mits and tuques (also on the cheap; from second hand store) here and there for various community center's and church's Christmas basket programs, due to unemployment (yes, I tend to have unemployment issues most around Christmas). I try to give something because I know there are families who need the help.
I don't think most folks who are rich even consider teaching their offspring this or even putting this into practice. All just are racing to earn more money and have more material and monetary wealth than the neighbours. An endeavor for most to prove to be a colossal failure.
Anybody who is reading this post: I hope you will consider giving something or a bit of your time to help someone this Christmas. Hell, it don't even have to be Christmas. We should be thinking about helping our fellow man all year around.
This year, since I could be let go anytime (so much for the myth of government jobs being secure to all you anti- public sector types), until another assignment comes up at the agency, I will only stay home with my husband and go to Christmas mass at the church where I was baptized, like I do every year.
I will, however, remain my cranky self, perhaps even more so. Christmas is truly a hateful holiday.
I'm talking about Ed Broadbent's article in the Globe and Mail regarding child poverty here in Canada. It was supposed to be eliminated by 2000, but of course this never happened. According to Broadbent, one of the main reasons for this is
"mostly it is the product of governments that have neither shared nor cared. As a Unicef report last Friday pointed out, Canadian politicians have failed our children. During the 1990s, the federal government abandoned a leadership role for Canada's poor. It unilaterally cancelled the Canada Assistance Plan with the provinces, eliminated all low-cost housing programs, ceased to set the pattern for minimum wages and failed to bring in a national child-care program. Perhaps most serious and unbelievable of all, it exacerbated the inequality that was emerging in the marketplace by changing the income-tax system to the advantage of the richest Canadians."
His solution? To start taxing the rich. Obviously, a no brainer.
"For more than a decade, it is upper-income Canadians – not the poor or middle class – who have disproportionately benefited from globalization and deregulation. Therefore, I say that increasing their share of income taxes would be based on neither greed nor class envy. It should be called justice."
This Blogging Tory, of course disagrees with taxing the rich because:
"Taxing the rich will just make them get more tax breaks in other ways, currently most people who are extremely rich do not pay an adequate amount of tax comparably to lower and middle incomes because of all the tax alleviations for them."
I agree with that statement, so instead of just leaving them alone, we need to go further: let's start plugging all those legal tax loopholes that the rich and the corporations rely on.
More needs to be invested in job training so the unemployed can either gain or upgrade skills particularly if their trades are considered now obsolete due to the changes in technology and trends.
I also strongly believe that attitudes need to change. We are following the greedy self-centered, self justifying ways of the U.S.We need to stop relying on stereotypes that help us sleep easily at night like, 'oh, they're only welfare folks, siphoning off the tax payers' or finding some way to blame the poor families themselves.
The G & M article points out that most of these parents of poor kids are workers. More often, than not, a two income family. The days of the luxuries of a stay at home parent is as obsolete as the typewriter, unless one parent is lucky enough to be able to work at home and even then, it is often at even less money. Fact is that salary increases as a whole don't seem to catch up with the rise of the cost of living.
Attitudes like those of folks like Kathy Shiddle, who admits to hating the poor and nothing should be done to help them, need to change. She is certainly not alone.
It is even worse when a politician comes out with the same attitude. Yesterday, Gerald Keddy told The Chronicle Herald exactly what he thought of the unemployed of Halifax:
"Nova Scotians won’t do it — all those no-good bastards sitting on the sidewalk in Halifax that can’t get work."
He has offered a rather hollow apology for that statement. We knew that he means it, because it's attitudes like that that contribute to child poverty.
The fact is, most would like to work and would not be all that difficult. The problem is with a lot of employers, particularly in difficult times because they know they have their pick of the lot and yes, they do discriminate. That's what the selection process is all about.
I'm saying, for example, the person who took a few years off work either voluntarily and involuntarily; like staying home to raise kids and then all of a sudden losing their spouse (and their income), the ex-convict (yes, it is a vicious circle for them: don't have to hire them in a bank or anything like that, but how would sweeping floors or washing dishes or even low level office work hurt anything?) or the person who was on welfare for a few years for whatever reason (be it for medical reasons or other). An employer sees a gap in the CV, they tend to discard it.
I have also heard of and experienced this myself while looking for work. As an administrative worker by trade, I had noticed that looks and youth were and still are as or even more important than qualifications. Particularly for a receptionist: they are viewed upon as more window dressing than anything else in a lot of industries. More evidence of society becoming more and more shallow.
Instead of calling the jobless lazy or "no good bastards", perhaps try giving a chance to an unemployed person and hire them. They just may surprise you.
The poor do need help of some kind in order to get out of their situation; not just by charity but also someone who is willing to help them help themselves.
Sidenote: Here is a great program that helps provide breakfasts, hot lunches and snacks to poor school children if you wish to make a donation if you're from Montreal. The Generations Foundation. For those outside of Montreal, I'm sure they're must be similar organizations that help poor children and their families, please either volunteer or make a donation.
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