A Christmas Wish List For 2017

I wrote a previous article a few years back entitled "Wishing Makes It So" about the extraordinary blessings my wife and others have had as the result of simply and sincerely wishing for something. (In my wife's case just thinking about something seems to mobilize the powers of Heaven.)

Of all the Christmases I can remember, and this is my 82nd, I think I have more things to wish for this Christmas than at any Christmas past.

Our government seems stagnant, lopsided, and dysfunctional.

The Swamp has yet to be drained, especially of its sexual harassers.

Big Money dominates our proceedings, and just as in an old song's lyrics "the rich get richer, and the poor have children."

We spend time not repealing and replacing a health system that serves illegal immigrants better than it serves our own hard working and unemployed citizens.

Concern about our gross National Debt is getting another "ho hum" while those who can, and do, spend money we can't afford to spend so wastefully.

As for our roads, bridges, airports, parks, and public buildings, "tight budget constraints" are made to prevail, while a once modern system deteriorates.

Our military is lowering its standards in order to meet its recruitment goals, while losing the experience and expertise it must have, all due to constant deployments overseas and away from families.

Banks and financial services once bailed out because they were "too big to fail" are making enormous profits from low government interest rates, while once again becoming "too big to fail."

Jobs are expanding and employment is high, but many workers are working at two and three jobs because hourly wages are too low to support the average family.

In a world troubled by greed and selfishness, religious strife, and unresolved wars, people are starving, children are not being educated, and assistance is being denied even when it becomes available. Meanwhile the prosperous nations waste every day the food that would give life to the starving.

Perhaps most saddening of all, the formerly religious and caring in society seem declining not only in numbers but also in devotion, service, and the willingness to meaningfully sacrifice for the needy.

That my wish list is this long, and not mine alone, is a sad testimony of what our nation and this modern world have become.

I wish it were not so.