The dark and the light of Christmas

            Before I get into Christmas let me put it out there that I am not a religious person but if I was I would have to consider myself Jewish since that is my blood line. That being said, I do believe in Jesus, I just don’t believe that Jesus was the son of god because there is no god. I do think that Jesus was such a charismatic person that the impression he left on humanity through his teachings and deeds has endured and grown for thousands of years.

            I could go into a big old rant about how modern Christmas is just about crass commercialism, gaudy light displays, over indulgent parties, and forced get together with families but that’s not where I’m going this year. No, to me Christmas is about birth and death.

            Celebrating Christmas is kind of a strange thing because the holiday is about the birth of Jesus but in the back of our minds we all know the end of the story, that in not so many years he is crucified and dies. For me every year when Christmas comes around I think about death, not because of Jesus but because of my younger sister Moira.

When I was Sixteen years old my sister disappeared on December 19^th, the day before her Fifteenth birthday. I don’t have real strong memories partially because it was 44 years ago but also because that was the year that I discovered pot so I was stoned through the whole ordeal. I thought that she had run away because that’s what I wished I had the courage to do considering the dysfunctional state of our family and that’s also how the police were treating it.

Her birthday came and went, presents unopened, then Christmas, then New Year. I was on winter break from school so I just partied with my friends and didn’t think about much other than myself. A month into the New Year we learned the truth, that she had been killed on that first day she went missing and our family was never the same again.

So that’s my tale from the dark side of Christmas, one of the many reasons I can’t get to excited about the holidays. But it’s not all doom and gloom, on the brighter side December 20^th was not only my sisters birthday but it’s also my wife’s birthday and I’m so thankful that’s she’s in my life because I can’t imagine where I’d be without her.

Like I said, Christmas is about death and birth, and the holiday season is when I consider myself to have been reborn as Steady Eddy. When I was 32, living in Flint, unhappy at work and not sure of my future, a serendipitous holiday opportunity or dare we say Christmas Miracle arose that changed me forever.

There was this place in downtown Flint that had been built at a cost of $80 Million to help revitalize the area and attract tourists. It was billed as an amusement park / museum and was called Six Flags AutoWorld. When it opened in 1984 there was great hope but it closed for the first time after just 6 months and was on again off again for a few years and then closed.

In 1989, Flint had a new mayor and possession of AutoWorld by default. He decided to reopen the park for the 5 week holiday season and long story short, I was at an AutoWorld meeting representing the beer distributor I worked for when they asked about vendors and I volunteered to run the popcorn concessions even though I had no real experience but hey, how hard can popcorn be?

To run the concession I had to get a business license and to get the license I needed a DBA. The name I came up with was Steady Eddy’s Pushcarts. Steady Eddy was one of my many high school nicknames and pushcarts because some of the popcorn poppers were on wooden carts but also because one of my all time favorite books as a kid was called “The Pushcart Wars”. That’s how I became Steady Eddy and those 5 weeks were great. Diane and I running around multiple locations inside the park, making popcorn and hot pretzels, managing our staff, interacting with visitors, other vendors, and city employees. Before long everyone was just calling me “Steady” and I loved it.

It was my best Christmas ever, I didn’t care that everything was over the top decorated or that Christmas music was blasting non-stop. Everyone was having fun, including myself and best of all, Diane and I netted five thousand dollars under the table, Ho, Ho, Ho.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 14 of the following link. Winters Express 12/21/17

This could be the Utopian States of America, Inc.

            Continuing on the theme of my last few columns, I think that income inequality is one of the largest societal problems we are facing. If we can fix that then maybe we can make America great for all. Notice I didn’t say great again? That’s because it’s never really been great for the majority of us.

            First let me clarify, when I talk about fixing income inequality it doesn’t mean that I think all incomes should be equal. It’s more about making it fairer for those at the bottom because the reality is that the deck is stacked against them from the get go. They are just in survival mode (as are many in the so called middle class) so they never get the opportunity to succeed at improving their lives.

As a society I feel that opportunity is the most important thing we can provide for our members. The opportunity for quality education, affordable healthcare, decent housing, food security, and the opportunity to not live in fear of those who profess to protect us. If we can provide these things, then as a society we’ve done our part and its then up to the individual to succeed.

So how do we get to this utopian vision of America? Maybe we can use that “social capitalism” I was talking about in my last column. But instead of just having socially conscious businesses let’s try a radical approach and make the federal government a corporation. I mean it’s already kind of a business with employees, income, and expenses, it just needs to be restructured. All U.S. citizens of age would be stock holders and each would get to vote for the board (congress) and the executive officers. Wasn’t this one of Trumps selling points, that he would run the government more like a business?

OK, yea I know it’s kind of a pipe dream to think we could change the constitution to allow us to have a USA, Inc. Especially considering we have all these Federalist Society members trying to keep us running our country like it was still 1776 even though society and the world has changed unimaginably since then.

 Anyway, regardless of how the federal government is structured let me give you my vision of a better and more equitable America. Now obviously I don’t have all the answers as to how we can get to this place and I definitely don’t know how we pay for it, but here goes.

Basic minimum living standards: All our citizens will be provided a clean and safe place to live, food for 3 meals a day, a basic cell phone, internet, and TV access. In exchange for this they are required to work a minimum number of hours for either a private company, for the government (workfare) or be enrolled in school or vocational training.

Free primary, secondary, and specialty education or vocational training: Everyone gets the opportunity to learn and become whatever they desire or is best suited too. In exchange they have to give back to the community a percentage of their skill, such as a doctor has to volunteer at a free clinic or the skilled tradesmen have to help maintain free housing, etc…

Affordable healthcare: This is a tough one excepting the staffing of doctors, nurses, and their support. That will be easier because without the burden of student debt more people will go into the profession because they want to help people, not just to make money. Also in exchange for their education they will need to volunteer some of their time. The hard part is reining in the costs of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, and healthcare facilities. I think that can be done by using the social capitalism model that would require them to be nonprofits. The understanding being that a nonprofit can still make money to pay salaries and do research and development they just have to charge and pay socially acceptable norms.

So those are three of the main areas that need fixing to improve our society. Financially I think they can be achieved by cutting back on foreign aid especially military and by withdrawing our military from the dead end conflicts we are now in. We should use those resources to improve our crumbling infrastructures, creating jobs at the same time.

Just to clarify, because we are providing these basic opportunities to those who need it doesn’t mean we won’t still have private education, healthcare, and housing for those that can afford it. It’s just that we’re leveling the playing field a little so we can all be happier, healthier, smarter, and hopefully friendlier to those different than ourselves.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 13 of the following link. Winters Express 12/14/17