Loading...
The Citizen, 2017-12-21, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2017. PAGE 5. Other Views Who says Scrooge improved? Given his goal of single-handedly returning the world to its proper path, I'm expecting any day now that U.S. President Donald Trump will call the White House media to watch him apply his ostentatiously large signature to a presidential proclamation rehabilitating Ebenezer Scrooge. What, you say, you thought the whole story of A Christmas Carol was about the rehabilitation of Mr. Scrooge? That, Trump and his supporters would argue, was the libelling of a good man by that eastern liberal Charles Dickens — a liberal from farther east than usual, this time in England — but then who can trust an Englishman. From the proper Trumpian point of view, Scrooge was right- thinking in the beginning before Dickens started messing with his mind. "I know Scrooge was a good man because didn't it say right at the beginning that he heated his office with coal?" Trump will argue. "I know the liberal case against Scrooge was that he was so skimpy with coal that poor Bob Cratchit, his employee, was freezing. Myself, I wish he had been more generous and burned more coal because the coal industry needs all the help it can get. Still, if he had kept his office toasty warm, the environmentalists would have pulled out the old, discredited lie about coal contributing to greenhouse gases and claimed Scrooge was contributing to climate change. "And what about those businessmen who came to Scrooge right at the beginning of the book looking for a handout to feed the poor? Back then, before Dickens started cooking the books to make him change, Scrooge showed his proper mindset when he rejected their supposition that he would show `liberality' just because it was Christmas. At this point, before being manipulated, Scrooge still realized that Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk there is no proper season for liberality. "Granted, I would have taken a different tack than when Scrooge asked these do- gooders 'Are there no prisons?' and 'Are the workhouses still in operation?' to provide housing for those who couldn't pay their bills. I would have said something like: `Don't they have lawyers? Don't they have accountants?' Those helped when my businesses couldn't pay their debts. Six times, in fact. I mean if these people can't help themselves why should Scrooge bail them out? "Scrooge showed his wisdom when he told the do-gooders that it wasn't his business to rescue the poor. `It's enough for a man to understand his own business and not interfere with other people's.' With thinking like that, the British should have elected Scrooge as Prime Minister, not subjected him to brainwashing! "And brainwashing it was! Take the business of those three ghosts — Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come — fake news if ever I heard it. "Christmas Past paints this rosy picture of the way things used to be, although they probably never were. Take the idealized version of the party thrown by old Fezziwig for Scrooge and his other employees — not just of his business employees but his house servants and even the neighbours! And he hires a fiddler and gives everybody free food and beer! You'll notice this is the last mention of Fezziwig in the book. He probably went broke paying for it all. Maybe he ended up in one of those debtors prisons unless he had a good lawyer. "Then Dickens throws in the old 'love or money' chestnut when Scrooge's fiancee breaks off their engagement because he's more in love with money than he is with her. Well good riddance, I say. My own experience is that there will always be another woman out there who's in love with my money more than me. It might cost you a sizeable divorce settlement now and then but there is no shortage of replacements. "But the real fake news in Dickens' arguments to make Scrooge change his ways comes from the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. I mean this guy makes more things up than the New York Times! "He fakes Scrooge's death, for instance. Then he claims to show the people who worked for him, like his cleaning woman and laundry maid, dividing up his possessions as uncaringly as the tax man. He shows Scrooge people who say they'd only go to his funeral to get a free lunch. I mean he's just softening up Scrooge to make him think people won't miss him when he's dead. Well I mean if I believed all the bad things said about me I might change too, but I know people really love me so I won't. "And then there's the final act of desperation to make Scrooge change his mind: the faking of Tiny Tim's death. But then as soon as Scrooge becomes soft-hearted the kid instantly recovers. Not even Obamacare claimed to be that miraculous! "No, Scrooge is a good, honest businessman and my proclamation says he needs to be protected from harassment by soft- hearted liberal storytellers." Traditions aren't always good things The phrase "because we've always done it that way" can be a little grating to people who are trying to affect change. Take, for example, my declining health on Monday, Dec. 18. As I write this, I'm bundled up in my winter coat because I feel cold no matter where I sit: I'm fighting off some kind of bug. As we approach Christmas every year, my traditions include interviewing between 100 and 120 Grade 1 students to ask them various questions about the holiday season. This year, I think the number was right around the 100 -mark. As a friend pointed out when I ordered a lemon tea this morning, I get sick at this time annually. Getting within disease -spreading distance of 120 Grade 1 students kind of ensures that, before the Jolly red elf visits my house, I'll be fighting off a cold, flu or Strep throat. While I'm okay with the tradition of interviewing the Grade 1 students and finding out what they think about Santa's house, how long it would take to get to the North Pole or other queries, I would certainly be fine doing it without the diseases that tend to follow. That's an example of a tradition that is certainly okay to leave by the wayside in my opinion. As a matter of fact, my first New Years' resolution this year is going to be to load up on Vitamin C before I go to interview all the Grade 1 students in hopes that will make the difference. With a new publisher in place here at The Citizen, we're facing those same kinds of dilemmas more often now. When the question is asked as to why we did things a certain way, the reasoning has been lost to time. The only answer we have is, "It's always been that way." Over the past several years, the reality of my friends getting older has been a bit of a revelation through changing holiday traditions. Take, for example, New Year's Eve celebrations for my friends. In years gone past, there was no question about where I would be on New Year's Eve. One of my friends has thrown New Year's parties the likes of which are still remembered to this day, some five years past. However, as she got older, married, and became a mother, her New Year's parties, understandably, fell by the wayside. Now there is always a question as to where the New Year's Party will be held. This year will mark the start of a new tradition for me though: Daddy -Daughter New Year's Eve. Sure, Mary Jane will be in bed a full four hours before the ball drops but, with my wife Ashleigh working the late shift, New Year's Eve is going to be about two people: Mary Jane and myself. Maybe I'll get her some flat ginger ale to mark the occasion and myself a not -so -flat bottle of ginger ale (depending on how long this cold/flu lasts) and we will mark the end of her second year on this earth and the many, many more to come. Sure, it's not exactly jumping off a roof or having late-night adventures that I'll remember for decades to come, but I'm sure I will look back on that first Daddy - Daughter New Year's Eve with fond recollections. So yeah, just because something is tradition, or the way it's always been done, doesn't mean that's the way it should continue to be done. Fortunately for me, however, Shawn and I have put together a long list of family Christmas traditions in this week's issue of The Citizen through our own traditional Christmas stories about families. Whether it's hiding a decoration throughout the house to be discovered sometime before Christmas, buying special ornaments to mark the event of the past year or baking cookies with family, there are plenty of traditions that are worth keeping around. Keep that in mind when it comes time to celebrate Christmas this year: There are traditions that are worth keeping (or even reviving) but there are also traditions that it might be okay to leave by the wayside and replace with something new. After all, traditions aren't set in stone, they just sometimes seem like they are. Merry Christmas from my family to yours and all the best for the new year. May your home be filled with the magic and joy of Christmas and may your hearts be filled with love and warmth. Shawn Loughlin Shawn's Sense Listen and help On Sunday, I saw a Christmas tree covered in women's underwear and socks. It's true. I was sitting right there at the Blyth United Church and I saw it with my own two eyes. There's even a picture in this week's Citizen to back me up on this. The initiative began at the church with the goal of collecting undergarments and personal items (not that undergarments aren't personal) for the Huron Women's Shelter. Then, with the Christmas season upon us, it evolved into decorating a Christmas tree with these items. It's not something you see every day, so it definitely has that eye-catching factor. And while it's fun to see a tree with underwear thrown all over it, the concept drives at a more fundamental shift in charity as it applies to those in need. We all know the traditional ways to help those in need. Some drop a few coins in the Salvation Army kettle when they see one in a mall or their local grocery store. They bring canned goods and other non-perishable food items when there is a drive and they donate to causes when a friend or family member is doing a run, a walk or a bike ride (thanks again, everyone). It was two years ago that The National Post published a video, which has since been watched millions of times by those all over the world, urging the generous among us to not donate canned goods to food banks, but to donate money instead. Reporter Tristin Hopper wrote a humorous, but informative video urging people to donate money to local food banks as opposed to random cans from the pantry for a variety of reasons. First, he talked about the food bank's buying power. Whether it's buying in bulk, buying what's needed at the time, or the discount that comes with buying as a charity, the money you spend on a can in a traditional grocery store could be used four times over if it's donated straight to a food bank. That's not to say, of course, that by donating a can of food that you're a bad person. What Hopper is saying is that if you truly want to help those in need, donating money to the food bank would do more good than a canned food donation. The same can be said for the socks and underwear tree at Blyth United Church. The common thread between the two, as I see it, is the shift in thinking in terms of giving. If I asked you to donate to the Huron Women's Shelter, underwear might not be the first place your mind goes. In fact, hopefully it isn't the first place your mind goes. But, after speaking with Pastor Hillary MacDonald or project lead Emily Phillips, the story makes sense. Many women who need the shelter, especially around the holidays, flee whatever situation they're leaving behind in a hurry and need the essentials of life. And, because of the personal nature of the items, perhaps these women in need may be a bit reticent in telling others that they need new/clean underwear or socks. So, I guess what I'm saying here is to listen to your charity of choice and know what they need. What would do the most good? What kind of donation would best help those you wish to help? Have those conversations. Because, while it's true that any donation is better than nothing (as Hopper explains in his video regarding canned donations) if the goal is to help those in need, doing your homework on how best to do that just seems like the right thing to do with the giving season upon us.