A season of miracles can be marred by those less worthy.
This weekend marked the beginning of the eight days of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, which is an acknowledgment of a miracle by people of the Jewish faith.
A small container of oil sufficient to light a candle in the holy temple for only one day would last, miraculously, eight days. Hence, the name and the duration of this celebration. Hanukkah generally falls somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which always seemed to me to be a great alternative for Jewish children who didn’t celebrate Christmas.
After all, as kids we got presents for eight days while our Christian friends did it all on one big day. Seemed like a fair trade to me as a child.
And, of course, in a very short time, the entire Christian world will celebrate the miracle of the birth of its savior, Jesus Christ. There is no denying that Christmas brings out the best in most people. It is a time when neighbors are more friendly, co-workers more considerate, bosses more generous and families more forgiving. It is a time that most of us wish could be stretched out all year. G-d knows our world could use the goodwill.
But, alas, there is the Grinch.
This time, though, the typical interplay between good and bad, the selfish and selfless, and those of good cheer up against those who are up to no good, has far more in the balance than just a few presents from Santa.
This season of miracles, 2020, — which includes what appears to be a vaccine to provide us some relief from the continued health and economic ravages of COVID-19, together with the part about caring for our neighbors as ourselves (as in wearing a mask and socially distancing) — is being marred by the basest of human frailties.
In a quest for power and greed that is biblical in its scope, this Christmas season is marred by a full frontal assault on both the health of Americans and our American democracy by the very same people we have elected to protect and defend us from our enemies.
The United States has passed 300,000 deaths due to the coronavirus — so many tens of thousands of which could have been avoided if people displayed the goodwill of Christmas and the good sense that was once an American trait.
And the bedrock of our democracy — the right of the people to vote in free and fair elections with every vote counted — is under a continued and withering yet baseless assault by the president of the United States, as well as most members of the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate who claim to be Republicans. And, especially, a small group of lawyers who have taken an oath to defend our laws and uphold the sanctity of our courts but who abuse both at every turn.
As I expected, the U.S. Supreme Court — full of justices President Donald Trump believed were beholden to him rather than the Constitution — sent him and his henchmen packing late Friday so that the business of inaugurating President-elect Joe Biden can proceed apace. But the fact that this outcome was not a certainty is what is most disturbing.
History will harshly judge these times and so many American people by their abject depravity of conscience, which has allowed friends and neighbors to die and forced our democracy to its life and liberty-supporting limits.
But that is history and that takes a long time.
As for the here and now? All I can do is think about this holiday season and the images of a Santa Claus who brings presents and good cheer to those on his list of good boys and girls.
For the others — those on the naughty list — he brings a moment of reflection.
But that is the way Santa treats children, young people with hope and goodwill in their hearts and a desire to do what’s right in their souls.
We are talking about grown-ups, though — people who knowingly are doing bad things to hurt good people and hurt our country, too.
For them, the naughty list should be just the beginning.
I am thinking some visits by those ghosts of Christmas past — long into the future — would be a suitable punishment.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.