Dear Santa,
This is a Christmas list unlike most you’ve seen. I’m not looking for mittens, or video games, or the latest smartphone.
Santa, I’m hoping you can bring the gift of kindness back to the region. I’ve traveled some over the years, and it’s always been refreshing when I return home — home to the place where people hold the doors open for each other, say hello on the street, or even just give you a smile in passing. Home to the place where you can joke with the county’s president judge about his beloved Buffalo Bills. And home to where people treat each other with courtesy and respect.
What happened to the idiom that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar?
In the newsroom, we’ve saved a few voicemails that have been left for us this year, more in amazement than anything else.
A couple of them are from the same man, Santa, berating us for “being asleep at your desks again” and having a newspaper that isn’t “worth lining my bird cage.” Our crime in his eyes? We didn’t answer the phone at 3 a.m. — when the paper has been printed and is being delivered.
We would have called him back, had he left his name or number instead of a string of insults. Since you are always watching, Santa, could you pass on our regrets for not being available?
Another is from a very irate man, upset because we goofed and ran the same comic page two days in a row. It was a technical glitch, Santa, but this one was pretty hurtful. “What are you going to do about it?” he rhetorically asked our voicemail, before finishing up by calling us “dummies.”
Santa, again I ask, can you pass on our apologies to this man, who didn’t leave his name or number? We do our best, but sometimes we make mistakes.
And this year, too, we’ve seen a lot of people suffer from the opioid epidemic sweeping through our region. I’ve seen someone I love nearly succumb to addiction, and have watched his beloved family suffer as they stood strong and helped him see the way to recovery.
Through all of that, I’ve covered meetings and been party to other meetings where addiction has been the topic. And I’ve heard people who should know better make comments about “worthless junkies.”
Santa, I’m begging you, can you help these individuals open their hearts and minds and see the people and not just the actions caused by the addiction?
I realize what I’m asking may be a lot, but for years now, I’ve heard about the magic of Christmas. ‘Tis the season to be jolly.
It’s a big job, Santa, but you can make it around the world in one night, after all. Could you sprinkle some magic through the land as you go? I think the whole world could use some.
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Schellhammer is The Era’s associate editor. She can be reached at marcie@bradfordera.com
