The Pandemic Blues, Part 18: Be generous, and not divisive, in 2021

 

With a year we all want to forget coming to a merciful end at midnight, it’s timely to reprint this column from the end of 2017, when the world was what we used to call "normal."
This year, of course, there were no day-after Christmas crowded stores, and far fewer Christmas gatherings. (I would hope none, given the pandemic pleas to stay home from our leaders). But this column is a reminder that, especially during a pandemic, we shouldn’t reinforce raw stereotypes about people.
And, more significantly, this column is proof that good deeds can still make a tremendous difference in our lives.
Pray for a better 2021 that gets us closer to being able to live our lives for real instead of being stuck in our dreadful, depressing and deeply isolating virtual purgatory.
Best wishes for a HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR!

THIS COLUMN appeared in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA on Dec. 27, 2017:

https://www.thesunchronicle.com/opinion/columns/kessler-the-good-will-always-shine-through/article_24bda2b8-62b4-57f2-9a5f-f4646eb05ef2.html

While thousands of area residents swarmed the mall and stores along Route 1 on Boxing Day looking for day-after Christmas bargains, thousands of kids across the area were still enjoying their gifts that were the product of something that shows itself a lot in November and December, but far less frequently the rest of the year.
That, of course, is our overwhelming generosity, specifically of the organizers, donors and volunteers who come together to make the dozens of area holiday drives possible.
That’s something to celebrate as a year ends in which incivility hit new lows, and where bigots became emboldened to use vulgarities to refer to fellow human beings who may not look like them or who may worship differently than them. Such behavior has thrust the nation backward 80-100 years, when it was open season on minorities.
I hadn’t realized just how much stereotypical language had once more crept into our daily lexicon until I heard two stories from a friend at a holiday gathering, which spoke volumes. In one instance, a parent, speaking to a school official, used a derogatory term for Jewish people to describe being able to talk down someone for a lower price, and in another, a student used the same term to describe being turned down for a job offer.
That such terminology, popular in Charles Dickens’ England and in the first half of the 20^th century, is again being used in routine conversation should be alarming. The use of such stereotypical language has only one purpose: to debase minorities in the attempt to marginalize them as the first step toward reaching the aims of the Nazis in Europe before and during World War II.
Against that backdrop, It was easy to feel pessimistic about the nation’s future until I considered the bigger picture, which is that even though such language and attitudes toward minorities have been encouraged by some of our politicians, there remain many other Americans with decent hearts and souls who believe in something that’s seemed elusive this year: the basic goodness in people.
That became apparent to me while volunteering for the Christmas Is For Kids gift drive. Every time I walked into the donor center, I saw hundreds of well-meaning folks doing whatever it took to help out -- either dropping off gifts, lugging them upstairs, helping to fill gift requests or performing mundane tasks such as stacking books and ripping apart boxes to prepare them for recycling.
The help was provided without hesitation and with no regard whatsoever to the race, religion, creed, age or gender of the kids being helped. The drive’s elves would grab a bag from the floor at the center, where inevitably they would open them up and discover that incredibly thoughtful donors went to great lengths to fulfill that child’s request. If any items were to be added, the books, clothing, toys or crafts, for example, would be carefully searched for among the stock at the center, or else people would shop for them, using donated money and gift cards.
This went on for more than three weeks, and the 150 volunteers had only one thing on their minds: how best to ensure that the children would have a nice Christmas. The ease in which individuals, organizations and businesses donated gifts, and other businesses donated food for the volunteers was impressive, but that was only part of the story.
The best in people also was on display across the area, including at Mansfield’s West Side Benevolent Circle’s drive, the Toys for Tots efforts and Bishop Feehan High School’s Santa Shop, where more than 500 gifts were distributed.
The kindness continued again on Christmas Day, where volunteers gave up part of their holiday to serve and prepare meals for about 400 needy folks during the 34^th annual Edward Tedesco Memorial Christmas Dinner at Attleboro High School. Once again, Tedesco’s three daughters – Sherri Morin, Lori Carroll and Kim Taylor – organized the meal that was started more than three decades ago by their dad Ed Tedesco and the late Ro-Jack’s Food Stores owner Jack Hagopian.
What’s vital to emphasize is that in all of those cases, the work was done by people who willingly gave their time, while the drives’ gifts and Christmas dinner’s food and other items were donated by individuals, groups, organizations and businesses. And, for the cynics out there who still mistrust these gift drives, it must be pointed out that no public money is used and no government agency is involved.
Those efforts proved yet again that even in our bleaker times, when we can no longer trust the government to do the right thing, the actions that make the most difference in our lives come courtesy of people acting in the way we were meant to act: helping each other and those less fortunate.
It’d be the greatest Christmas gift of all if such selfless actions could be our guiding principle every month of the year, and not just in November and December.