Santa in the Hood
Another wonderful post from the YB of the SC:Today I delivered Christmas gifts to the homes of children whose moms or dads are on the long list of those who won’t be home for Christmas. These parents are serving time in prison for bad behavior. The idea to deliver these presents was not mine, it was the brainchild of Chuck Colson, of Watergate fame, of Born Again fame, of Angel Tree fame.
I was privileged to deliver more than 20 beautifully wrapped presents to more than 10 children living in 4 different homes and apartments scattered around the city of Anaheim, CA. Each gift cost somewhere between $15 to $20 and I can say this because I didn’t buy these particular gifts, someone else did. And, that same person wrapped each gift very nicely. Actually, I did buy a few gifts for the same kind of fatherless or motherless child, but probably not the same ones that I was delivering. Our church handles more than 600 such small gestures each year and it is quite a production from beginning to end.
I got lost only once or twice. Mapquest is not perfect, far from it! This is the first year in a long time that I made the deliveries by myself. I called my daughter in Scotland from the road to tell her that I missed her being in the car next to me telling me when to turn. I missed having her walking up to the door of the abandoned children to deliver the gifts, while I sat out in the car with the engine running in case we had to make a fast getaway. Some of these neighborhoods are very frightening to a middle aged man driving a very large silver sedan without benefit of bullet proof glass.
As I made my way to my second stop a strange thought came to my mind. These children are missing their dads who are sitting in prison this Christmas for committing a crime. People like me are pulling up to their apartment doors with gifts “from their dads” and wishing them a Merry Christmas. People like me are spending between $15 to $20 to buy a gift for these kids and each kid gets two gifts. One is a toy and the other is clothing as suggested by the incarcerated one. People like me are often the victims of the crime that put their parent into prison in the first place.
So, the solution is obvious!
posted by Yakimaniac at 8:51 PM
17 Comments:
Apparently this post has caused much debate and consternation in the household of the YB of the SC. Perhaps the YB can give us the salient points from all sides so we can help sort it out. Yes?
Truth be told, the reaction here in my house has not been positive!
Lovely wife thinks that the idea of a potential criminal being handed perhaps $120 to help buy his kids Christmas presents, thereby preventing him from committing the crime is a bit far fetched.
Older sister of Shilohman thinks that my Heavenly reward for doing a good thing has now been shot to Hell with this post.
So, just between you and me, the post is simply sharing my bizarre, irrational thoughts as I journeyed from one point on my map to the next...do we have to have rational thoughts all the time?
Lovely wife is fearful that I never have any rational thoughts.
Oh, I get it! If the Christmas spirit, as displayed by all this Angel Tree energy, could be shared with poor families year round, instead of just one day out of 365, the crime rate might go down.
OK, forget about it!
YB of the SC,
I have an older sister? Why haven't I been told about this? And where has she been all my life?
OK, semantic man, "older sister in relation to the younger sister", certainly not older than you, her brother...no one could be that old, especially since you are the oldest child in your family. There, I sit corrected. If I had said, "the older of the 2 sisters" I might have had a chance...
So, that's your comment on the subject of Christmas plea bargaining for a lighter sentence?
Yes, I agree completely. Let's keep the main thing the main thing!
Should the YB just give his donations to the criminals themselves and cut out the middleman (the middleman in this case would be himself getting robbed by the criminal) or should he continue to live the Angel lie by telling these hapless kids that the presents are from their "fathers?"
Very good comment Saint Nick! Maybe there should be an additional comment screen on which to comment on such good comments. I'll get to work on one right away.
All right, you want a comment? I got your comment right here!
I'm very proud of you for venturing into neighborhoods that are scary and threatening. I'm glad you care about kids who won't have much of a Christmas because their dads are in prison. Of course, the odds that these kids would have had many presents if their dads weren't in prison are still very small. They are probably doing better giftwise than they would if their dads were on the outside! Does anyone have a plan for the kids whose dads are at home 24/7? Our tax money is already paying for anything they get for Christmas, right?
Now, as the token Democrat of this blogosphere, I take back all the mean things I just said. It's just that living in Grand Rapids area the ghost of Republican Christmas Present visits me a little too often. You can't escape him around here. He looks a lot like Ronald Reagan used to look before he died.
Next year, after all the Democrats have taken office, I'm sure every little kid in America will have a rich and glorious Christmas. All our problems will be solved. The lion and the lamb will lie down together and the Muslims and the Jews will celebrate Christmas in peace. (What was that? The ghost of Sarcastic Christmas Yet to Come?)
You! Boy! What day is it? I haven't missed it!
Congratulations to the Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton. Could you get them to send a little something to a young church in Caledonia, MI?
How's that for a comment? To the point! Keeping the main thing the main thing.
For the theologians among you, what do presents have to do with the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ? What are we doing?
I've always been under the impression that the whole gift giving thing started with the wise men bringing their gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Holy Child.
Now of course the gift giving thing has become one huge distraction along with Christmas trees....er, Holiday Trees...Santa, the reindeer....
What ARE we doing?
Is there a program for young children who have a father locked up in the garage?
No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus.
If gift giving is somehow related to the Magi and the gifts they brought the Christ child, then what does gift giving have to do with celebrating the birth of Jesus? We all know the Magi had nothing to do with the birth of Jesus; they didn't show up until the Holy Family moved into a house and the word used to describe Jesus changed from infant (brephos) to child (paidion). Their visit is commemorated by the church holiday called Epiphany, which is the time we should give gifts, not to one another, but to Jesus!
"So bring him incense,
gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king
to own him.
Send all your gifts
care of Shiloh Church,
We'll see if we
can find him!"
So, this Epiphany, send your gifts (cash or cheque) to Shiloh Church and we will do our best to forward them to the proper Recipient, keeping only a small handling fee for our building fund.
Happy Epiphany!
I'm for cutting out the middleman and will send my gift directly to Anne of the House, jumping over both The Shiloh Church and The Shiloh-I need a new Honda snowblower-man.
Do the "young children who have a father locked up in the garage" need snowblowers? If not I'm sure they can be exchanged for very nice John Deere riding lawnmowers at your local Home Depot.
I think the Shilohman needs to explain. I think that it would have been culturally unthinkable for M & J to have come into the town of their birth and not stay with their relatives. The whole Hotel, B&B, Barn, Cave thing seems a bit mythological to me and no doubt a literary device to hype their "lowly estate" by church bureaucrats intent on keeping the medieval peasants compliant. Where were the livestock? In the house, of course, where all such animals were brought at night for safekeeping. If you have livestock then a manger must naturally follow. (Exactly what was an "inn" in those days? Could it have been like a guest house or spare room? Even so their stay would have been financed by the relatives at the very least)
What say you, oh learned one?
Please go to The Shilohman for answers to the very intriguing and perceptive questions proffered by Yakimaniac.
Yakimaniax,
Let's be honest with each other here. We're all friends. There is no judging going on. We'd just like to talk about the state of things there at Peter's Ashtray. Try not to get all defensive.
We openly gossip behind OG's back because he never posts anything. He already knows what we're saying about him so it really doesn't matter. But I would like to look at the record here at Peter's Butts. I mean, thank God for YB of SC! If it weren't for him all you would have on your blog since mid-November (When Cool Becomes Uncool) would be some photo-shopped pictures of the SC!
At least OG isn't trying to camouflage the fact that he isn't writing anything! Time for a New Year's Resolution?
We were hoping no one would notice.
Stay tuned for a compelling new post written by the YB's beloved (now deceased) dog Sandy.
The dog's name was "Honey" (may she rest in peace), not Sandy.
And I love my Honda snowblower.
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