WS Chronicle

By James B. Ewers Jr.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. We have heard this yuletide story many times. Growing up in Winston-Salem, the Christmas season was festive and full of joy. The memories stayed with me and came to life during that time of year.

I hope that you and your family had a Merry Christmas and I wish for you a Happy New Year. Christmas was a time to celebrate with family members and friends. Senior guys like me take more joy in the fellowship of the holidays than the gifts. Christmas was meant for children. The innocence they have with Christmas is wonderful to see.

When I was coming of age, I believed in all things Christmas, especially from a spiritual perspective. I owe this view to my parents who taught me about the importance of the season.

This attitude was reinforced in my neighborhood. We believed in the birth of “Jesus Christ. Now in recent years, the expression,” Jesus is the reason for the season has been made popular. We always knew that to be true.

I had the Santa experience as well. My parents prepared the cookies and milk and they were gone Christmas morning. We had a closed in fireplace but in my young mind, I thought he must have made his way down our chimney.

One seasonal character that has been on the Christmas landscape for a while is Mr. Scrooge. He was mean-minded and didn’t think much of the Christmas holiday. Mr. Scrooge has captured my attention for the past few years. We know he was a businessman who made his assistant, Bob Crachett, work during the holiday. Worse was that Scrooge didn’t believe in helping people and he was a miser. Of course, he had some visions that changed his direction in life and ended up being a decent man. Charles Dickens’ book, “A Christmas Carol,” may have some modern-day messages for those in powerful positions. There are some scrooges trolling around today and they are self-centered, thinking of no one except themselves. It is disconcerting to find them among our elected officials and judges.

Recently, a judge in Texas ruled Obamacare was illegal. Reed O’Connor, a district judge, gave this unlikely ruling days before the deadline to sign up for Obamacare. Judge O’Connor, some say, is trying to get the attention of the president of the United States of America. Maybe he is trying to get a higher judgeship. I say, maybe he’s a scrooge!

Another scrooge report comes from North Carolina. Votes haven’t been counted properly reports say about an election involving Mark Harris and Dan McCready. Both are running for a House of Representatives seat and 905 votes separate them. If there is what appears to be a very substantial question on the integrity of the election, we would oppose Mr. Harris being seated until that is resolved. Mark Harris needs to be honest or maybe he’s a scrooge.

There is a government shutdown because Mr. T can’t get the money to build his wall. So, he is making the American people suffer. We know that Ebenezer Scrooge mends his ways. However, I am not sure these scrooges have the capacity to mend their ways.

James B. Ewers  Jr. Ed.D. is a former tennis champion at Atkins High School in Winston-Salem and played college tennis at Johnson C. Smith University, where he was all-conference for four years. He is a retired college administrator.  He can be reached at ewers.jr56@yahoo.com.