Charles Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” in 1843. We all know the story of the old man visited by the three ghosts on Christmas Eve that reminds him, and us, of our humanity and responsibility to care for one another.

For me as a kid, I was terrified by the movie version’s Ghost of Christmas Future, the hooded skeleton that brought Scrooge to witness his own death.

I just watched the movie again; the 1951 version.

This time it isn’t the specter of death that scared me. It is the starving children hiding under the kingly robe of the Ghost of Christmas Present.

“This boy is Ignorance, this girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all, beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is DOOM, unless the writing is erased.”

Ignorance and Want. Dickens warned us almost two centuries ago.

This Christmas, let us reflect upon the year, and what we have done as a community and nation to advance the health, education and lives of the most vulnerable among us. I think most would agree we have taken an ominous turn in that regard. It isn’t out of complacency, at least to my eye. Let’s call it a change in priorities.

When law by design makes the wealthy far wealthier, and the poor poorer, there is something terribly wrong with the status quo. It is time now to turn our eyes to the future to see what is truly at stake.

SAM STEA

Cogan Station

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom