All I want for Christmas By Dr. Rick Greenberg
Dear Santa:
The following is my list of gifts, which I would like for Christmas this year:
I would like to believe that our nation’s ideals, attitudes, and behavior reflect America as a progressive world leader of the 21st century, and not the impersonal attitudes of which other nations accuse us.
All I want for Christmas By Dr. Rick Greenberg
Dear Santa:
The following is my list of gifts, which I would like for Christmas this year:
I would like to believe that our nation’s ideals, attitudes, and behavior reflect America as a progressive world leader of the 21st century, and not the impersonal attitudes of which other nations accuse us.
I would wish for the Peoples Republic of China to show the world that they are truly capable of becoming a powerful world leader, which they demonstrated so admirable while hosting the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, and reflect those Olympic ideals by granting political and religious freedom to the people of Tibet and Taiwan.
I would like to see some of the money being spent this Christmas spent on necessities for the poor rather than luxuries for the rich.
I would like to believe in my own ideas and opinions, and although I may be criticized, not be persecuted for these ideas.
I would like to see all the people in this world free to worship their own religion, and have other people and nations respect them for their beliefs.
I would like to opportunity for our young soldiers to be able to achieve more in life for themselves, and their country, than to die helplessly in the deserts of Iraq, Bosnia, Serbia, or Afghanistan.
I would like to have possessed the power of the late Iraqi President’s Saddam Hussein, and have the wisdom and courage to use this power in a worthwhile and humane manner.
I would like to possess the wealth of Osamu bin-Laden, and use this wealth to promote a peaceful relationship with the western world and improving living conditions of Arab nations, rather than promote hatred and death of innocent civilians in the name of Islam.
I would like to see America not only prolong life physically, but mentally and spiritually as well.
I would like to believe that the steps of Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin taken on the moon in 1969 were indeed ‘a giant step for peace’ on a vast new civilization, and not the stretching of nations at war to planets outside our own.
I would like to see the first nation to reach the planet Mars place the flag of the United Nations there, and proclaim that voyage as one made by the planet Earth…and not the struggle of one nation desperately trying to outdo each other.
I would hope that the recent Georgian confrontation between President Obama and Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev would reflect the need to create an honest attempt to bridge the gap between America and the Communist nations…thereby truly reducing each nations defense weaponry…and avoid an escalation toward a 2nd cold war.
I would like to see the OPEC Third World nations spend their vast wealth to improve their standard of living and quality of life…rather than be the first to develop a nuclear arsenal.
I would like to see the intensity of this nations obsession for sports activity and winning more appropriately directed towards a caring need to help our nations homeless and elderly.
I would like to believe that the rapid advance in computer technology will be used to revitalize a world economy presently in decay…and not to advance the possibility of thermonuclear war.
I would like the financial influence exercised by Political Action Committees over our government leaders channeled toward a more pressing need for “political action” against drug abuse in children, and terrorism around the world.
I would like to see charity organizations such as the American Red Cross truly distribute all donations collected on behalf of hurricane and fire victim’s families and other disaster victims, as is the will of the donors. This would be truly charitable.
I would like tot say the John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Anwar Sadat have made an impression on us, and therefore have not died in vain.
I would like to see this nations’ defense dollar depreciated to a value considerably less than the cost on an American soldier’s life.
I would love to possess the athletic talent of Michael Phelps, and direct he respect and admirations he has earned toward development of sports and recreation programs for this nations inner city youth, thereby potentially creating the proper diversion from the life of crime and potentially discovering the next Olympic hero.
I would like people to accept the idea that some people work better physically, while others work better mentally…and that neither is more virtuous than the other.
I would like to meet a politician, or a nation, which can honestly admit that they were wrong.
I would like to have the ability of this nation’s bureaucrats in Congress to manipulate funds for pork barrel projects, and direct those funds toward a worldwide concern for more concerning world issues, such as AIDS research and development.
I would like to see the nations of Israel and it’s Arab neighbors attempt to find a way to share equally and without fear the holy city of Jerusalem…all realizing that this city has it’s history meshed in preaching love, not violence.
I would like to see a pattern whereby nations solve their disputes by substituting diplomatic compromise for military confrontation and civil unrest.
I would like to believe that history making events…such as the cloning of body parts, Barney Frank’s transplanted heart, and the recent mapping of the human genome… were visions of medical advances designed to improve our quality of life…and not an eventual attempt to override the creation of life.
I would like this nations financial institutions…the Goldman Sacks, Lehman brothers, and Morgan-Stanley’s of Wall Street acknowledge their responsibility and involvement in this recent global financial crisis, and how their greed has destroyed the livelihood and retirements of countless word citizens…and contributing to the largest unemployment since the Greet Depression Era. To this end, I would like them to donate their huge bonuses and salaries to those lives they helped destroy.
I would like to believe that multi-national companies such as British Petroleum…companies ‘too big to fail’ with vast wealth… acknowledge it’s responsibility toward the environment, the ecosystems, and the citizens dependent on the land and ocean for their livelihoods. I wish for BP to act responsibly in the future by planning ahead for such disasters rather than exercise political lobbying to avoid the costly expense of protecting the environment they so carelessly destroy.
I would wish for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to be intelligent enough to heed the lessons learned by recent past dictators such as Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, Moammar Gadhafi of Libya, Pol Pot of Cambodia, and Hosni Mubarek of Egypt…and to immediately halt the ruthless, senseless, and relentless crimes against his Syrian homeland… including the senseless murder of innocent children and elderly seniors. Like the dictatorial leaders mentioned above, I would wish for Assad the wisdom of rational reasoning…that his country’s civil war started out as peaceful assemblies for improved civil rights and ended in their death or imprisonment for crimes against humanity.
I would like to say that America is “the land of the free, and home of the brave” and mean it.
Most of all, I would like to see some of these ideas I’ve mentioned possibly achieved before this Christmas, or at least started…so that this Christmas may truly be a merry one.
Thank you Santa and Merry Christmas
