Christmas List of What We Need and Not What We Want

Dear Santa:

Hello. This is one of your true believers in Orange County, a place you’ve been mighty kind to over the years. Maybe you remember my house from last year--I was the one who left you the gingersnaps and the raspberry frappe. Thanks for the gift under the tree: I had asked for something sleek yet sporty and that would be good for long trips . . . and you gave me that lovely toothbrush holder.

This year, however, I’m not asking for myself. I want to ask for something for all of Orange County.

Let me explain. You know how people are around here--just like they are everywhere else. We want cars and yachts and stereos and video recorders and Nintendo games and full-dress sports gear. We want toys that the kids never play with and clothes and jewelry that we never wear. And because you’re such a good-hearted lug (who’s relaxed his naughty-or-nice standards considerably over the years, I might say), you tend to be overly accommodating.

This year, would you please ignore all requests like that? That’s what we want, but it’s not what we need.

I know you only get down here once a year, so you may not notice that our society is becoming a little frayed. I’m not privy to any special knowledge in that regard; quite the contrary, I think everybody knows it.

We see it in a hundred ways every day, with some of the evidence so ever-present that it’s becoming part of our subconscious. Even jolly old you probably knows about the obvious stuff--shootings and knifings on the street, beatings and other abuses inside our homes. The other day, some teen-agers started off a mall melee right in the midst of holiday shoppers.

But even the less-violent acts go to the heart of the matter. You go almost anywhere in Orange County and graffiti are splashed all over walls, signs, sidewalks and park benches. We’ve got people working for the public who think putting in a long day at the office entitles them to loot the treasury or scoff at the codes of conduct everyone else is supposed to observe. We’ve got robbers holding up hard-working merchants. We’ve got people living in boxes in doorsteps, babies born with chains of poverty around them that would take Hercules to break out of, and sick people who want to get well but can’t afford to.

Santa, when did people quit having any regard for each other?

The only reason I’m writing to you is that you’ve got a big bag of gifts. You’re supposed to give people the stuff that makes them happy, but if I may be critical for a moment, I don’t think you’ve taken enough responsibility for what you dole out.

What I’m asking is that this year, on a trial basis, you withhold all the material stuff and give people some sense of, what would you call it, humaneness? Civility? Christmas cheer?

You may have to take matters into your own hands. You can’t count on us to ask for the stuff we really need. Everybody knows that things are coming unraveled, and yet, aren’t your requests this year about the same as always? Aren’t people still asking for all the same toys, both big and little?

You see, that’s the whole problem. We think the path to the Good Society is built by acquiring things. We’ve spent so much time acquiring, we’re about to blow up.

Don’t you have some kind of saintly powers? Do you have the power to somehow restore some sense of community, of personal responsibility, of family responsibility? Just some sense of personal conduct that keeps people from wanting to harm others, whether it’s with a gun, their fists or the stroke of a pen?

This letter probably comes as a surprise to you. You probably think you’ve been about as generous as you could to our fair county. You must fly over on Christmas Eve and wonder how we could have so much and be so screwed up.

So, what do you say, Santa? Could you somehow bestow on us a little decency toward our fellow man?

P.S. I suppose asking for a white Christmas would be pushing it, huh?