Today is when Western nations traditionally mark the birth of a small child, born to parents in an occupied land. The family will soon be refugees when the land’s ruler learns of a prophecy that a child born in a particular city will bring about the destruction of the ruler’s realm.

The child grows to be a man, following in his father’s footsteps to become a carpenter, as was traditional in those days. History tells us little of his growing years other than that, sometime around his bar mitzbah, the traditional celebration of manhood, he astounded the priests in the temple with his knowledge of law and faith. Many today believe he was following in the footsteps of his other father, the creator and law-giver, and revere the words we are told he spoke as he taught his other father’s lessons.

When people write of this day they frequently use words like “hope,” “love,” and “compassion,” all concepts that are sadly lacking in this 21st century. As we stagger into 2008, CE, we see around us on every side war, oppression, cruelty, and hatred. Even those who grandly and publicly profess to be the most devout followers of this man seem to take great pride in turning their backs on his teachings. It is more than unseemly for religious leaders to advocate war, killing, torture, cruelty, and other barbarities. It is in fact obscene, but too many of today’s leaders have lost their way and use the veil of religion to hide the scars of political ambition and lust for power that have marked their souls for eternity.

In these days a nation conceived in the principles of Enlightenment liberalism is being dragged steadily and remorselessly into the pit of fascism.

The first ten amendments to the Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights. Those successful revolutionaries who tore this country away from an oppressive and neglectful British crown thought so highly of these certain rights that had been ignored by the British king that they were specifically enumerated and added to the Constitution to enshrine their importance.

We have seen many of these rights summarily taken away from us under the pretense of “protecting” us when in fact we are less safe today than we were seven years ago. The actions of those who lied, cheated, and stole their way into positions of power have formed the basis for many dark theories of conspiracy.

Most of these “leaders” have shown distressing hints that they intend to make their time in office permanent, establishing a form of government that patriots died to reject over 200 years ago. Members of the Executive and Legislative bodies are feared and despised all over the world. Members of the Legislative branch recently took time out from their busy schedule of ignoring the wishes of the American people to strongly affirm their dedication to the man whose birth we celebrate today, and to his teachings. They did this even as they refused to take active steps to condemn, and stop, the torture of helpless prisoners.

The press, those whose duty in the defense of liberty is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, is rightly charged with the solemn obigation of safeguarding the freedom of the citizens, to ensure that the US Government does not trample upon them. But the press has been co-opted by forces more interested in profit than liberty, and great swathes of the Press has aligned itself with the ideologues now determined to transform this country into something more commonly seen in some corrupt third world backwater banana republic.

Our economy and financial system has been bastardized, turned into something resembling a street corner three-car monte con in which only the insiders can win. Wealth that was once evident in most families has been ripped from the pockets of the middle class and concentrated in the hands of a very small and fortunate minority. Jobs that once paid a decent wage, enough to allow a family to live with pride, have been sent overseas by multinational corporations, sacrificed on the altar of profit. With the connivance of our lawmakers, banks have become predators, sucking the very lifeblood of those desperately trying to stay afloat in an economy rigged against them.

We approach a national election to choose new leaders, unsure that those who direct our nation’s course in the affairs of the world will permit them to occur, and also unsure whether they will be fair elections, or rigged and stolen like the last few we’ve had.

Those politicians running for office are collectively a dim lot, a frightening shadow of our present rulers – a pack of mediocre authoritarians who seem unable to develop a new course for the country, and instead advocate more of what got us to the edge of the abyss we are presently teetering on.

But for one day let us put aside our dark present and the specter of an even darker future and celebrate the message of the day.

May this day bring you and your families the happiness, joy, love, and good will that was the primary teaching of that child that legend tells us was born on this day over 2000 year ago. May your children shout and cry out with happiness and glee. May your argumentative uncle for once shut his yap and pass out early – hopefully not into the mashed potatoes. May your table be overflowing with the bounty of the earth, and may the music be joyous and hopeful as befits the day.

Time enough to worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes.