There aren't too many things in life that I intensely dislike, much less despise. One thing, however, that does fit in that category is political correctness. I REALLY dislike it! Surprisingly, I find that a broad range of people, both liberals and conservatives, say the very same thing – they really dislike political correctness. Now I'm not suggesting one should be insensitive or hateful. We can simultaneously avoid being PC, as well as insensitive or hateful.
So with that in mind, let me be very politically incorrect and say, especially to my fellow Christians, "Merry Christmas". For my Jewish friends, "Happy Chanukah". If you celebrate neither, then let me say, "Happy Solstice". I hope you celebrated the shortest day of the year on December 21s (or the longest day of the year, in case you happen to be reading this south of the Equator).
Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus for a 12 day period beginning on December 25th. Most of us have come to abbreviate the celebration to the day of the 25th. Other Christians, focus on January 6th, the day of Epiphany, recognizing the day the Three Wise Men arrived to worship the new child, as well as to bring gifts.
In the spirit of the arrival of Jesus as a message of hope to a fallen world, as well as the arrival of the Three Wise Men bearing gifts, let me offer a message of hope that may well become a gift for some. In the spirit of my book and blog, it will come from an unexpected perspective.
I had occasion to stop in a "dollar store" the other day, and it provided me an important reminder that there really are two different Americas. The America of many, maybe most, "dollar store" shoppers looks fairly bleak: job opportunities are limited, and many wish to bring back the America they remember from the past.
Unfortunately for many of those "dollar store" shoppers, the jobs that have disappeared aren't going to come back, irrespective of US trade and tax policy, or the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC (aka the White House). But that doesn't mean those "dollar store" shoppers should despair. Increasingly, I'm seeing evidence that entirely new classes of good paying blue collar jobs are appearing, a seemingly unexpected result.
For example, Clive Thompson has written in the December, 2016 issue of Wired magazine of a truly unexpected example of this - software coding. When we think of software development, we tend to think of Silicon Valley. Most people think software development requires high levels of education and training and is out of reach to most. Thompson, however, notes that only about 8% of software development jobs are in Silicon Valley, the remaining 92% spread across the country. Thompson and others, however, believe a high percentage of those other 92% of jobs are accessible to those who have had their jobs displaced in older, dying industries: people can be retrained to do a lot of software development jobs. The really good news is that the average pay in IT is $ 81,000/year. Moreover, the job category is expected to grow by 12%/year until 2024.
Thompson says that there are numerous programs around the country focused on re-training people like former coal miners to become software coders. A persistent problem in Appalachia has been lost jobs, as well as a population resistant to moving out of the region. Well, why not transform it from the land of coal to the land of code? While this sounds like a crazy idea, it really isn't so crazy. There are lots of other types of jobs that can pay good wages and are accessible to those at the lower end of the economic scale. We don't have to try to bring back the jobs of the past. Instead, we should bring the jobs of the future, particularly the one's that will be a gift, a message of hope, to the very people we encounter at the "dollar store".
While all kinds of people celebrate Christmas as a gift giving occasion, the underlying reason is to celebrate God's gift of Jesus, a message of hope to a fallen people – the birth of a savior. Jesus is not the only savior I've heard about at this time of year. Back at Christmas in 2008, I heard lots of people celebrating the arrival of another "savior" – Barack Obama as President of the USA. However, because expectations were so high, and in many cases unrealistic, the results were not up to expectations, and many are now disappointed.
A funny thing is happening now. Just as hope was placed in Obama to be a "savior", the same is now happening to Donald Trump, the President Elect. I hate to say it, but I fully expect that many people are going to be disappointed, just as many were disappointed about Obama. Now these are likely to be two very different sets of people, but the underlying process is the same.
Barack Obama and Donald Trump, like the 43 men who preceded them as President of the United State of America, are mere mortals. They have each brought varying messages of hope. I truly wish the new president much success, exactly as I did for President Obama at the end of 2008. Ultimately, however, our expectations should be tempered. I would certainly enjoy the idea of being pleasantly surprised, but even if I am, I know that the President can only do so much.
When all is said and done, there is only so much that government can accomplish. Rather than rely upon government to help "save" the down and out, we should first look to what individuals, businesses, and non-governmental institutions can do. The unexpected perspective is that the "gift" of better jobs like software coding can be provided irrespective of the occupant of the White House or the party that controls Congress.
While we can provide some measure of hope to the world, Christians believe the real message of hope is the one borne by Jesus Christ, whose birth we now celebrate. So let us celebrate this occasion by bringing gifts to one another, and let us focus our attention on ways we can bring a message of hope to those who are down and out, and truly need our help.
I wish everyone joyous times during the twelve days of Christmas.
