THE USELESSNESS OF HOPE

Burdened down by the task of seeking out gifts for our kith and kin some of us may not be that generous to others in their time of need but if we can’t give we can act.

I believe it was around this time of the year when two young people Joseph and Mary arrived in Linton to look for a place for the girl to give birth. Every room was full even at Luth’s Store and Saloon but a kindly lady allowed them to utilize the back shed with the cats and dogs while Mary went through the most painful time of her life. It may have been a miraculous start but without benefit of an epidural she would have gone through a hell of a time. You could imagine the difficulty of that glowing halo emerging.

“Hallelujah!” She cried when it was all over, “thank God for that” and the baby probably just looked up at her and gave her a knowing smile. To make matters worse three strangers sauntered into the stable where a star had guided them (maybe it was Kylie Minogue) and they thrust upon her gifts of beer, red wine and chips with gravy. That tradition of giving gifts lives on to this day, the miracle of birth may have become a ho hum everyday event but Christmas gift giving only comes around once a year.

A lack of housing also still exists and many young people, some of them unmiraculously pregnant, are forced once again to take shelter in sheds and garages. Because of this severe shortage of housing donations to charities only give them hope, nothing else, just hope for a better day ahead, as not even established religions dedicated to the baby born at Christmas can work the miracle of a permanent roof over a persons head.

In a day and age when governments spend billions on the useless gifts of war, and making cutbacks to swimming lessons for refugees, we should be pressuring them into a concerted effort to house its own citizens rather than make others homeless in another country. What good does it do our homeless for Australia to evict, with gunpowder, a family in Afghanistan? Should we not pressure our politicians to give Australia the ultimate Christmas present by declaring an end to war and thereby build all our citizens the shelter they deserve. Of course that is dependant on whether any government can get a three bedroom weatherboard built for less than $2 million a piece.

Faith, hope and charity are words just skatter-gunned around by our governing elite when its time to elect them back into power. A way forward, a growing nation, a new way and not even ‘it’s time’ achieved anything, not even ‘no child will live in poverty after 1998’ managed to pry money from the hands of greedy self-centered ideologues in the Temple of Canberra. If he were alive today I’m sure Jesus would have called for a double-dissolution.

The rich get richer while the poor get poorer and its time we began to pressure all levels of government to stop spending money on useless baubles, like fast trains, release appropriate land with appropriate infra-structure and build a future with bricks and mortar. A gift that will keep giving until the next Lord screams his way into the world.