Dear Santa / God

Excuse me for not knowing which name to use, but it seems to me that most Americans worship both of you about the same, and you both seem like good guys, so I thought I’d write to you both. It’s a little strange to be writing a Christmas List at my age, I’m a husband and a father and haven’t written to Santa or prayed to God in a long time. I hope that you still remember me.

I was going to ask for a 5 DVD Blu-Ray player to go with my 56″ Plasma TV and my 1000 watt 7:1 surround sound system, but I’ve had second thoughts. Some other things have seemed to be more important lately.

You see, I’ve got a daughter that’s growing up fast and I want, more than anything, for her to get a good education so that she can have a better life than I’ve had. I thought I had all that under control. I’d been putting a little money aside every week so that I’d have it when college time came, in a few more years. I had about $60 grand set aside in a college account for her in my 401k. I know we’re not talking Harvard or Yale or anything like that, but I figured that it would be a pretty good start and I’d keep giving what I could along the way. Well, I don’t have  $60 grand anymore, it’s more like 25 or 30. Took me 10 years to get it to 60 and about 2 months for it to pretty much go away. The company that was investing it for me gave out big bonuses to their guys though, so I don’t know why I lost more’n half my money. Can I get any help with that Santa God? If my kid can’t get an education I just can’t see what she can do to make her way in life. 

Then, there’s my cousin. He joined the National Guard some years back. Seemed like a pretty good deal, one weekend a month and two weeks a year and he had a little paycheck and was proud to be ready to do something for his country. Funny thing happened, the Army told him that he was going to be activated and would be going to Iraq. None of us could figure how Iraq was the concern of the National Guard, but he made a deal and was going to stick to it. Turns out that he did THREE tours of Iraq, well ALMOST three tours. A coupla months before he was scheduled to come home his HumVee ran over a bomb and he got hurt pretty bad. Funny thing is, his enlistment was up after his second tour but the Government wouldn’t let him out of the Army, something they called Stop Loss.  The only loss was my cousin’s legs and a few of his fingers and one eye. His kids took it pretty hard and his wife never did seem to get over it. 

Anyway, sorry to run on like this, but the Government took pretty good care of my cousin when he first got home. they fixed him up pretty good with artificial legs and all. Sent him a check every month that let him pay most of his bills. The problem is now, Santa God, his legs don’t fit anymore and the VA doesn’t seem to have any time for him. He has an appointment for 6 months from now to look at his problem. So my cousin is in a wheel chair and he’s feeling pretty low. His wife is working and things are tough for the two of them. I don’t even know what to ask for for them Santa God….it just seems like his kids deserve better that a busted up Dad and a tired Mom. Do you have any ideas?

My Dad’s a little worried these days too, Santa God. Bless his heart, he got up every day a 6AM and got himself off to his job at the Chevy plant. He always seemed to be able to make it to my little league games too, even though he used to work as much overtime as he could get. He’s 75 now and he lives in a little house that’s paid for. His wife died of cancer a few years back and he’s never quite been the same, but gets by OK on his pension and Social Security. He doesn’t have any extra money but my brothers and I try to help him out a little when we can. There’s been talk about GM going out of business though. If that happens I don’t know what he’s going to do. I guess that we could sell his house for a little something 

( houses don’t bring squat no more around here) and I could put him up in our den, but I know he wouldn’t like it much. He’s a proud man, even if he never did get much education. It’d kill him to have to live with his kids.  Please Santa God, can you help keep his old company from going out of business? He’d be OK with a cut in his check, I guess, but please don’t let it stop altogether.

While I’m asking Santa God, could we please finish up these wars that we’re in? Could we please not start any new ones? I, like most of the folks I know are just about fed up with wars with people who we don’t even know nothing about, that don’t even seem to have anything to do with a regular sort of country. Most folks I know just want to be able to work a job, have a home and be able to raise up their kids to be better off than them. Is there any way that you can get that to us Santa God? I won’t never ask for any more electronic stuff from China again, if we can just have our country back. 

Thanks for listening Santa God. I know that I don’t write like those politicians and lawyer folks, and I guess that they probably have better Christmas lists than mine, but I’d sure appreciate anything you could do for us. Things have gotten mighty tough here in the ol’ US of A these days. If you can’t help us, I sure don’t expect our government to be able to. 

Thanks again for reading this,

Your friend,

Joe Six Pack