NOBODY wants to admit it, but a national election in the middle of Christmas is a terrible idea. Try all we might, there is a dissonance between engaging in an exercise where you will do anything to prove that somebody else’s philosophy is far less worthy than yours and a long-standing festival of peace and goodwill, wherein we’re called to love even our enemy. It doesn’t work. It is like joining chiffon and denim in the same garment. One is going to tear away.

Only one day stands between Christmas Day and us. Only six days remain to Election Day. If we’re to maintain the peace, we must be on guard. If Leader A says something nice about Leader B, it shouldn’t mean that Side A is going soft, which is then interpreted that they are not taking the helm of the Ship of State, especially as it embarks on rough seas.

If Side B steps up the “service” to voters, passing off cash and kind as traditional Yuletide gifts instead of the inducements which they are, let’s deal with it without starting another World War.

It would serve us well to remember the words of one of the less-used Christmas songs: “Oh hush your noise, ye men of strife/And hear the angels sing”. Angels have to sing pretty loudly to be heard these days, not only here but in other lands. This is the Age of Dissonance, but we don’t have to turn everything into a fight.

So far, we’ve being doing our best at reasoning. Let’s keep on same way. Never mind a kind of reluctance to admit that things might have been much better for the spirit of Christmas, if elections could have been scheduled for either before or after.

Word on the street is that business is slow, especially for vendors who look forward to increased sales from the festivities of the season. There is no empirical evidence that it might have been different if there was no election, but the link has been made. The focus is divided between the two events and we just have to live with it. Hopefully, we can learn some lessons for the future.

A quote from Ocho Rios describes the mood in our usual colourful way: “Not even Christmas breeze a blow”. It may be an exaggeration but there is some validity to it. You hear it said all over. Shoppers are not turning out in the numbers which were expected. The hope is that a surge will come tomorrow being Christmas Eve. If it doesn’t, then the canines will devour our evening meal (aka “dawg nyam wi supper”).

IT IS NOT JUST sidewalk vendors who are experiencing the slow-down. “Big business” has seen the slow trend too. “We all have to roll with the punches,” says the operator of a dry goods business who invested much to meet the anticipated Christmas trade, but isn’t too happy with the returns. He says he is looking forward to a new time when, in coming to decisions on national matters like elections, we will listen to what the public says. Not surprisingly, he is a staunch advocate of fixed election dates.

IN RESPONSE to last week’s column, which raised the Christmas vs election topic, a reader accused me of “whining” as if elections weren’t a good thing. He said, in effect, I should be grateful that Jamaicans can vote, unlike in some countries where people have had to fight and even die for the privilege.

My kind reader should know that I am grateful for being able to express my views on this and other matters. I love democracy as much as any other because it also permits disagreement. So… I whine!

We’ve come a long way from the Yuletide season years ago when Sam Sharpe led what has come to be known as the Christmas rebellion in St James — December 28, 1831 to January 5, 1832. Sharpe hadn’t reached the point of demanding elections then. A more pressing need was the right of freedom from enslavement — a concept which seems unreal to us today.

His journey led to the scaffold; some will say that journey helped you and me to ascend our particular platform if only for the right of “whining”. Note that “platform” is not what it used to be. Even the meaning of the word has changed.

ONE SUBJECT associated with this Christmas election season is spoken about almost in hushed tones. It is the difference of doctrinal opinion regarding December 25 as a religious celebration. Some believe that there is no theological justification for such.

You hear it whispered that it is the influence of such believers, who have access to power, which has led to the election date dwarfing Christmas. I have no evidence to that effect, but it is a widely held theory.

We have wisely steered clear of the controversy. Not only are such arguments bruising, but hardly, if ever, are they resolved satisfactorily. Still, we may be called upon to discuss them one day. So, let’s move on to Christmas Day on Sunday. Election Day comes along next Thursday. Let us admit that there is value in maintaining “Peace on earth and goodwill to all”.

I LEARNED a new expression recently… “softening of the heart”. If we can “harden” then we can “soften”, can’t we? Giving to the needy is one hallmark of what Christmas should mean, a heart-softened moment, but how do we do so effectively when, everywhere you turn, there is the cry: “Let off sump’n nuh” and the resources to “let-off” are increasingly meagre?

Many of the social agencies find themselves trying to cope with dwindling resources from the State as well as private sources. It hurts to hear of one organisation in particular, which has done so much in the past and is now being forced to curtail its services because the cash flow is bad. In that environment I now plead for the YMCA, which has done tremendous work to educate and rehabilitate street boys, whose window-washing activities we all decry.

The YM takes in as many of these boys as they can, assisting them to prepare for survival, through education. Most recently, 47 boys in the YM programme did well in the Grade Nine Achievement Test (GNAT) and can now move into other educational institutions to continue learning. It is time to assist another lot, but guess what?

The YM is so woefully short of funding that it has difficulty at times in paying staff and providing basic equipment — desks, chairs, etc. It needs help. Call Sarah Newland-Martin at 926-8081or 754-9034 and find out what you can do. If you never give another gift, give this one. You may change a boy’s life for his personal advancement and that of the nation we’re all fighting to advance.

Peace, love and best wishes for the Season and 2012. You and I will see differently on many things, but let us agree on this one… Respect due!

gloudonb@yahoo.com