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A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS
Seldom do citizens of any country, especially the United States, check into the things they are not, have not, or aren’t even exposed to. Merry Christmas and celebrate, not only the birth of Christ, the failure of Santa to appear in the fireplace (which would be scary as hell), and so many other things occurring or not occurring.
The United States has an average per capita income per person of just at 65,000 dollars. Burundi, in Africa, has an annual per capita income per person of 840 dollars. The U.S. mortality rate is around 79 years of age, while in Lesotho, also in Africa you only likely get to live until you’re fifty. The U.S., as a country isn’t even in the top 50 countries (out of 122, or so) when it comes to violent crime. It’s even lower down for homicides and rapes. Yes, the U.S. has the highest rate of violent death by firearms but it’s not even close to other countries who use a whole variety of ways to get rid of their fellow humans.
Meanwhile, to get much closer and more personal for those living around a small lake in Southern Wisconsin, things are even better. All the communities around Geneva Lake are ahead in collecting revenue, whether from bed taxes, home taxes, parking fees, and much more. Lake Geneva, the city alone, is up almost ten percent from the year before. While inflation is headed down the revenues are going up, which hasn’t, of course, put a curb on spending at all. But then, being that Lake Geneva is very much a part of the ‘great American democratic experiment,’ a dramatic change in leadership is coming up (potentially) in February of 2024. That’s only a little less than three months away. The freedom to vote without retribution, attribution, or harassment is another great benefit to celebrate.
The winters around Geneva Lake used to be times of near ‘The Brothers of the Paraclete’ kind of monastery silence, but no more. Winterfest, the newly converted Ice Castle, the world’s tallest glass Christmas Tree, the Electric Parade, Santa Cruises, and so much more now are put on to great success, entertaining locals as well as bringing in more tourists who help pay the bills, and in a big way. An Ivy League college president got fired for freely admitting that her college, out of freedom of speech rights, should not go against speakers who were calling for the genocide of the Jewish population. Fired for saying something while defending the saying of anything.
Lake Geneva has a greater benefit than that. We at the Geneva Shore Report, those at the Regional News, and those citizens and others who come before the Lake Geneva Common Council, do not get ejected, arrested, or fired for what might be said, but maybe that’s just a local thing to celebrate, as opposed to those living in higher, sharper and more expensive towers back east. It’s a wonder for all of us to be here together, those having made it (at least for a time), those trying to make it, and those who are simply here to watch everyone else making or trying to make it.
The great warm holiday period called Christmas didn’t come about until around the year 400 AD when many other holidays were celebrated by the Romans and others in that part of the world. Those holidays were brought together along with Roman Catholics who came to believe that Jesus was conceived and crucified on the same day of the year. They tacked on nine months to that date and December 25th became the celebration of Christ’s birth. A preacher was once asked, many years back, about how Christmas could be Christian because of those things, and the creation of Santa Claus, the Reindeer, and all the gift exchanging. The preacher very cooly replied: “Because God caused all those things to be brought together so we could share in His Son’s birth.”
The GSR is throwing in with the preacher on that one.
