Right, I’m back, just like Trump.
Not for long, though. I’ll be gone again before he waddles back into the Oval Office and names that Capitol Hill insurrection face-paint-and-horned-fur-hat guy as his CIA director. Still, while here I’d best catch up on what’s been in the news during my absence:
• You know how you feel when a dysfunctional friend chooses to get back together with a really bad ex? Not surprised, but still so disappointed that you’re tempted to delete them from your contacts? That’s what it was like when Trump won.
• B.C. had its own election, one where people were so mad about the NDP’s inability to get a grip on affordability, housing, health care and street disorder that they almost voted in a party sprinkled with tinfoil hatters who think chemtrails are caused by the 5G implant in your vaccine. Meanwhile, the Greens lost half their vote and their leader’s seat, yet came away acting like they won the Grey Cup. As for The Party Formerly Known As Liberal, dunno whether they’re really dead or will come lurching out of the bathtub like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction to give it one more college try with yet another name change. I hear Twitter is available.
• Speaking of Twitter, former Guess Who singer and sometime Saanich Peninsula resident Burton Cummings used his X account to congratulate doppelgänger Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo for winning the hammer throw at the Paris Olympics. Alas, Randy Bachman failed to medal in the triple jump.
• Speaking of Saanich, its council voted to solve climate change by choking the sky over McKenzie Avenue with smog from traffic-jammed cars.
• Shrinkflation hit home on Halloween when the treats you handed out were so embarrassingly small — really, there was more packaging than candy — that you felt compelled to egg your own home. (BTW, my house got just eight trick-or-treaters, all of whom looked old enough to shave; next year I’m handing out cans of beer.)
• Forgotten on Remembrance Day: the many lives lost in the Pickleball War that has set brother against brother in North Saanich. A moment of silence, please. Or a moment of pickleballs going pock, pock, pock ….
Gosh, it’s fun to complain about our problems, isn’t it? Easier than fixing them, anyway. You look at everything that’s wrong — knee-buckling rents, the river of despair flowing into the 900 block Pandora, food so pricey that grocery stores need security guards — and wonder where it will end.
Look at the bigger picture and it’s even more discouraging: Last week, the United Nations revealed it has raised less than a third of the $1.5 billion US it needs to help refugees of the war in Sudan. What’s remarkable wasn’t really the shortfall (note that the UN didn’t come close to raising the $46 billion it said it needed to save 180 million of the planet’s poorest people from humanitarian crises this year) but that the world is so messed up that a war that displaces 11 million people can rage on without anyone paying attention.
Faced with all this, the temptation is to throw our hands in the air. No matter how hard we bail, the water still rises. We can’t solve all the woes of the world, so why keep throwing money at them?
Because it’s not about solving anything. It’s about helping people, when they need it. Might not be able to end world hunger, but we can fill an empty stomach today.
That’s all the Times Colonist Christmas Fund tries to do. By now, you probably know how the annual appeal works: The newspaper asks readers for donations, which are then distributed to local organizations that know which individuals could use the most help. For several years the money was funnelled through the Salvation Army and the Mustard Seed Street Church, but in the past few years the list has expanded to include other groups that work directly with those in need.
Last year I got to play Santa Claus, delivering grants to some of the 53 local charities that funnelled TC Christmas Fund donations directly to those in need. There was a cheque to support Ukrainian refugees living in Kiwanis Village, another that let 1Up Victoria Single Parent Resource Centre assemble emergency hampers, another that helped Soap For Hope Canada provide hygiene kits for cash-strapped seniors…. It made me feel like a million bucks (which was roughly the total raised).
That’s why I came back today and why, over the next few weeks, I’ll pop in periodically to write about the Christmas Fund, some of those organizations it supports, the people they serve and the donors who make it possible.
HOW TO DONATE TO THE CHRISTMAS FUND
To donate, go online to tcchristmasfund.com. That page is linked to CanadaHelps, which is open 24 hours a day and provides an immediate tax receipt.
Or mail a cheque to the Times Colonist Christmas Fund, 201-655 Tyee Road, Victoria, B.C. V9A 6X5.
You can also use your credit card by phoning 250-995-4438 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.
