A Christmas lesson on moving beyond the turmoil and pessimism of recent years | Opinion

This is a Christmas message, but first we begin with a short history lesson.

This month marks the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party and the American patriots from the Boston area who in 1773 dumped all that tea into Boston Harbor to protest British taxation and monopoly laws. It was a dramatic precursor of the American Revolution.

Under dark of night, men made their way illegally onto the British ships loaded with tea and began searching for what they’d come to steal. They bypassed other valuable commodities that would have brought much money on the open market and took the tea, nothing else.

They didn’t pillage or destroy property. They even cleaned up tea that spilled on the ship decks and replaced a lock they had broke.

With all the turmoil and hostility that has filled our country in 2023, on many levels, it is amazing to think about the resolute, focused manner in which those colonists committed their heroic act. In our quick-tempered, violently excessive world, there’s often not a lot of restraint and honor in rhetoric or action.

In the midst of the holiday season, we are reminded that it’s a time of light, hope, joy, and of human compassion and connection. Yet we see this juxtaposed against a world in which candidates running for office proclaim how people different from themselves bring “bad blood” to our country. We see a scary level of intolerance growing with lawmakers legislating morality of their own personal, narrow brand.

We see a philosophy spreading that there is “no room at the inn” this holiday season for anyone who is different, anyone not made in the mold some would see as “real” Americans. The universal concept of brotherhood among all people is hard to find this year, even though the old carols remind us of “peace and goodwill” to all mankind.

In South Carolina during 2023, we have seen leadership at both the executive and legislative levels show clear disdain for certain groups of people whose philosophies might differ from their own. We have seen teachers and librarians lose their authority to decide what books their students should or should not read. We have seen the rights and health of women affected tangibly by legislation. We have seen ideas that would have been labeled as common sense in past years challenged now as radical.

Now only 23 years into the 21st century, we are not who we once were. Somewhere in the past two decades we have lost some of the spark that lets us embrace differences and choose to learn from one another, not fear one another.

We have forgotten how children need to learn ideas they’ve never known and make good decisions about building their own philosophies. We don’t call enough bluffs of those who would try to influence us with scary ideas not based on reality and truth.

For centuries at this time of year when people celebrate joy, birth, love, fellowship, sharing and the brilliance of being alive, there has always been the expressed hope that the warmth and charity of the holiday season could extend throughout the year. This hope is beautiful, but it is not enough anymore. In our current season, we must not let these currents of turmoil and pessimism continue to wash over us and influence who we are as human beings.

Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge has a famous epiphany in “A Christmas Carol.” He wakes up on Christmas morning a changed man after the three ghosts visit him and remind him of the misanthrope he has become. Scrooge sees the beauty of the world anew and embraces the spirit of love and charity towards others.

More than ever, in this holiday season, we need to address the misanthropes who permeate our society and recognize our own need to mitigate and lessen their influence over who we are.