To the Editor:

Throughout the year, my wife and I are reminded of the many, here and around the world, who are less fortunate than we.

Recently, we attended a concert at Old Songs in Voorheesville where the Windborne Singers performed and I would like to share with you the words of a traditional English song they sang titled “Time to Remember the Poor.”

This is the final verse-chorus of that song:

Old Winter comes calling with its snow, wind, and sleet.

And the question: Whose lives have worth? 

Is it those by the fireside or those in the street?

Should it all be the luck of your birth?

For their lot could be yours by a small change of fate;

We’re no different in worth at the core.

If by fortunes fickle favor your estates were reversed

You would sing to remember the poor —

Now’s the time to remember the poor.

I bring these words to your attention because I believe that the powerful and wealthy men of this country are at the helm of the ship that figuratively represents our future. That also goes for the wealthy and leaders worldwide.

It has always been how they use their power and wealth that makes the difference for everyone else for whom they apply their decisions to govern over, politically or privately. In Charles Dickens’s mid-19th Century novella, “A Christmas Carol,” Ebenezer Scrooge is approached by men seeking charity for the poor and needy.

Scrooge tells the charity collectors that the poor should go to the workhouses and prisons, because he supports these institutions through taxation and says, “Those who are badly off must go there.”

The charity men tell Scrooge, “Many can’t go there, and many would rather die.” Scrooge dismisses them and famously states, “If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

I feel like this is reflective of the attitude of many leading our country right now. Imagine a government of leaders who, like Scrooge, woke up after being visited by three ghosts who helped them evaluate the actions of their past, present, and future, only to find their behavior lacking compassion, sympathy, and concern for others, culminated as an overall apathy for their fellow humankind and their welfare.

Our current leaders could transform like Scrooge from cold, greedy misers, to deeply remorseful, empathetic joyful men, with love and generosity, while also realizing their past mistakes and indifference toward the needy.

They would understand that, without a change in their behavior, they may face future damnation. 

Our current administration of national leaders needs a spiritual rebirth and desire to change.

Why withhold aid to the underprivileged when the powerful and wealthy have an overabundance?

Imagine if they were more philanthropic and generous, how the people would revere them. Is it just to be cruel and selfish? 

Democracy and capitalism can serve the needy without losing a place at the top of the proverbial economic ladder.

“A Christmas Song” by the band Jethro Tull, written 1968, critiques the excessive materialism and commercialism that overshadows the holiday season and emphasizes that the true “Christmas Spirit” is not found in the lavish parties, in consumption, or in spending money.

As the song says, “The Christmas spirit is not what you drink” and, “You’d do well to remember the things Christ later said.”

Dickens pointed out in his story “A Christmas Carol” two of the sins of man: want and ignorance. Humanity’s self-created curses: willful blindness to suffering and dire poverty warn that, without charity, these societal ills lead to inevitable doom.

Think about how America can ever be great if our leaders don’t attend to the needs of the citizenry outside of their own selfish needs.

Keep the teachings of Jesus Christ in your Christmas whether you believe he is the son of God or not!

Timothy J. Albright

Meadowdale