“It’s the most wonderful time of year.”
That Christmas song lyric and title was penned by the late singer, song writer, and television host, Andy Williams. The song itself is a fun, upbeat ditty that actually gets stuck inside your head as an earworm, but a catchy, seasonal earworm.
Tune your radio dial during the Yule season and I’m certain you will eventually find it and tap your toe to it while you’re humming or singing along. It, like all other carols, mentions joy, peace, love, friends, unity, Christmas presents, and children.
Like it or not, if anything can get you into the ‘Christmas Spirit,’ this happy song will.
Imagine climbing into your vehicle to shop for loved ones and you’ll probably still be hearing this song rattle around inside your head. After locating a precious parking spot to help Santa Claus finish his shopping list, you head into the store only to be met by a military figure.
That figure can be a man or woman, usually ringing a hand bell, while normally dressed in a relatively non-descript blue uniform; adjacent thereto will be a red kettle proudly adorned with the logo: Salvation Army.
As a small child I recall my Mother dragging into and out of the local A&P market pleading for a ride on the coin-operated automated horse, using my stellar behavior as a bargaining chit. It often worked unless one of these Salvation Army people was strategically stationed adjacent to the door.
That loose change for a ride on a fiberglass Champion would normally go into that red kettle to help the Salvation Army with their mission.
My old friend Champion
I stopped begging for one of those valued rides some 60-years ago, actually following my Mom’s footsteps by dropping money – change and folding cash, both – into those kettles ever since.
But this year is different.
No, I’m not going back to riding Champion. Rather, I’m writing this to offer some facts about Salvation Army folks; things are changing at the request of the Salvation Army itself.
After many months of national “wokeness,” the weak-minded among us bipeds are jockeying – maybe ‘wrestling’ would be a better term – to try to reach the pinnacle of stupidity and insensitiveness, first. And the Salvation Army may well be in the lead.
When my Mom’s money disappeared into that hole in the cover on the red kettle, I never thought about where it was going, or for what. Nor did I question her generosity to strangers without fanfare. Eventually I realized that she was simply doing the “right thing.”
And until just recently, I never really cared where that cash went so, I decided to dig into the details.
The Salvation Army is an organization of civilian “soldiers” that are supposed to operate on the ‘front line’ of many social matters. Those matters include “human need wherever, whenever and however we can,” according to their website.
Beneath those words appear a series of photos with the words: Volunteer; Donate; Help, Hope and Home; Provide Shelter; Missing Persons; Combat Human Trafficking; Equip Families; Teach Kids; Empower the Arts; Employment Opportunities; Combat Addiction; and Love the Elderly.
While those are noble goals they are pretty nebulous and beg for more detail. And somehow they are financially-driven, and assumedly partially funded by those red kettles.
The latest revenue figures available are from 2019; total revenue for the Salvation Army was an amazing $3,863,646,000. Their revenue costs for that year stand at $407,845,000.
That’s a lot of money, both folding and otherwise. So where does it go?
Thanks for asking.
It’s Woke 2021, and sheeple around the world have been compliantly lining up to hit themselves on their heads as a sort of punishment for racism and slavery with which they had no involvement.
It seems as though the Salvation Army has reached the apex of solving all problems mentioned above including employment, addiction, teaching kids, and providing shelter. Now it’s time for them to wade into the polluted waters of - yes, you guessed it – racism.
Following their United States
Army brethren, the Salvation Army feels they have the definitive answer to the
question of racial division. January 8th
and 9th is expected to witness “The Young Adult Racial Justice
Forum,” to be hosted by the Salvation Army Metropolitan Division,
This new and improved Salvation Army appears to be shadowing the U.S. Army in its ardent efforts to gin-up racial division rather than unity.
Something sinister seems to be
afoot with these two esteemed “armies” driving a wedge between homogenized
Once again, the narcissists leading the Salvation Army are veering off-course by intentionally driving the racial bus, on which we all ride, off the proverbial cliff.
And not unlike U.S. Army General Mark Milley and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the Salvation Army soldiers are being fed the tripe of systemic racism that doesn’t necessarily exist, but garners hateful and divisive feelings from the accused.
This year my grocery store change is going toward a donation to a more unifying, needy organization that doesn’t justify intolerance and disruptive feelings by invoking God during the celebration of his Son, Jesus.
Unto us a Savior is born.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas.
