Yes, Virginia, there is STILL a Santa Clause; and he is legion

Family on a bad luck streak finds out just how loving people can be to strangers.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/25/christmas.giving.blog/index.html

Sorta reaffirms my faith that most people will do good, even become heroes, when they see an opportunity with a clearly defined need. A hero is just a regular person who saw what needed to be done, and instead of looking away, just did it.

These are the people we, as a society, should venerate, idolize, hold up as role models. We need to pay more attention to the good, decent people all around us, and perhaps less to the self-aggrandizing egos we see too often in media. We would feel better ourselves, and be empowered to be part of a solution.

Pogo was right, all those years ago: We have met the enemy and he is us. But there is a corollary: We have met the hero, and he is us.

Merry Christmas to all you heroes.... And may we all find the extra fiver in our wallets when the opportunity to be a hero to some luckless neighbor presents its self. May we all find a wee surge of energy when someone needs a helping hand with a task impossible to do alone. May we all find our hearts grow enough to help another meet a daunting challenge. May we all utilize the renewable resources of power: love and caring. That will assure a better new year, all around.

May your days be Merry and Bright, and your soul rest easy, come night.

Reading a comment on Huffington post re Reagan years, had to respond

Lot of union busting under Reagan too. That was the real beginning of the end for the middle class and working class trying to lift its self (and the economy) up by those oft-mentioned boot straps.

Greed was legitimized and venerated in the Reagan years. Those among us who had the least were vilified and blamed for their own circumstances.

Then there was the funneling of arms, money, drugs.... That whole thing meant that any means were justified so long as the guys in power got the ends they wanted. And America made media stars out of the criminals who did the crimes.

That, indeed, was the beginning of the end of middle class, hope for working class, and morality in America. That is when we turned off the beacon of light this nation had long held on high.

The puppet masters found the formula: Get some pretty face (with a failing mind) and run the face, but do not let that person actually DO anything.