Apparently Dec. 1 was Giving Tuesday (#givingtuesday), at least according to all the emails in my inbox from places like the Surf Happens Foundation and CASA of Santa Barbara County asking for donations.
#givingtuesday is a mighty bit better than #cybermonday and #blackfriday and #nationalsinglesday (China is GREAT at making single people feel fantastic, offering discounts. Unlike your parents who keep asking you when you’re going to meet someone nice, settle down, and make babies—and they mean yesterday, junior!). Apparently, China’s shoppers spent $9.3 billion online in 12 hours on National Singles Day, and that figure was tallied around midday!
That topped the 2014 total for the world’s biggest online shopping day. Cyber Monday, eat your heart out with your measly $3 billion. Meanwhile, according to a CNBC report, Internet tech firm comScore reported digital sales on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday reached $4 billion, and Shopper Trak reported consumers spent $12.1 billion in stores on those two days. Way to spend, America! We managed to buy almost $20 billion worth of discounted goods in five days.
So how much did you give to nonprofits and charities on day six? In 2014, it was a little more than $26 million. A pittance in comparison to what consumers spend on themselves (be honest, that big screen T.V. from Best Buy is going in your house, not your brother’s), but it’s better than nothing. As part of the “giving” mood that the world seems to be in on Giving Tuesday, I’m going to shamelessly plug our upcoming Wish List issue that will hit newsstands on Dec. 17. If you didn’t give to a local charity on Dec.1, that’ll be your second chance to do some good in the world!
In the #wishlist issue, local nonprofits get the chance to publish a list of needs, wants, and things that they would like some help with. Nonprofits have until Dec. 12 to get their lists to the Sun.
In the spirit of giving, Matt Kokkonen, a perpetual Republican candidate from Northern San Luis Obispo County, gifted the Sun with a rare treatise on how the United States should deal with distressed, war-torn Syrian refugees. He counts himself among the lucky two handfuls of candidates trying to capture the coveted 24th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. U.S. Rep. Lois Capps is vacating the Congressional premises at the end of 2016.
And yes, even though it’s still 2015, and has been all year, the candidates vying for that pass to Washington, D.C., continue reminding us that there will be an election in 2016!
Really, Kokkonen was responding to my brother to the north. The Shredder, who’s mouth is way bigger than mine if you ask me, had the audacity to write about how un-American some politicians sound when they talk about future Syrian refugees and how the U.S. should treat them (Nov. 19). And since I opted not to in the week following the Paris attacks, Kokkonen has generously gifted me—in the holiday spirit, of course—with a renewed opportunity to talk about certain local politicians and how they feel about refugees from Syria.
Apparently Justin Fareed, also a Republican running for Capps’ seat, felt too strongly about it to keep his gums from flapping. Well, don’t take that too literally, it was just a Facebook post. “This is a time when all of us who value freedom and democracy should set aside our differences, and work towards ensuring that our valued way of life continues … ”
I feel some good ol’ holiday spirit and American values coming on!
“No additional Syrian refugees should be admitted into the United States until the Obama Administration can provide 100 percent assurance that they are not members of ISIS or sympathizers of their terrorist acts,” he continued.
Well, bah humbug to you too, Mr. Fareed.
It would seem the spirit of scrooging continues with Kokkonen, as you can see in this week’s commentary. He is a “legal” immigrant from Finland, you know.
And he agrees with fellow Republican Fareed and all the other Republicans who might see the ghosts of Christmas past come to haunt them this year. Keep those Syrians out of here! They could be terrorists.
What about the recent shooting outside of a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, where three people were killed and nine were injured in a shooting rampage? Sounds like terrorism to me. But the name Robert Lewis Dear (the suspect) doesn’t ring of Syrian heritage. What about in October, when three more victims were killed in a Colorado Springs shooting? This time the suspect’s name is Noah Harpham.
Or the shooting in Aurora, Colo., in 2012, where James Holmes opened fire in a movie theater, killing 12 people and injuring 59.
There’s also the 1999 Columbine High School shootings where students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and one teacher, injured 21, and then committed suicide. There’s Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary, the University of Texas; there’s too many to name. All of them are awful and sad, scary and reeking staunchly of terrorism.
Only, we don’t get to look at the suspect’s credentials beforehand. Just because someone is from, let’s say, Colorado, we don’t get to pre-emptively pass legislation to try and prevent them from moving out of the state or attending school because we think they might, possibly, at some point in their lives commit terrible acts of violence simply because of where they come from.
That’s not how America works.
We live in a land emblazoned with the gift of second chances, open arms, and shelter for “your tired, your hungry, your poor,” and your people running from war-torn regions, a land where a little birdy can escape the perils of a crappy pet store and take refuge at a newspaper to start a new life as a canary that sings.
The Canary sings songs of Christmas giving at canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 3-10, 2015.
