Is Jesus coming this year? It's that time of the year. The 25th is upon us. At church tonight we'll have a candle light service with the traditional songs and readings. My wife and I have watched a few Christmas television shows, Hallmark and all, as well as the history of the song "Silent Night" for the second, or maybe third year in a row. It never gets old.
Something, though, is different this year. It's difficult to enter into the season's joy when the vicissitudes of life pinch, pull, and poke. Yes, when a divorce is happening in the family, that impacts us all, children, parents soon to be exes, grandparents on both sides, cousins, and aunts and uncles, and friends on both sides. The Christmas tree is up. Presents were wrapped. The three (one I've yet to see face to face, though her grandmother has) walk in with joy and wonder. They walk about the house, looking and touching, and remembering favorite things from last year or the year before. They were here for a few days and then gone again. Within those few days, there were moments of grace, reading to the two year old, hugging and talking to the four year old, and cooking breakfast and watching Mr. A. Game with the six year old. The breakfast was a long time coming and it had to be deconstructed from an egg-o. Took me a while, but we made it.
Augustine and the Apostle Paul talk about the divided self, and that's what I have with these children and Christmas. Many of you know exactly what I mean.
That, however, is only part of my wondering as to whether Jesus is coming this year. There is a second one, a large second one.
Back earlier this year, and back into 2020, and even 2019, we anticipated a Christmas present, so to speak, for African American farmers. "Christmas present" is used facetiously because it really is about justice, at least a modicum of it, being served. Debt relief was in the Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2020 and then 2021, and then it was skillfully placed within the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. We had been led to believe that there were 17,000 Black farmers who would receive debt relief. Come to realize, though, there are only 3,200 or so Black farmers who MIGHT receive debt relief.
The criteria demand that the farmer has previously received a direct loan. That is a steep hill to climb since many Black farmers had been ruled out of receiving loans of any sort, direct or guaranteed. When we look at the latest census data and realize that there are fewer than 45,000 or so Black farmers, and to realize that only 3,200 of them even qualify for debt cancellation, that is a bitter pill to swallow.
Another bitter pill to swallow, which makes Christmas a little gloomier this year, is the fact that Secretary Vilsack had about 100 days to get the debts cancelled. Then, unbeknownst to only the most blind of us, white farmers of our country filed frivolous and racist lawsuits which stopped debt cancellation in its tracks. I've written about that elsewhere on these pages, so let it be known once more than I consider those lawsuits ridiculous and a part of the puzzle that makes for white America. We knew from the Biden/Harris transition team back in 2020 that what we wanted, debt relief, was called "unconstitutional" by a senior advisor. Lo and behold, that's exactly what the white farmers have claimed it to be.
Now, in the current day, hidden within the Reconciliation Bill is a modicum of debt cancellation, not just for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, but for white farmers as well. Again, on another page here in this blog, you'll find my examination of the dollars received by the first six litigants, one of whom is the Agriculture Commissioner for the State of Texas. Those guys received over $523,000 and their counties received over $1.2B. Is that really what you call reverse discrimination when white farmers get all of the advantages? Not as I see it.
So, the Reconciliation Bill is languishing in the Senate, held up by the Senator from West Virginia. Yes, the one who lives on a yacht in the Potomac and who drives a Maserati, the one who refuses to support a bill that will benefit the people of his state. It has been said that he opposes it because poor families would spend the child support payments on drugs. Shameful. Absolutely shameful.
So, tomorrow is indeed Christmas Day. All around us people will be celebrating the birth of the Christ child. That is a good thing. Some of us will be in a somewhat different place emotionally. Yes, we can certainly suspend our emotional selves and engage in the joy of the day. Many of us will do just that. At this house, we plan to.
On the other hand, there are people that I care about whose Christmas Day will be clouded with unfulfilled promises. For some of us, it will be about family, and for a bunch of us it will be about the unrelenting burden of indebtedness and injustices perpetrated upon people we care about by the USDA.
These are the things I'm pondering today.
I hope your day is good and that it brings to you all of the joy that you can imagine. Along the way, please be mindful of those whose day will be a little more tattered. Please, especially remember that large group of farmers across the land, African American farmers, who deserve better than they are getting. Pray for them and for those persons in Congress who could ease their burdens a little.
Thank you and God bless you. And may God bless our women and men in the military serving around the world.
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