Summary

Holiday gatherings test us as we gather with family and friends. All of this can affect our wellbeing. The Federal Government shutdown and the OBBBA threaten the access to healthcare and the access to food for millions of Americans. We have each other. Let’s work together. Let’s see what is common between us. Let’s gather during the holidays to discuss and share the holiday cheer, for the wellbeing of everyone.

Holidays, Friends, Family, and Wellbeing

The triumvirate of holidays, family, and friends may not be conducive to our wellbeing, unless we prepare in advance. Let’s explore the intersection of holidays, family, friends, and wellbeing.

Wellbeing: Healthcare, Health Insurance, and Holidays

Three H-words which may impact our wellbeing are healthcare, health insurance, and holidays. Add to that the social interactions with friends and family members and we have just created a cauldron of noxious elements to corrupt our wellbeing.

Why?

1. Because holiday gatherings can expose us to transmissible diseases such as the flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), measles, COVID-19, the common cold, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, gastroenteritis, and many others. We gather together in confined spaces breathing the same air; we eat food prepared by other people; and we touch shared items.
2. Because holiday gatherings may include heated discussions about differences in opinion which may lead to violence in some families or at a minimum to fuel tensions eliciting anxiety and anger and distress.
3. Because we need access to affordable healthcare and that is being threatened by the OBBBA plan to defund Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act subsidies. In addition, Trump has telegraphed his ultimate plan to dismantle the Affordable Care Act in its entirety. Check out the Brian Tyler Cohen interview with Abdul El Sayed who is running for Senate in Michigan for an analysis of Trump’s latest confession about his goal for the Affordable Care Act.
4. Because some people do not have the luxury to celebrate the holidays: they cannot afford food. The inability to afford food has been exacerbated by the federal government’s refusal to release Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) funds to the eligible recipients and by the federal government’s furloughing of federal workers, firing of federal workers, and withholding of pay to federal workers, during the current federal government shutdown.
5. Because all of our costs are rising as a result of Trump’s tariffs which are taxes on US and as a result of Trump’s pillaging our economy by making personal business deals for himself and his family. Every time Trump and his family members and his cabinet travels, we (US) pays for their security details, their accommodations, their transportation, their meals, …

So, the holidays have been and will be rife with opportunities for the erosion of both our physical health and mental health. Our wellbeing is at stake. Let’s talk about what we can do to navigate the holidays to maintain our collective and individual wellbeing.

Choosing Wisely for Social Interactions during the Holidays

I hark back to an essay written in 1955 by Ignazio Silone (The Choice of Comrades) and referenced by Anne Applebaum during a recent interview on The Bulwark. The wise words of Silone stand true today. We have each other and we live to tell our stories and to hear the stories of other people. In the USA, we can choose the company we keep to maintain our wellbeing. Admittedly, the Trump Administration is trying to control the company we keep by disappearing our neighbours. But, they will not succeed in controlling US.

And, the Nuremberg Trials await those who are complicit with the hatred and injustices concocted and implemented by the Trump Administration. There will be consequences for the actions of the Trump Administration: antisocial actions reap the rewards they deserve. Though, as I have understood to be true, regardless of the language in which the saying is uttered, revenge is a dish which is always served cold. Not an appetizing dish that we anticipate with relish. Nevertheless, there will be hell to pay for, Trump and your cronies: I promise you.

In the meantime, we have plenty of opportunity to reach out to our compatriots and to bring them along for the ride, guiding them to see how misperceptions and bias and misinformation and gullibility and selfishness and lack of awareness have led them to believe and trust the Trump Administration. In fact, I believe that it is our responsibility as human beings to reach out and embrace our compatriots. No doubt, some will be unwilling to join US on the journey to redemption, a redemption of the entire USA. Nevertheless, we cannot fail by making the effort, taking the time, to promote humanitarianism.

Those who decline to join us may end up at the 21rst Century Nuremberg Trials. Truth and Reconciliation for those willing to walk the path together. Nuremberg Trials for those who have led this hateful movement.

We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to each other. We owe it to the wellbeing of our country and for the wellbeing of the world. Hate Has No Home Here, period.

Hate Has No Home Here: A Mantra for All of US

Community wellbeing for the holidays with family and friends is critical for the continuation of our society and the lives of US. If we do not promote the wellbeing of our community, we may as well kiss our country bye-bye. The means to reach community wellbeing is to eradicate hate.

Stake out a place in your community for love and for harmony. By doing so, you will embody the essence of the mantra ‘hate has no home here’. Be the one to gather people around their commonalities. We are far more alike than we are different.

And, do not let leaders divide US. Do not betray US by buying into the campaign to dehumanize anyone.

Did we learn nothing from WWII? The Rwandan genocide? The Armenian genocide? The religious wars during the Medieval Ages? The current genocide of Palestinians? Apartheid in South Africa? Our very own American Revolution and Civil War?

Hate Has No Home Here. Period.

Taking Action for Wellbeing During Holidays

Holidays, family, friends,, and wellbeing are linked together.

Be a little introspective: check your biases and check your default beliefs. You may be wrong. Just saying.

Employ safe practices: firecrackers kill; infections kill; and violence kills. If you are sick, stay home. If you are angry, step away from the situation. If firecrackers are a must for your holiday celebrations, attend a publicly sponsored fireworks display.

Reach out to neighbours and strangers and thank them for being a part of your community. It costs nothing to be kind. Kindness and gratitude go a long way for promoting and preserving wellbeing.

Don’t fight with people. Guide them to information and facts. In the end, history speaks volumes. Hopefully, people will hear the truth.

Take good care of your health. Based on science, please, not on conspiracy theories. Research and data are important sources for policy development and clinical practices to ensure we remain healthy.

Call your elected officials and request they support funding for the sciences and for research, for the Affordable Care Act, for SNAP, for education, for infrastructure development, for jobs, and for all of US: we need facts, evidence, and innovative plans to maintain our health and our wellbeing.

United States Capitol switchboard 202.224.3121

Steer clear of alcohol and other psychoactive substances which impair our reflexes and affect our judgement and decrease our inhibitions. Tensions are already running high: we do not need to fuel the fire.

Be patient. We have to live with each other and we have to fight injustice. We cannot give in to the rhetoric of hatred and dehumanization, especially not now.

It’s essential, for our wellbeing.

Be safe. Be kind. Be gracious. And, above all, take good care of yourself and of others.

We have a long road ahead of us.

Holidays, Friends, Family, and Wellbeing: Music to Inspire

Music, of course, to break free of our prejudices, to vanquish those bent on dividing US, and to stop hatred:

Elisapie Isaac, performing ‘Qimatsilunga’

 

Please give generously to your local food pantries. Your neighbours will thank you.

 

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to substitute for a consultation with your mental health care professional team.

 

If you are thinking of hurting yourself or of hurting someone else, please CALL 9-1-1; CALL 9-8-8; or GO TO the nearest emergency room.

 

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Nota Bene:

USA Government websites are being purged by the current Trump Administration to align the website content with the regime’s political agenda. Please note that any government website cited in this and other posts on this website may no longer contain evidence based or historically correct information. Thus, I am trying to avoid including any references or resources which derive from a USA government website. This is not bias; I take this action in an effort to maintain a factually sound content in my posts.

 

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