Become a sub for Santa

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Dec 13, 2003 by Deseret Morning News editorial

You have five days left in which to volunteer to bring Christmas to needy families through the United Way. We heartily recommend you do.

With the economy improving rapidly, it's easy to forget, or to overlook, how many people along the Wasatch Front are in need. This need doesn't merely reflect some child's wish for an expensive video game system or MP3 player. It applies mainly to kids who are hoping for a pair of shoes, or, as United Way officials said this week, something as basic as a towel. There are families in our midst who don't have these things and can't afford them.

In his classic "A Christmas Carol," Charles Dickens described an encounter between the incredibly cynical and cold-hearted Ebenezer Scrooge and two men who come into his place of business on Christmas Eve, asking for a donation to the poor. These people, they tell him, "suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."

To this, Scrooge answers with questions of his own. "Are there no prisons?" he demands. "And the union workhouses? Are they still in operation?"

When they press him, he says, "I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned; they cost enough, and those who are badly off must go there."

Finally, when they tell him that many people would rather die than go to these places, he utters his famous line, "If they would rather die, they had better do it and decrease the surplus population."

At this time of year, many people watch productions of this classic story, either on stage or in movies, and marvel both at Scrooge's original frame of mind and the transformation that eventually overtakes him. That transformation embodies the Christmas spirit.

But some people of generous means may not see the Scrooge within themselves. Do some people subconsciously rely on charities and the state welfare system to take care of the poor? Do they assume that destitute people are idle, or do they view them as the "surplus population"?

There are many generous people in this community. But there is a need for many more.

For $75 a child, you can bring an unforgettable Christmas, both to a needy family and to yourself. Other charitable sub-for-Santa programs are maxed out. The United Way is handling the excess need, and it has a growing list of hundreds of needy families. The deadline is Dec. 18. To help, dial 801-736-8929, or log on to www.uw.org.