Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love are familiar themes this time of year. (photo by Howard Lake/flickr)

By Camille Taylor

One Congressman says to another, “You’ve got to vote your conscience, no matter what your party wants you to do.”

It could have been a conversation about the fiscal cliff vote, but it was a scene from the movie, “Lincoln” back in 1865. 

I went to the post office to buy stamps. I love stamps, and instead of just one choice I could get Santa, Hannukah, Kwaanza, the Holy family, or a Muslim stamp with gold calligraphy noting two Muslim holidays calledEid al-Fatr and Eid al Adha which means, “May your religious holiday be blessed.” Who knew? So I bought one book each of all the options!

Yesterday, 20 legislators in Springfield announced a pension reform proposal to get things quote “kick started” and will be dealt with in the lame duck session in early January. Unfortunately it contains many of the same unconstitutional proposals that previous pension reform bills have put forth.

Although the “We Are One Coalition,” which includes the teachers and other public employees like police and fire fighters, has been trying to meet with key legislators, they can never get a meeting together due to quote “scheduling issues.” Ummm! I often pass school children waiting for their bus during my morning walk.

Yesterday, I was greeted with dah dadadadumdumdum ….la la lalalalalalala la! I thought,what if we could all be like kids and see the world through their untainted, innocent eyes?Beforesociety corrupts them, they sing, laugh, and play with whoever will sing, laugh, and play with them, and they don’t care if their songs are secular or sacred. They haven’t learned yet that both cannot be acceptable, because you have to make a choice and all things can’t be respected, only certain ones. I wonder if the recipients of my Christmas cards will be open-minded enough to appreciate the beauty of the stamp on their card whether they get the Holy Family or the Eid al-Fatr? 

My point is if everyone had respect for each other, fiscal cliffs could be negotiated, secular and sacred programs could co-exist during the holidays, and public employees wouldn’t get the shaft from some Scrooge legislators. Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love are familiar themes this time of year.

I’ll keep hoping!! 

Camille Taylor, a retired Counselor from Normal Community High School, has been an educator in this community for 34 years. She is active in the community currently serving as a church elder and board member for both the Baby Fold and the YWCA. She has been recognized by the YWCA as a Woman of Distinction for education, a Martin Luther King Jr. award winner for the City of Bloomington, a Distinguished Alumni by the College of Education at Illinois State University, a Human and Civil Rights award winner for the Illinois Education Association, and the H.Councill Trenholm Award recipient from the National Education Association for her work with diversity. She lives in Bloomington with her husband, Arthur, and is a mother and grandmother.

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