Jacob Kriger is a
young man who works at the Hunters Bay Radio station, and on top of hosting and
teching much of the daytime programming at Hunters Bay Radio, he produces some
very creative audio and video promotions for the station. Last Monday, I was
called last minute to volunteer for radio bingo. As a joke, and because I knew
it would make Jake laugh, I wore Shauna’s pink “Big Brother Canada” onesy to
the station. I told everybody I had already changed in to my jammies when I answered
the call to volunteer. If you’ve never heard of onesies, they are the one piece
pajamas with feet that some of us wore as children, and they are very cozy. I think they are making a
comeback among adults. I remember laughing when I saw rock star Gene Simmons
wearing a onesy on his short-lived reality TV show Family Jewels. Anyhow, when I arrived at the station, in my pink
onesy, Jake was in the process of creating a video for tonight’s special $4000
jackpot bingo giveaway. It did not occur to me that Jake might be filming me in
my pink getup, but when I saw the finished video on the Hunters Bay Radio
Facebook page the other day, there I was, in all my pink splendor. Another man
might have been humiliated, but I have no shame. We have a lot of fun at that
radio station.
As we approach the New
Year, of course I am as worried about the future of mankind as the next man. Everything
seems to be regressing; race relations, politics, religion. I can’t believe a
woman’s right to have an abortion is again up for debate in America! I’ve got
to stop watching the news, because the general message is that the world is
coming apart at the seams. Most recently, and leading up to Christmas, there
was the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey by a Syrian terrorist.
I woke up to that bad news and was astonished to see the murder video broadcast
on CNN. Shortly thereafter, on December
19th, there was the terrorist attack in Berlin that killed 11 people
and injured over 50 others. Anis Amri, a 23 year-old Tunisian man and ISIS
sympathizer, drove a hijacked truck into a Christmas market full of people in Berlin, escaped
after the attack, and was later apprehended and killed. I watched an
interesting segment on CNN called “What They Hate Us” about the Muslim
extremists. I think hatred is self-propagating, but so is love. How do we
combat ignorance and fear? Focus on the heroes I guess. They may not make the
headlines but they are the best antidote to hatred. In that Berlin attack,
there is evidence to suggest that the hijacked truck driver tried to grab the
steering wheel from his hijacker before he was killed. During the 9-11 attacks the
courageous passengers on Flight 93 fought back and kept the terrorists from
hitting their designated target in Washington, D.C. That heroic action probably
saved a lot of lives. There are a lot of good people in the world, we just don't hear much about them.
I will leave it to
the pundits and the newscasters to pass judgment on the notable events of 2016
but let it suffice to say this was not a banner year for good news. I suppose it has always been this way; the press
reports that the sky is falling, and the world keeps spinning on its axis
regardless. While I worry about the future, the fact is that I rely too much
upon our leaders to fix our problems. I will usher in 2017 as I have the last
few years, quietly at home watching TV with my wife Shauna. At midnight we’ll
give each other the first kiss of the New Year, hug each other, and hope for
peace and prosperity in the world. And I will make the same New Years
resolution this year that I made last year, and the year before that: to be a better person. Happy New Year to my
twelve loyal readers!
“When I look in the
mirror, I see a broken plan
I see the aimless
wandering, I see a selfish man
And I ask myself, how
can I begin to make this better?”
Written by Jamie
Oppenheimer c 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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