Christmas wishes and hopes for the new year

Mac Gordon

‘Tis the season for Christmas wish-lists and thoughts. Let’s go.

  • I wish Gov. Tate Reeves would provide some 200,000-plus Mississippians a warm security blanket of health insurance by expanding Medicaid. What would Jesus do? I’ll wait for the answer as long as necessary. I’m thanking you in advance, Governor. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

  • I’m thinking it would be a good thing for either state or federal authorities to immediately Christmas wrap the investigation into alleged misspending by the State Department of Human Services and bring charges, if warranted. This has gone on far too long without total closure of the case.

  • Alabama’s U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the former Ole Miss football coach, should totally relinquish his blocking of military grade advancements and then grant the nation the fantabulous gift of resignation from Congress.

Mac Gordon
Mac Gordon

  • I wish for a renewed sense of compromise in Washington — and more of it among people generally. We’re far too mean to each other, especially politically. Get over something before you move on.

  • I’m also dreaming of a White Christmas in Amite, Franklin, Lincoln, Pike, Walthall and Wilkinson counties — and Fluker, Greensburg, Mount Hermon and Tickfaw in nearby Louisiana.

  • Realizing it’s not an issue that attracts the attention of most Americans on a daily basis, I nonetheless hope serious negotiations on the U.S. Farm Bill continue in 2024. The House and Senate have extended for only one year the legislation that affects our basic necessities — food, clothing and roof.

  • A superb Christmas gift for sports fans of Ole Miss and Mississippi State would be for the Southeastern Conference to acknowledge them as full members. Our two schools get short shrift from the conference in general and the SEC Network in particular. The various sportscasters on the network couldn’t find either place with an Atlas or a GPS device. The snub almost makes one want to watch the Atlantic Coast Conference Network.

  • LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels has already been visited by Santa Claus, who brought him the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s best player. Well-deserved, might I add.

  • I hope for improved climate conditions across the American South in 2024. This region remains mired in drought and our farm families have truly suffered as a result. May God bless each of them as they seek to feed and clothe us and the world.

  • I wish for this country to begin a renewed focus on two domestic issues that are ignored more than any others: the mental health crisis and the perplexing agony of homelessness. Surely we all agree mass shootings would decrease through improved mental health services. Christmas thanks to Fernwood’s Enochs family for providing more housing opportunities for our homeless.

  • Let’s pray for a crackerjack Christmas for our military personnel on sentry at outposts across the world.

  • We all wish the academic progress of Mississippi’s public school children to continue. May God bless our children and their underpaid teachers for their scholastic improvements of recent years.

  • Lower gasoline prices, even as they begin to crater.

  • To all those who serve at local and the world’s food banks, best Christmas blessings to you, all angels on Earth. To the recipients, may God bless each of you next year.

  • To my friends toiling in Mississippi’s newspaper industry, best Christmas wishes. You are truly doing the Lord’s work against great odds.

My pastor, the Rev. Tucker Lewis, recently wrote: “One of the promises of Jesus’ advent (‘coming’) is peace. He will be called ‘Wonderful Counselor…Prince of Peace.’ May His coming to us this year bring that promise to fulfillment.”

Yes, may it. Merry Christmas to all!

— Mac Gordon is a native of McComb and a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Christmas wishes and hopes for the new year in MS

Advertisement