I’m Dreaming of a Right Christmas

By Nora Eisenberg

A new take on an old song to help make Christmas and all our days bright with what’s right.

Tired of a Christmas season of buying and waste, religious intolerance and social indifference? Of the right-wing claiming a monopoly on what’s right and the left accused of moral bankruptcy? Let’s raise our voices this holiday season and sing of age-old dreams of what is kind, just and really right. White Christmases are scarce as the Earth warms, but justice, fairness and caring for one another and the planet, which are at the heart of Christmas and other holidays of the season, are more essential than ever.

I’m dreaming of a right Christmas,
Not one right-wing, but right and fair
Not where some dine in glitter while some forage in the litter
Or stand in line if rich men deign to share

I’m dreaming of a right Christmas
A day tea-partyers assail
When workers don’t get axed, the rich pay their tax
Or spend their days and nights in jail.

I’m dreaming of a right Christmas
Winter festivals in all lands
Kwanza, Hanukkah, Diwali, Eid
Where folks of all creed walk arm in arm and hand in hand.

I’m dreaming of a right Christmas
And with each letter that we sign
May we end all war, hunger, poverty and more
And make every day, for all, a day that shines.

I’m dreaming of a right Christmas
Not one right-wing but right and fair
Not where some dine in glitter while some forage in the litter
Or stand in line if rich men deign to share

Nora Eisenberg’s work has appeared in the Village Voice, Tikkun, the Los Angeles Times, the Nation, Alternet and the Guardian UK. She is the recipient of the 2004 Gold Prize in Fiction from Foreword, the weekly of independent publishing. Her most recent novel, “When You Come Home” (Curbstone, 2009), explores the legacy of the 1991 Gulf War near and far.

Flickr / John Attebury (CC-BY)