The month of December is always a special one. The thrust of Christmas and other holidays is that it’s a time to start thinking about the fact that we need to love others, are interconnected and perhaps focus deeper things than real and politically accentuated divisions. People are — at least for the duration of the holiday month — urged to put aside hatreds, stereotypes and demonizations. (After all there are 11 other months to harp on that.)
Some do.
And some don’t.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.