I believe the lyrics from John Lennon, “So this is Christmas,” are an appropriate way to start this letter. It is the Christmas season all over the world. As I acknowledge this, I cannot help but wonder which country and/or who are the people that keep and honor Christmas in the most fitting way. Is it the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia or some other people of another country? Also, one has to ask: Which religion keeps and honors Christmas as the birth of Christ our Savior and the essential, most basic meaning of world peace? Is it because we, the world’s people, have large percentages of unemployment? Is it because our very own governments can not agree that all — I repeat, all — peoples, of every country, need health care without spending their life savings in order to receive it? Is it because the world’s fighting troops, human beings, are fighting and dying in two or more countries where it is highly rumored these governments are very corrupt? Is it because, after more than centuries of being countries, we still have bigotry and prejudice? Finally, and most importantly, is it because world peace seems always to be out of our hands?

If you are like me and don’t like the answers to these questions, it is not too late to make the answers more positive for the sake of our world’s future. We have got to come to some understanding that we cannot continue to purchase almost everything that is made in other countries without making investments in each country’s citizens. We have got to understand that world-fighting troops are also moms, dads, sons and daughters. Our world’s troops need — I repeat, need — to be brought home now as a world gesture of making peace. As for the bigotry and the denial of health care without health insurance, I believe these go hand in hand. How can a society claim to be civilized when so many millions of our world’s citizens are without the very necessary safety net of health care without spending their lives’ savings in order to get needed medical attention?

Perhaps this Christmas will be the start of better times in our world. If we all truly understand the real meaning of Christmas and world peace, we can have world-changing things happen for the betterment of all humankind.

— Tim Bledsoe, North Augusta, S.C.