GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Nov. 29, 2003-- It's not a good idea to turn Santa Claus into a Terrorist.  But, it appears, Hollywood has waved it magical wand over the jolly old symbol of Children's Vigilance and turned him into a raging Beast of Terror.

      At least, that's what the promotions of the film depict.
      I haven't seen the movie, only the trailers, those cuts and splices that tease and tantalize one during the preview section of the movies to lure you into the theater when the movie hits a full run.
      But what is displayed on the preview screen washes away any idea that Santa might be "good" or that he will bring "joy" and "happiness" into the life of a disenfranchised child.   This "Bad Santa" chews lumps of coal for breakfast, lunch and dinner and appears to spit them out on all who pass within spittle distance
     One might wonder why Hollywood would craft such a film, go to the millions of dollars to manufacture it, and then the additional millions to promote and release a film so bluntly designed to make Santa's image equal to that of Kim Jong Il of North Korea, or Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein all rolled into one.
      Unless there is a nefarious tactic none of us really want to accept--that "killing Christmas spirit" is just as important as undermining the ethics of morality of America as the homeland of the Sentinel of Vigilance.

      Evil likes to corrupt Good.   It's in Evil's nature to consume Virtue, to gnaw at its bones as starving vultures ripping at the half-dead body of a fallen straggler in the middle of the Sahara.
      By frontal appearances, it seems "Bad Santa" is seducing audiences to rip off the mask of Christmas and strip the Sentinel of Christmas Cheer bare so that the world can scoff once more at another institution designed to make children laugh and leap with joy.  This "Bad Santa" will set them screaming and running to hug the Beast of Terror.
      I'm sure that as the film ends, there will be some redemption.   Hollywood will have to tie some knot in the grotesque bow it is promoting and vaingloriously attempt to show viewers that even the "worst" can become "good."  But, this transformation will obviously consume only a few minutes at the end of the caboose, kind of like the child abuser after beating the children to bloody stump hugs them in the aftermath and says raspily:  "Oh, I'm sorry, I love you so much I lost control."
      It seems little salve can save the true intent of a movie that shows a drunken, ugly Santa accompanied by an "evil elf" vomiting venom on everyone and everything in sight, especially the little children.

     Belief is in itself a magical quality.    It has no scientific foundation.   It cannot withstand the rigors of logic in the mathematical or intellectual sense.    Belief is the ability of the mind to seek an innocence, a purity of thought that makes the impossible possible, that turns dark gloomy Zoloft days into bright sunny spring bouquets of Hope and Aspiration.
      It's like believing that the world might one day be rid of war and peace will prevail.  Or that one day the children of the world won't go hungry.   Or, that one day a political campaign might be launched in which each candidate has to promote only his or her merits and not sling mud at one another in an attempt to slaughter or cripple another to win the favor of voters.
       Belief drives individuals, societies and nations to evolve above the primordial ooze of reality, to not accept the worst of human nature but to seek to pole vault over our defects toward the epiphany that we can arrive at some pedestal of self and cultural respect for ourselves and all others without doing it over the bloodied bodies and bleached bones of those who stand in our way.

   But, by all frontal appurtenances, "Bad Santa" is all about eviscerating the image up front, smashing and grinding the image of the Spirit of Christmas into the ground with jackboot heel of a vicious script whose previews make one stiffen in the seat regardless of age.
       Terrorism is not just about the war in Iraq, or some madmen flying planes into buildings or setting off bombs or blowing aircraft out of the sky.
       Terrorism is about destroying institutions of belief, especially those designed to provide sanctuary for the children, and their Children's Children's Children.
       For a wide number of children throughout the world, Christmas is a time of love and caring, a day when the children's hearts and souls become the most important centers of the universe.   It is a day when Terrorism of the Child is supposed to put on the shelf, shoved back into the deep recesses of the closet and the Beast of Terror becomes muffled and chained so he can't rip and shred the child.
        Part of that day includes the belief in Santa, a belief that there is a group of men and women and elves who labor all year long to bring gifts of love and happiness to even the most disenfranchised of us all.  

        In the Christmas Story, Charles Dickens created a "Bad Santa" by the name of Scrooge.  He was a mean curmudgeon of capitalism, more concerned with making a buck than in a holiday of joy and happiness.   The story is about his revelation of belief, and while "Bad Santa" might claim it is nothing more than a parallel to Dickens's story, the least that can be said of it is that it is a pornographic parallel, one that seeks to rip and tear at the guts of Christmas spirit rather than reveal the true essence of it.

        Terrorism hides behind a similar veil.
        Terrorists claim to be fighting for justice, and employ the "means justifies the end" to promote the wanton use of tyranny and oppression over others.    The world, however, doesn't buy their proposal.    Still, the Beast of Terror alleges his right to abuse to achieve, just as a parent who emotionally or physically abuses a child claims such a right as a "parent."   
        "No one can tell me how to raise my child," shouts the abusive parent, just as some nations claim they have the sovereign right to employ tyranny and oppression upon their citizens, and that no country has the greater right to usurp their tyranny and oppression.
        But we all know there is a greater duty than sovereignty, and that is when the common good of the innocent is put at risk.   When an adult abuses the power of parenthood, he or she loses such rights.   Society steps in.
        "Bad Santa" is such a case in point.    It is a film whose singular goal is to eviscerate belief in a symbol of good, and, in the process of showing it, to drive a wedge deep into the hearts of those audience members that cruelty and dishonor are privileges that should be allowed, even if the victims of such actions are the children.
        I think often of the 2,800 souls who died on Nine Eleven and what they died for.   For me, they died to protect the Children's Children's Children.  They have become Symbols of Belief that our world will no longer duck, weave or dodge the bullets of Terrorism.

     The unilateral attack America launched against Iraq while the U.N. sat on its hands symbolizes the willingness of the United States to stand up for the future of the Children's Children's Children.    At the risk of endangering our nation's credibility in the political global arena, we have willingly offered the lives of tens of thousands of our young men and women so the "Bad Santa" of Iraq will have no place to spread his lumps of coal.
      More importantly, we issued by our attack a warning to other nations of tyranny and oppression that they cannot continue to treat their citizens, their children, with such disrespect without the potential consequences that drove Saddam Hussein from power.
       So, it surprised me that Hollywood would make a film promoting the Terrorism of the child at a time when the world is faced with one of its great moral questions of the 21st Century--Will We Stand Up As One Against Tyranny And Oppression Anywhere Anytime?

     "Bad Santa" appears to be slap in the face of this question.  It's like the bully coming into town after the previous bully has been run off and taunting everyone--"Come On, take a piece of me.   I'll show you how tough I am."

   I hope few go to see "Bad Santa."  The title tells us all it's a Terrorism film, starring Saddam and Osama produced and directed by the Beast of Terror.
        Thank goodness there are Sentinel of Vigilance films to see this season such as Elf.   I suppose, if one wanted to find out who didn't believe much in Christmas, he or she would go take pictures of people standing in line to see "Bad Santa."
        For me, I'm going to stay home and wrap presents, and perhaps one of them will be a lump of coal for the people in Hollywood who are trying to Terrorize others in the name of art and entertainment.
 

Nov. 28--President Bush: Thanksgiving Sentinel of Vigilance

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