Santa is coming to visit wounded soldiers who’ve just come home from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, presumably in an effort to condescend to them as much as humanly possible. “Operation Christmas Miracle” is sending Santa Claus to visit grown adult men and women with missing limbs who no longer believe in him at military bases and hospitals across the country. Which makes about as much sense as having the Easter Bunny give the eulogy at a funeral. A recent news report showcased a Fox News reporter in a jarringly pink sweater interviewing an obviously upset war veteran with two mangled legs. Such utter stupidity and callousness did the woman at Fox News interviewing that soldier display that she actually had the gall to ask him, “What he wanted Santa to bring him for Christmas.” Unsurprisingly the soldier decided to change the subject. Mostly because it was either that or say, “To have my freaking legs back, you asshole.” Although I can’t get too mad at the Fox News reporter, because it is a prerequisite before being hired to be a reporter by Fox News that your IQ be equivalent to your birth weight.
Sending Santa Claus to people who’ve just lived through harrowing combat is only the latest example in a long line of those types of condescending ideas. The first recorded similar move was taken by the pope in the 11th century, when he would send “Giggles the Silly Eyed Donkey” to greet wounded knights upon their return from combat along the Byzantine coast. Later, Richard Nixon commissioned a program to have a bunch of pre-school teachers with Lamb Chop puppets visit GI’s returning from Vietnam. The program was later stopped when a marine with PTSD grabbed a Lamb Chop doll off of the hand of one of the pre-school teachers, mumbled something about “seeing them every time he closed his eyes”, and then used the Lamb Chop doll to beat a taxi driver to death.
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