will someone please tell me who the angels are and where they hide January through November

Where Do Angels Hide?

Imagine, this holiday season without a Christmas meal on the table. That’s the reality for many Louisville families this year.

The ad goes on to request we assist this particular television station, the Angel Tree group, and a specific grocery chain by donating money to feed these many families a Christmas meal.

As usual, I’m left with a shopping cart full of unanswered questions.

I’ll get the easiest question out of the way first. Did the Kroger chain really raise many of their prices just in time for this event, or is it my imagination? Surely, they would not take advantage of using their name to advertise this program, as though they are the true Christmas angels while in fact the shoppers and volunteers make the donations, and then charge the people who run over there to make food donations more than usual for the food they are donating.

I won’t even allow my questioning mind ask if they get to write off any of the advertising as a charitable contribution. That would be downright ugly and I don’t want to know the answer.

My bah-humbug attitude must have influenced my imagining I would have to starve this week rather than pay the prices I saw in Kroger. Was fresh Kale really almost a dollar a serving last month too, and for some reason I thought I could afford it then? Did I honestly believe one serving of fresh fruit and meat a day wouldn’t break me in November, and change my mind in December? I guess gas and heating costs could have played a role in my adjusted view of my budget, but don’t think that is the only problem.

My second question is about angels. Who exactly are the angels in this angel tree program? In the past, I thought the poor children and families were the angels. I had no reason for thinking that other than it just felt good to imagine them that way. But I know they are just as poor every other month of the year, yet I don’t see trees in their honor in June. I don’t hear WAVE campaigning every commercial break to save the food stamp program in August, or see Kroger running announcements that they will open their doors to the homeless in February.

In June, poor people aren’t called angels. I think they become shiftless burdens somewhere around December twenty-sixth and maintain that title until the Christmas lights come out the following year. That would make the donors the angels. 

Does tossing a couple dollars of the Christmas bonus at a poor person, or rushing to get in a last minute tax deduction in December qualify a person for angel status? I would think the people who can’t afford a Christmas meal or gift would probably have just as much trouble putting a birthday party together, yet I hear angels around me whispering ugly things about them when they see anything other than dried beans and hamburger go on the food stamp total.

The eight hundred million dollar cut in the food stamp program ought to take care of at least one of my angel concerns. If this Republican administration gets their way, we’ll have fewer angels stocking up on birthday cake mixes, or fewer angels complaining about standing behind them in grocery lines next year.

My tainted view aside, will someone please tell me who the angels are and where they hide January through November?

Sandy Knauer