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PUBLISHER Jay S. Jones jay@ragemonthly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Brad L. Hart brad@ragemonthly.com EDITOR IN CHIEF Joel P. Martens joel@ragemonthly.com ART DIRECTOR Cesar A. Reyes cesar@ragemonthly.com COPY EDITOR Bill Biss INTERN Korie Houston DISTRIBUTION Pride In Media


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“No person is useless in this world, who lightens the burdens of another.” — Charles Dickens


I love Christmas. Even if it’s without “winter wonderland” of my childhood, with its frigid temperatures, blustering winds and snow-laden, well, pretty much everything. I know for many that icy image may not possess a whole lot of magic. But for me, the childhood memory of waking up, looking out my bedroom window after a heavy snow had fallen and seeing everything covered in masses of white fluff as it glittered in the sun’s light, still gives me goose bumps. I was reminded of the above quote after an interview with Director Bharat Nalluri, who took on the story about how the Christmas classic by Charles Dickens,A Christmas Carol came to be. Dickens’ tale is all about self-examination and redemption, taking a look at who we are and how we live and then readjusting that course. Ebenezer Scrooge is a selfish, narcissist who can’t see past his own misery, his own greed or understand how anything outside his own experience could possibly matter…at all. For him to change, it took three nights of frightening experiences, guided by three ghosts who warned him about past mistakes, the effect of his choices and how they would play out in the future. I wonder how many of us would alter the way we live, given the chance to as he did? Not so Christmassy perhaps, but I wonder too,


if the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future can be hired for such visitations…say to the White House and many of our congressional leaders? The current climate is one of disturbance, one


of upheaval and one of many challenges, but it doesn’t have to ruin what we as a nation and as a community have accomplished. We are freer, we are more involved and we have more rights than we ever have ever had. It may feel like they are under assault, because let’s face it, many of them are. But I recently had one of those “Oh my God,” paradigm-shifting moments when discussing the new film, Call Me By Your Name, a film I love, with someone who didn’t enjoy it as much as I. Back and forth we went about performances, argu-


ing about Armie Hammer being straight, about the age differences of the characters and other things of that nature. It occurred to me in a flash during the conversation, that as that aforementioned, young gay boy in Wisconsin it was a conversation I couldn’t have even conceived of. Literally, it made me stop dead in my tracks for just a second. I’m not saying that all is well and we can relax, nothing could be further from the truth as far as I am concerned. But, for that second and as often as I can possibly remember to do so, I’m going to take a moment and realize that I am living in a different world these days and to not be afraid of those who would try to take that reality away from me—because they can’t—unless I allow it.


In the tradition of trying to lighten a burden or


two this Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukkah, Festival of Lights, Yuletide or whatever you might be celebrating, let’s try to remember how blessed we really are…and maybe share that with someone who might just need that extra little lift.


Season’s Greetings to one and all! Joel Martens,Editor in Chief “Gratitude unlocks the fullness


of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” —Melody Beattie


10 RAGE monthly | DECEMBER 2017


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