Eric sat down facing the television, expecting nothing but low grade advertisements of the latest and greatest junk he didn’t need when he turned it on. Maybe even some extraordinarily boring commentary about politics or religion. None of it mattered to him, but he had just got out of a long day of school, and he was looking forward to nothing more than to sit down and relax with some television. You might even say he was determined to watch television.

He shifted until he was adequately comfortable, lifted the remote, and flicked on the TV. Commercials, just as expected, but not the type he was expecting.

The screen went into a saddening slideshow of pictures of kids looking hungry and helpless. Of course most of them were crying too, naturally. Then a well groomed woman appeared on the screen, with long, brown, well kept hair, a black skirt, and a quite fancy top.

“Children and their families go to bed hungry everyday in America, and you can make a difference. Donate to the Food for the Holidays foundation, and we will ensure that every family has a hot meal this holiday season.” spouted out the lady on the television, and two poor children came up to her sides, and she instantly threw her arms around them. They all stared deeply into the camera with wide, sorrow filled eyes, and it went black. A split second later, some other commercial that wasn’t even worth watching came on, so he thought about what he just saw.

It upset Eric in multiple ways. First of all, it was quite early for such commercials. It was only mid September. But that wasn’t what upset him the most. What upset him the most was the insincere sincerity of it all. The woman in the commercial was obviously some celebrity phony that was doing it to compensate for all the terrible things she once did. It was strictly publicity.

Second of all, he wondered why it was that the only time we as a society can pull ourselves together and help the less fortunate is in the holiday season. Nobody will go without a meal this holiday season, but on every other day, let em’ starve! Guess that’s America for you.

Thinking about that, he said to himself that sometime, somewhere, somebody said to himself, “Gee, I have been a jerk all my life, but now it’s the holiday season, and I have to be good. Let’s see, what could I do? I know! I’ll give some poor family a turkey, and then I can go back to being a jerk until next year!” Then of course people were all impressed by his action, and followed in his footsteps. Naturally overtime organizations would pop up that would by the food for you if you donated to them, making it even less of a personal inconvenience to care for one another.

He sat there and thought about it some more, and tried to remember a time when it didn’t take holiday spirit or a catastrophe to care for each other. It would have been a time when food was sent to those who need it everyday, holiday season or not, natural disaster or not. People would help out a neighbor in need, expecting nothing in return. And maybe they’d even feel good about it, instead of considering it an burden on themselves.

He thought that if there was any way to make a perfect society, that would be the way. He thought hard again, trying to remember if there ever was such a time. He came to the conclusion that if a time like that ever existed, it certainly wasn’t in his lifetime, but oh, how he longed to change that.