As the holiday season really begins to envelop all of us, some of our staff are rushing around getting ready to do a little holiday traveling, while others are preparing to receive some holiday guests.
We're neither as hurried or as harried as we were last year at this point, and we're even beginning to feel a bit more of the holiday spirit - even with the warmer than usual temps in our DC and West Palm Beach quarters. Where our positive energy is coming from, even we're not sure - but we do know doing good things for the right reason is contagious.
It's also something a young man from Lincoln, Cameron Freeman would have appreciated.
We first heard about Cameron Freeman last year, though not via the newspaper or television. Cameron was the student of a longtime friend and acquaintance of ours, one of Cameron's teachers. He died in a horrible accident in Kansas in November, 2010, caused by a drunk driver who hit the car Cameron and his friends were traveling in.
Cameron's parents could have turned to anger, or turned inward, but as Peter Salter of the Lincoln Journal Star wrote last year, they began an effort to do something good, something right, to change the world in the name of their son. Mr. Salter followed up on the story this year - as did several Lincoln businesses, including Union Bank & Trust. As Salter's story explains, quite a number of people in Lincoln were given money by their employers earlier this week, and told to go out and do something good, for someone who needed it.
You can check out the stories of those who gave on the The Cameron Effect website - and some of those stories are quite good. Good enough, however, isn't. It never has been in our book.
We're well aware of the resumes and connections of many of our readers - those on Capitol Hill, in legislatures in multiple states, and even a few involved in presidential campaigns, not to mention all the well-connected members of the media across the country.
So we're going to go out on a limb, today - not for us, but for Cameron.
Or, as we'd bet he'd want us to do, for people who really need the help this holiday season.
We're not asking you to spend money you don't have, to randomly give to someone you don't know - though if you want to donate to a needy charity, we certainly won't dissuade that action. We ask that you do what Cameron's folks ask of people on his birthday - December 7 - but also on every other day of the year.
Do something compassionate, forgiving, and nice for someone else. Then take a moment, and write about it on The Cameron Effect webpage. We hope you'll do something unexpected - not just for the recipient of your gift, but also for you. Maybe you'll donate your time at a soup kitchen - but don't do it on Christmas or New Years. Do it on a random Tuesday. Just because.
If you see a homeless person in the street, as you're walking? Maybe you could take the time to buy them a meal. If you have an extra five dollar bill in your wallet, and you're at the counter of the store while someone is struggling to make change to buy that gift - the one you don't approve of? Give them your five bucks. When they're surprised and ask if you're sure you want to do that? Just smile, and say, "No problem. It's the right thing to do. You'll take care of someone else next time."
Regardless of what you believe in, spiritually, the holiday season is supposed to be about joy and peace. You might even say it's a time of year we try to bring a little happiness to everyone.
We think that's the kind of thing that Cameron Freeman might approve of.
We're certain that you'll feel a bit more of the spirit of the holiday season if you take our advice.
