Dear Editor,

Well, it’s that time of the year again. The older I get, the faster it comes. Ol’ Santa is pouring corn to his reindeer to fatten them up for Christmas Eve, which seems to be illegal in the state of Alabama!

The city has Andalusia in lights and most of the houses you drive by at night have a Christmas tree that you can see from the street. But, I don’t know how many people I’ve heard say, “It’s going to be a little slim this year because of the economy.” Thousands of men and women have lost their jobs across the country and gasoline is still out of sight.

Groceries and clothes’ cost have risen and more of us will stay at home this year, instead of traveling out of town for the holidays. Many of us have a child in the military who can’t be home for Christmas, or are leaving just after, to go fight terrorists overseas. Many have lost a child this year, so their Christmas will never be the same again.

Folks, just take a look around you. Times are getting harder. The crime rate is at an all-time high, and our jails and prisons are full. Our kids don’t get outside anymore because of the video games (most of which are violent in nature) or they are too busy texting friends on their cell phones. We have both male and female gay TV programs now, along with your Spanish network, too.

There are more teenage girls with babies all over town than you’ve ever seen before and 99 percent of them aren’t married or know where the father of the child is — or he’s in jail. What’s happening to us, people? We don’t have family values or morals anymore.

But if you think it’s bad now, just hang on. By the time these fatherless children become teenagers themselves, our taxes will be raised even higher in order to build more jails to house a lot of them, and it’s going to go on and on and on.

If all of this wasn’t enough, now the year 2012 is scaring the hell out of a lot of people. Is the world coming to an end just before Christmas that year?

I never thought in my life that I would see the things going on right now.

With this all said, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas…but I hope we get to see a New Year!

Duane O’Neal

Andalusia