Now I lay me down to sleep

Beside my bed a Glock I keep

If I awake and you’re inside

The coroner’s van

Will be your last ride

Posted on Santas on Facebook

Greetings. I am Santa’s Sister, and I am a pacifist. This year, as you may know, I joined the "Society of Santa's" to spread joy and enlightenment throughout the universe. When I signed on to Santas on Facebook, I immediately "friended" several hundred Santas, thinking how grand it was to have such a vast number of benevolent citizenry to be friends with.

Well, the truth has come as a crushing blow. The majority of the Santas who first "friended" me are gun fanatics with notions about the 2nd Amendment that defy logic. In addition, they all proclaim to be Christians. Apparently, many of you do not believe these concepts to be incompatible. Over the first few weeks, I quickly whittled my list down to about 75.

When the Sandy Creek massacre occurred, I determined that anyone who posted anything in the nature of "guns don't kill people," would immediately come off my friend list. I'm down to about two Santa friends. One is in Australia and one is in Denmark! The bottom line for me is, the NRA are a bunch of bullies, and we continue to allow them push us around. When somebody finally gets the balls to do something about them, I will be right on the bandwagon.

It is my sincere belief that mentally ill people are the cause for these horrible deeds. (Columbine, Aurora Theater, Sandy Creek, and on and on). Murder has been going on all over the world from the beginning of recorded history, and movies, or video games, or TV news, or not going to church, or any other number of things cannot be blamed for this awful human condition. However, as long as we are manufacturing blow-em up toys for fun and recreation, the mentally distressed will use them to wreck havoc.

In my perfect world, nobody would have guns. Short of that, no one would have bullets.

Americans are particularly hard headed and resistant to change. Once upon a time, everyone smoked in the U.S. and it took a lot of years to convince people that smoking will kill you, and it's smelly and disgusting (not sexy and mysterious). We need a similar focus now on gun control. Despite what you see in the movies, guns are not sexy and mysterious - - and they WILL kill you, your neighbors and your neighbors children - - and make the gun manufacturers wealthy in the process.

I believe in pursuing the dream of peace on earth, and I encourage all Santas and Mrs. Santas, and elves, and fairies, and other woodland creatures to embody this dream for all they come in contact with, whatever time of year.

• Be good, for goodness sake!
  

Santa Nana

Santa Nana’s tip of the week: Please crop your pictures. If you have a website, or post on Facebook, or contribute to ClausNet, take a few extra minutes to crop your pictures. The brick wall behind you should not be the biggest feature in your photo, or the line of folks to your right, or any other thing that does not have you, or you and your guest (human or pet) as the main centerpiece. Every single program you use to take pictures from your camera to your cell phone has an easy to use crop feature. Take it all the way down to the faces of the subjects. (Yes, your boots are grand, but we don’t always need to see them.) You can even make everyone look slimmer, by cropping in on the arm and up on the tummy. You have tools. Experiment with this until you get a good feel for it - - then use it!

P.S. I anticipate that many of you do not agree with my anti-gun sentiments, and it is not my intention to get into a fight with any of you about the issue. If you support my opinion, however, by all means, let me know! Peace and love. Santa Nana