Axar.az presents an article, "All I Want For” by John Samuel Tieman.

Every year, I publish my Christmas List. Sadly, my list really hasn't changed much. I mostly at Christmas get stuff like socks.

Nonetheless, every year I channel my inner 8-year-old, who desperately wants a 747 for Christmas. As I grow older, however, I want stuff like the list below.

Happy Holidays to all!

***

All I Want For Christmas Is –

An end to religious wars;

Normal, boring Republicans;

A society that respects all races and religions;

A culture that honors its LGBTQ community;

A woman's right to choose what happens to her body;

A near-total ban on guns in the hands of civilians;

An end to the death penalty;

A culture that considers the poor to have dignity;

The conviction that climate change, caused by humans, is a dire threat;

Funding for alternative energy resources;

A mixed economy that consists of private enterprise and publicly owned programs.

Universal health care;

Extensive funding for early childhood education;

Suspicion of the universality of American values;

Suspicion of utopian ideals that combine militarism with the universality of American values;

A progressive tax system that demands much of the rich;

A system of social security that insures the citizens against destitution.

A government that supports trade unions and honors their contributions;

A Congress that legislates sweeping consumer protections;

Regulations that inhibit the most corrosive effects of capitalism;

A government that ensures labor rights and fair market competition;

Fair trade, not free trade;

A commitment to the conviction that liberty entails more than an absence of restraint;

Policies that value immigration and honor multiculturalism;

A foreign policy that supports peace, democracy, human rights, and multilateralism;

The unceasing advocacy for social justice, human rights, civil rights, and civil liberties;

A diplomacy towards Mexico that begins with dignity and respect, not a wall;

A president who is not a racist, a sexist, an Islamophobe, and a xenophobe.