(A column of opinion by Gary Reid, Publisher Emeritus)

New Year’s Day has come and gone.

But it’s not too late to wish a healthy and happy 2025 to our newspaper family.

I’m looking forward to the new year because Donald Trump’s inauguration is only a couple of weeks away and hopefully the end of the Deep State swamp, which has turned U.S. government into an unreliable slime pit, is in sight.

No doubt, the new administration will make some mistakes, but 1,772,242 citizens voted for Donald Trump because they thought he was the best bet to turn America around to its better days.

Whitmer’s Rental Assistance Plan to Pay $500 Monthly Leftist Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has initiated a program to hand out $500 a month in rental assistance for 12 months to illegals in her state.

I presume this is part of the Democrat Party plan to leave as many problems as possible for the Trump administration to solve.

Whitmer’s “Newcomer Rental Subsidy Program” offers benefits to people who enter the country illegally but later claim asylum after facing deportation. Various immigrant households can receive up to $500 a month in rental assistance for 12 months under the program. The criteria even allow individuals with a pending asylum application to receive support, including people who came into the United States illegally and then filed a defensive asylum application as a tactic in removal proceedings. Defensive claims comprised 97% of total asylum claims filed in fiscal year 2023, the official website for the Democrat party says.

The Liberty Wire comments: “Talk about coddling illegal migrants to an entirely new level.”

The Newcomer Rental Subsidy program is administered by Whitmer’s Office of Global Michigan and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. The agencies are using funds from the Housing and Community Development Fund (HCDF), which supports a variety of state housing programs. Last year, Democrats passed a controversial tax law along nearly party lines that will automatically deposit $50 million in tax revenues into the HCDF every year going forward, the website added.

Where in the constitution is gift giving a government responsibility? It’s not.

Beneficence is an individual thing to do. How smart of elected leaders to donate to millions of illegal foreigners, some of them criminals and-or mental cases, with American citizen tax payments. (The home nations of the illegal aliens were likely excited to empty their prisons and mental institutions.)

Michigan State Representative Will Bruck says Whitmer is rather obviously sending the wrong message to illegals – “that breaking the law is rewarded.”

The U.S. government pays out $1 trillion a year in welfare payments, which only encourages more welfare.

Some people avoid freedom and the responsibilities it requires, preferring to be a slave – totally dependent on government and obliged to follow its dictates.

Columnist Mark Lewis had some thoughts on freedom and slavery in a recent item on the Townhall website.

He cited philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville (many may remember him from his study of freedom as provided by the American Revolution), who said: “Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.”

Lewis added this: “There have actually been people in history who have found slavery to be more comfortable than freedom, and indeed, I would argue that many such individuals exist today. They would rather be taken care of by the government (or, socialism) than risk the “freedom of opportunity” necessary to provide for themselves.

“Sadly, that just feeds the egos and lusts of power-hungry politicians who live to control other people and tell them what to do. And when you control somebody’s finances, you definitely control them.

“Congress can’t even go home for Christmas until they try to pass some kind of budget that gives them trillions of dollars to spend to enslave the masses.”

Sadly, that describes American culture.

The Twila Adams ‘Letters to Santa’ story brings smiles I thoroughly enjoyed reading Twila Adams’ story about local pre-K teacher Laurie Hagar digging out Letters to Santa written by this year’s KHS seniors and handing the letters to them this Christmas season. She taught the students when they were in pre-K.

Teachers with this kind of compassion (I’m comnfoident there are manu others) give us confidence that our local schools are deeply interested in students and their education.

I had some teachers like that not quite a hundred years ago and they are still deeply imbedded in my memory.

However, I don’t think our class wrote letters to Santa. I don’t remember it if we did and that is a possibility. The remembering thing, I mean.

Anyway, the story was a Christmas highlight for me.

Another highlight was getting to see grandchildren and several great-grandchildren at a family get together at son and daughter-in-law, Barry and Mary Reid’s, home on Christmas Eve.

Mary and another daughter- in-law Donna, wife of Mike, with the help of wife Christine whipped up a delicious feast. I tried not to overeat but failed, as usual.

Those kind of things are what make Christmas special.

May 2025 bring many blessings to Kingfisher County and its many solid citizens.