The idea to celebrate the Nativity on December 25 was first suggested early in the fourth century. This was a clever conceit of church fathers wishing to eclipse the December 25 festivities of a rival religion that threatened the existence of Christianity.

Several theologians attempted to pinpoint the Nativity and came up with a confusion of dates: January 1, January 6, March 25, and May 20. The gospel of Luke states that the shepherds who received the announcement of Christ’s birth were watching their sheep by night. Shepherds guarded their flocks day and night at lambing time, in the spring. In winter the animals were kept in corrals unwatched.

What forced the church to decide on the December 25 date was the major rival religion, Mithraism. My Westminster Dictionary of the Bible says Mithra was the Persian god of the light of the zone between heaven and hell, defender of the truth.

On December 25, pagan Romans still in majority celebrated Natilus Solis Invicti, “Birthday of the Invincible Sun God” Mithras. The cult originated in Persia and rooted itself in the Roman world in the first century B.C. By A.D. 274, Mithraism was so popular with the masses that Emperor Aurelian proclaimed it the official state religion, In the early 300s the cult seriously jeopardized Christianity, and for a time it was unclear which faith would emerge victorious.

Roman patricians and plebeians enjoyed festivals of a protracted nature. As far back as 753 B.C. when King Romulus founded the city of Rome on the Palatine Hill the tradition was established; so too was the celebration of Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, god of agriculture. The Church needed a December celebration.

The Church officially recognized Christ’s birth and in competition with the false gods located the Nativity date on December 25. The observance would be a prayerful mass, Christ’s Mass. In A.D. 354 Bishop Liberius of Rome repeated the importance not only celebrating Christ’s death but also his birth.

The shopping spurts that are list-less provide tons of fun stuff, but I am never sure who should get what. So you know what happens. I keep said fun stuff for me.

That gorgeous compact bought for Friend X becomes mine when I forget that I already purchased something else for her. Necklaces and earrings have a fifty-fifty chance of getting wrapped and given away. I have good taste after all and no one knows what I like better than me. So I gift myself.

I also find lovely items that I snag and give my mom to give me. She used to sigh and say, “What about the delight of being surprised?” Now she just asks me what she is getting me this year. Moms are good that way.

My sons used to be good gift picker-outers when they were grade schoolers and had the Santa fairs at school. There would be writing paper and Victorian Santas; it was a joy to see what they would select and that they knew my tastes. Now they know loading iTunes for me is a joy.

It is better to give than receive. Really. Well, most of the time. I get little joy trinkets year round now that I have become the joy fairy and it is thrill to find a package in my PO Box. Thanks, joy spreaders. I have a dear friend who usually sends me a little Christmas something so when a friendship bracelet arrived, I assumed it was from her. There was no card or return address, and she claims she was not the Secret Santa on this one. So whoever is the gift angel, thank you very much.

Some offices do the Secret Santa deal. One friend commented about how the SS policy was “enforced” at her former workplace. That sorta kills the whole fun of it, donchathink? It’s like the old take your medicine and like it routine. Giving should be a desire, not a duty. Ditto for all the other holiday obligations. If the spirit is not moving you to bake twenty dozen cookies, don’t. Tell the friends and family that this year you need a rest. That is not being Scroogey, it is being honest.

Another friend recently asked why some people get depressed at the holiday time. Perhaps it’s because some of the merriment seems forced and fake, and there is no substance behind the whole frothy façade. Take a minute to breathe and relax, and to remember why you give gifts and make yummy treats for your loved ones. Hopefully your answer is because you love them, not because you feel like you have to. The “shoulds” of our mentality usually are “not really” if you take a hard look at them. Should you mail cards? Only if you want to. Should you make the cut-out cookies this year? Only if you want to. Should you go to every party you are invited to? Only if you want to.

In fact, I’ve been repeatedly calling for the Assembly to break its vacation and take action on a number of bills designed to create jobs and aid the economic recovery of our state.  I feel it is unacceptable for your elected representatives to take a 2 month vacation without addressing the economic hardship that too many families are facing during the holidays this year.

Therefore, I did vote for a motion to consider five pieces of legislation that would improve the business and job creation climate in our state.  These bills range from moving up the Jobs Tax Credit so that it can be utilized by businesses now, to increasing small businesses’ flexibility, which would allow them to hire more employees.  Although I support these measures, the motion to take action on these important bills unfortunately failed on party lines.

The one bill that the Assembly voted on this week did pass 93-1.  The bill, Senate Bill (SB) 66, is a compromise reached by the Assembly and Senate that will result in stricter Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) laws in Wisconsin. Specifically, SB 66 contains the following major provisions: mandatory ignition interlock devices for certain offenders, criminalizes first offense OWI if it there were children present in the vehicle, makes 4th offense OWI a felony, and expands the successful community treatment options for OWI offenders. While this one piece of legislation is not perfect, I do believe passing it is a positive step towards curbing drunk driving.  The bill was already passed by the State Senate and will now go to Governor Doyle for his signature.

Finally, Governor Doyle had recently used his power to call the Legislature into a “special session” to take up a bill regarding Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).  The legislation, SB 405, would remove control of MPS from the elected school board and instead hand full control of it over to the Mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett.  This proposal is supported by Governor Jim Doyle, a handful of Milwaukee area representatives, and, of course, Mayor Barrett himself, who has declared he is running for Governor.  The Assembly never did take up the issue and instead adjourned until next year.

One thing is very clear - the status of MPS is unacceptable.  Several recent reports have illustrated many troubling issues with MPS.  The Nation’s Report Card test results revealed that 65% of eighth graders are below an even basic level of understanding in mathematics.  Further, a report last year by America’s Promise Alliance suggested the graduation rate of MPS may actually fall below 50%.  This extremely low graduation rate is especially concerning because of those African American males who do not graduate, 70 percent are unemployed and 1 in 4 are in jail, according to a report by Northeastern University.

The status quo cannot be allowed to continue, which means drastic changes must be made to reform MPS.  However, simply spending more money is not the answer.  Taxpayers already send $1.3 billion, or over $13,000 per child, to MPS, which has been increased steadily over the years, while test scores have flat-lined, and in some subject areas, actually declined. 

Last week, I laid out my vision and ideas for MPS, which range from dividing the district up into smaller elected school boards, to implementing a number of programs designed to improve student achievement and teacher evaluation.  However, more than anything, I am opposed to blindly handing total control of MPS over to the Mayor of Milwaukee.  I am very skeptical of striping the elected school board’s powers away, especially since we have seen no plan or ideas from the Mayor. 

Like the past several Legislative sessions, I knew stricter laws on drunk driving would pass this session and I am glad we took the comprehensive approach found in Senate Bill 66, a bill I co-sponsored. We know that alcohol addiction is a medical condition and it seems the worst offenders of our current drunk driving laws have an obvious addiction. Senate Bill 66 expands a successful treatment program from Winnebago County and allows all Wisconsin counties to offer a program that gives treatment alternatives for offenders.

Everyone who makes the bad choice to drink and drive should have legal consequences to that action and this bill tightens the laws of this state by mandating ignition interlock for all offenders above 0.15 blood alcohol level on the first offense and subsequent offenses. Additionally, the bill criminalizes a first offense for anyone that has a child in the car at the time of the offense. Finally, the bill makes a fourth offense a felony. Not a perfect bill, Senate Bill 66 makes significant strides to improve our laws in a comprehensive way. I am certain we will continue to chip away on this offense by tightening our laws next session as well.