‘Tis the Season

Of food. When you reach a certain age, it’s not about presents. The gifts you send? Food. The gifts you receive? Food. It’s all food all the time.

I can’t eat that much food, but at least for the coming days, I have breakfast taken care of (thank you, Jacqueline), and a charcuterie board to nosh on (thank you, Mary). For my Christmas dinner, I have duck, potatoes, creamed spinach, cranberry sauce – the usual. I hate turkey, just as I hate it for Thanksgiving, so duck is the main meat.

I have a lot of time off, due to the way the holiday falls on the calendar. I’ll be spending much of it writing, knitting, thinking. Putting herbs in my window garden. Listening to a lot of music. Gearing up for the 2026 arts season – I have tickets to see Oedipus with Mark Strong and Lesley Manville. Philharmonic concerts. A world of NYC at my fingertips, and I am looking forward to it.

But.

The latest Epstein dumps, as redacted as they are, also included Walter Cronkite.

Fuck me.

The LEAST excuse one can give is that “oh yeah, he hung out with powerful people, so he was going to hang with these guys.”

That’s the least.

Is the norm, for back then, pedophilia? An acceptance of it, an acknowlegement of it, and a moving on because “bigger ideas”? And is that the norm now?

No one cared about these girls or boys. They were just the cost of doing business.

And they are not having a merry Christmas. Today, we got the news that James Ransone committed suicide, hanging himself in his shed. He was abused and molested and raped by his math tutor. He subsequently went on to develop a heroin habit, which he “kicked”, as they say. He was sober and he did so many great things. The Wire, It, Generation Kill. Poker Face. Treme. How to Make It in America.

Sexual abuse is a constant. What disgusts me is how previous generations just accepted that it was a given, that it was going to happen, and it was probably the survivors’ fault. How else could someone like Cronkite tolerate Jeffrey Epstein?

How else could someone like King Charles tolerate Jimmy Savile?

How else could the royal family tolerate Mountbatten? And not just tolerate. Accept and love. And cast Charles Dance in the role, without acknowledging his brutality?

It’s because the victims are the cost of doing business. Let’s not get in the way of progress. Every movement pays a price.

It’s on all sides. Progressive, conservative, left wing, right wing. It’s the sociopathic discarding of people, of children, as acceptable collateral damage.

As I go through my holiday season, with all its comforts and joys, these collateral damage kids, adults, are going to be top of mind. The Epstein files are being heavily redacted. But we all know that a black marker can’t eliminate the trauma, the fear, even the death, that his victims incurred.

I sincerely wish all my beloveds a meaningful season. A beautiful season, surrounded by love of family or found family. And with the knowledge that so many young people don’t have either one.

So here are some places to support in the face of this never-ending scourge:

Covenant House – ironically, the founder of this charity was forced to resign for sexual improprieties with vulnerable youth. But since then, after the organization was taken over by a nun, the charity has done great work in helping trafficked and abused young people. It has a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator.

Unicef – helping children, teens, and families all over the world.

National Homelessness Law Center – assisting unhoused people of all backgrounds.

Please consider giving, in the face of the pervasive tolerance of the abuse of children and teens. It’s not a cost of doing business. It’s at a cost of our comfort. We’re awash in money and food and entertainment. We can afford it.