Jan 3, 2025 3 min read

Cheers: Most of the Salvation Army red kettles that people toss money into during the holiday season are filled with everyday coins or maybe $1 or $5 bills. But on Christmas Eve, someone dropped a rare gold coin worth $2,700 into the red kettle at the Giant Eagle store outside Washington. It came wrapped in a $1 bill with a note, and initially Lt. Tom Perez of the Washington Salvation Army thought it was fake, but he had it appraised and found out it was the real thing. Perez admitted to being dumbfounded, but it was the fourth year in a row that an anonymous donor has placed a rare gold coin in a Salvation Army kettle. It helped the Washington Salvation Army exceed its $60,000 fundraising goal this year by $11,500. Perez called it “a remarkable gesture,” and said, “There is such a severe need in this community, and all of the donations, including the coin, enable us to be a blessing to people here.”

Jeers: In the month since Luigi Mangione allegedly shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, some people have taken to celebrating Mangione, holding up “Free Luigi” signs, for instance, outside the Manhattan courthouse where he was being arraigned on murder charges. Others have created T-shirts and other apparel to laud him. An even more disturbing manifestation of this desire to put the 26-year-old on a pedestal is an anonymous legal defense fund that has been established for him. It goes under the name the December 4 Legal Committee, marking the day that Mangione allegedly shot Thompson, and its organizers say it is not working in concert with Mangione. They also say if he does not accept whatever money they raise, it will be donated to “other U.S. political prisoners and defendants facing politicized charges.” First of all, Mangione hardly needs the cash infusion – he has already enlisted a high-profile New York defense attorney, and comes from a well-heeled Maryland family. But there’s also nothing “politicized” about the charges Mangione is facing – he is alleged to have gunned down Thompson in clear view on a Manhattan street. The tactics of health care companies and how they handle claims are subject to serious debate, but those issues should be settled by lawmakers and through civil trials, not by cold-blooded murder. As Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said, “Celebrating this conduct is abhorrent to me. It’s deeply disturbing.”

Cheers: Former President Jimmy Carter died last Sunday at age 100, bringing the curtain down on what proved to be a remarkable life. Many encomiums had already been written about the 39th president since it was announced in February 2023 that he had entered hospice care, and on the occasion of his 100th birthday in October. Though many Americans were not born when Carter was president – you would have to be at least 50 to have any recollection of his time in the White House – many Americans have come to know and appreciate him over the last four decades through his tireless humanitarian work around the globe, his plain-spokenness and reputation for probity. Paul Krugman, a recently retired New York Times columnist who now writes on Substack, noted that Carter will probably not be seen as “a great president whose greatness only came to be recognized many years later,” like Harry Truman. Krugman continued, “But was he a bad president? Not in any way that I can see. He was just a victim of time and chance.”