It was late in the evening on Thanksgiving weekend, and this editor was in front of his computer helping to put the finishing touches on the December issue of Gazette Chicago. Nestled in with a cup of tea and my favorite lemon cookies, I was once again burning the midnight oil just as I had the two previous holidays, when the phone rang. It was “deja vu all over again.”
“Good evening, Gazette Chicago, may I help you?” I asked.
“Lieutenant Frost here, from NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Remember me?”
![](https://gazettechicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/rudolph-1024x791.jpg)
“You again, Lieutenant?” I replied. “With all due respect sir, the last two times you contacted me, I was sent on adventures of a lifetime. You don’t have notions of another trip in my itinerary, do you?”
For the first time in three years, I got a chuckle from the fellow from NORAD (you can say, I started to break the ice with Lieutenant Frost, pardon the pun).
“Well of course, I do,” he replied. “You wouldn’t think I’d find another newspaper editor to fill your shoes after the swell job you’ve done the past two years, did you?”
I appreciated the compliment, but couldn’t help but wonder where I was headed to next.
“Let’s see now, in 2020, I met the Little Drummer Boy and last year I was whisked up to the North Pole to meet a forlorn Santa Claus. By the way, thanks for the parka, snow boots and long underwear. They came in handy when Chicago got walloped with snow last winter.”
(Editor’s Note: To read the account of how, through the magic of NORAD and the U.S. Air Force, Gazette Chicago met and shared the story of meeting Santa Claus in 2020 and the Little Drummer Boy in 2019, go to www.gazettechicago.com and click on the “E-Edition” tab at the right on the home page. Then, click on the archive tab at the top [an icon that looks like a file cabinet] and type in the year, either 2020 or 2019, followed by the month, December. You will find the Santa Claus encounter on pages 17-19, and the Little Drummer Boy’s story on pages 34-35, of those respective issues.)
“Well, I’m glad you kept them. You’re heading back to the North Pole. I’ll have a car ready at the usual time, 0:600 hours. After a quick check-in with me at NORAD, then we’ll have you at Santa’s village in no time.”
“It isn’t Santa again, is it? I mean last year, the poor fellow was so bogged down with worry, we didn’t know if we would have a Christmas,” I asked.
“No, Santa is doing fine,” Frost answered. “Although the last we spoke he still had grave concerns over so many troubling things in our world—one of them related to climate change and the melting of the polar ice caps. But this time, it’s one of his elves, Hermey, that has everybody up there in a tizzy.”
“You mean Hermey the Dentist, that elf?” I asked.
“Yep, he’s the one. Seems he has so much on his mind, he can’t stay focused on bicuspids and tooth decay, and he’s got all the other elves worked up, so no one is making toys for the children.”
“Gee, and I thought we had supply chain issues here in the United States,” I replied.
“Well, it’s pretty bad up there, so see what’s on his mind, and try and assure him you’ll do your best to share his concerns so that Santa’s workshop can get up and running in time to load up his sleigh with toys on Christmas Eve.”
Just like my last trip to the North Pole, I was met by Everitt the Elf, ready to whisk me to meet Hermey in his eco-friendly, electric sleigh.
“Greetings, Everitt, good to see you again,” I said.
“Good to see you again, my friend,” he replied. “I’ll take you over to Hermey’s dental office and if there’s time you can say hello to Santa and Mrs. Claus. They’d love to see you again and thank you for all you did for them last year.”
With that we were off and soon pulled up to a one-story structure with a “Dental Office” shingle hanging in front.
“Good morning,” said Hermey’s dental assistant. “I’ll let him know you’re here.”
If you’ve seen one dental office you might think you’ve seen them all, but this one stood out for several reasons. There were framed photographs of Santa and Mrs. Claus, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer with Clarice, and their family, along with Yukon Cornelius and the Abominable Snowmonster Bumble (front teeth missing, of course).
Hermey was just as I pictured him—warm smile, blond hair, soft spoken, kind.
“Well, hello there,” he said as he greeted me. “Welcome to my dental office. Have you had your teeth cleaned lately?”
“Greetings. No, I’m fine—I see my dentist and my periodontist both regularly,” I answered. His eyes beamed for a short while before they became sad again.
“So, tell me, why did you send for me? What seems to be troubling you and all the other elves?”
“I’m sorry to have everybody so worked up—I didn’t mean to, but we were sitting around the fireplace one evening and got to talking and I guess everything just spilled out,” he explained.
“I think I understand—there’s a lot on all of our minds again this Christmas season. What’s on yours?” I asked.
“Two months ago, I had the opportunity to come to Chicago and attend a three-week continuing education course at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry. What a fine program—I learned a lot. You ever heard of it?” he asked.
“Ah yes, I’m familiar with it. It’s a great dental school, right in our neighborhood,” I answered.
“Well, I didn’t bring you all the way up to the North Pole to talk about my professional life but by spending time in your hometown I was able to see for myself the beauty of your city and also the many, many challenges you and your fellow Chicagoans face,” Hermey explained.
“I also know that what I witnessed in your city can be found in communities across the United States—so that has only deepened my concerns.
“The fine people at UIC showed me your beautiful downtown, North Michigan Avenue, and Du Sable Lake Shore Drive. I know the elves would get a kick out of having ‘the Bean’ in our Times Square.
“I urged my driver to show me everything about Chicago and that’s when I became so forlorn. Driving just west of downtown and through the South, Southwest and Southeast sides, I saw the city in a different light—one dimmed by poverty and people and communities struggling to get over the pandemic and lacking a hope for the future.
“I witnessed the open-air drug markets along Pulaski Road on the West Side and saw homeless people living under viaducts. And others sleeping on CTA trains. I saw the ravages brought on by mental illness, a lack of mental health clinics, and the slow drag of building enough CHA replacement housing.
“I saw how communities were divided along racial lines. Touring the Illinois Medical District hospitals, I realized how people of color suffer much greater due to health disparities and how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take lives and stress your healthcare workers to the max. I worry, and so should all of you as many nurses are leaving the profession due to burnout during COVID-19.
“I also kept seeing those make-shift outdoor memorials for people young and old who have died senselessly from gun violence, how crime is tearing families and communities apart, and how so many Chicagoans feel so very afraid these days. I also listened intently to the public discourse focused on police reform and the extreme conditions that your police are working under.
“And if all of that wasn’t enough to worry about, every time I turned on the nightly news, I could see how no one is coming together to find solutions to your many problems. Not just in your city and state but across your country. The political divisiveness and heated rhetoric explained a lot why no one is finding workable solutions. You know, when things go awry at the North Pole, we sit down with Santa and come to an agreeable solution, built on consensus and mutual respect. Sadly, people in America have lost this art form.” Hermey shared.
“That’s a lot to digest,” I said. “Yet, all that you so accurately described is true and these are issues we are grappling with daily.”
“I know that life hasn’t been easy for all of you the past two years as the pandemic continues to present challenges to all aspects of your lives,” Hermey said. “Yet, it baffles me that in a country where vaccines are so readily available, and proven to be safe, I see so many Americans refuse to get vaccinated for the sake of themselves and others. That’s just plain sad.
“As I drove around your city, I saw countless ‘help wanted’ signs and heard some say that ‘people are just lazy, they don’t want to work anymore—all they want are those big fat government checks.’ Yet, the truth is people have become more reflective after being home for so many months and won’t tolerate poor wages or working in subpar or unhealthy conditions. And, let’s be honest, the government stopped sending those stimulus checks some time ago. The heads of corporations and businesses need to be more mindful of the tremendous wage gap in your country and be fairer to its labor force. Santa would never treat his elves this way.”
I nodded affirmatively and asked Hermey what he wanted me to do to try and help him.
“I just want to see people genuinely come together for the good of the whole,” Hermey pleaded.
“Everywhere I turned, I saw people at odds with one another. Your mayor, Lori Lightfoot, and the City Council seem to spar on just about every issue, as does the Chicago Teacher’s Union and the Mayor. And don’t get me started on the head of the Chicago police union—John Catanzara. He is such a boorish man, and I shudder to think how the rhetoric will decline once the race for mayor begins.
“The public spats between the mayor, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, Chief Judge Timothy Evans, Police Superintendent Donald Brown, and the City Council, do nothing to address the real issues of crime and violence, nor do they try to get to the root of the problem. Less public posturing and more of a willingness to say ‘let’s join together and do something constructive’ is what Chicago needs—this while more young lives are taken from you each and every day.
“I’m also worried that the foundation of America’s democracy is truly crumbling,” Hermey lamented. “When you have elected officials continuing to try to cover-up the insurrection at your U.S. Capitol last January and with so many trying to still make the argument—without a shred of fact—that the last presidential election was stolen, there is much to be concerned about. The American people are pitted against one another while a select few, who have no true interest in bringing people together or governing for the common good, seek to either regain or retain power. The fact is your system of government is broken and, in many cases, ineffectual.
“I join with Santa in being scared out of my wits about climate change—we see the very evidence of it up here at the North Pole and the world is seeing calamity after calamity because of the earth’s warming and too much of a reliance on fossil fuels. In Chicago, I witnessed how the under-represented bear the burden of environmental pollution in their neighborhoods.
“Finally, I see a city that has created systemic racism and economic suppression through the creation of programs such as TIF’s—that unfairly distributed wealth and revenue into more affluent communities while leaving others to languish,” Hermey concluded.
“I can see that you paid attention to more than just dentistry during your time with us,” I said. “As we enter a season in which, traditionally, we come together in a spirit of giving and want to feel hopeful for the future, is there anything that you could leave us with?”
“Yes, there is,” said Hermey. “It will take a willingness for people from all sides of the political spectrum to set down their ‘verbal bayonets’ and come to the table to seek solutions.
“America has always been the country that others have looked up to for hope and examples of how to deal with the world’s greatest challenges. Chicago has long been a city that other large, urban, diverse, communities have tried to emulate. You have the resources, the know-how, and the ability to turn these great challenges into opportunities. However, if there is an unwillingness to listen to opposing views, to embrace the greater good instead of holding onto unsubstantiated fears and prejudice, then what you see in front of you will only get worse.
“I am an optimistic person,” Hermey added. “I believe in people and that there are far many more who care for their neighbors than those that don’t. So, see the good in other another. Get the pandemic behind you. Embrace the good in others and be more tolerant. And begin the New Year with a feeling of hope, togetherness, and belonging to something far greater,” he concluded.
I left Hermey’s office feeling a bit more hopeful myself. If someone from way atop the world could come to Chicago to see us in a lens that showed both our faults and our promise, then we could, too. It was another well spent adventure thanks to the retrospective kindness of Lieutenant Frost and the fine folks at NORAD.
From all of us at Gazette Chicago, we wish you a warm and bright holiday season. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, or whatever faith your embrace, take this time to do some inward reflection and determine what you can do in 2022 to bring us together to make our communities safer, more just, and more resilient. It’s truly up to us—each and every one of us.
Please support our community organizations found in our Spirit of Giving section and find some time to enjoy the holidays by reading our Christmas in Chicago section. It’s been a tough year—you deserve it.
We wish you good health, peace, joy, and love in the New Year. See you again in February 2022.
Until then, stay safe and secure.