This is what the Christmas season stands for.

The New Testament words celebrating the birth of Jesus are clear and bright, and are repeated by everyone in these weeks before the holiday: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

The colloquial phrase people normally say this time of year is usually “Peace on Earth and good will toward men!”, with the hope that both will come to all.

It appears unfortunately that the idea of “good will” is vanishing from American society, and maybe for all of western civilization. Good will means you treat all persons with respect, even if you disagree with them. You also hope that everyone achieves the best they can in their personal lives, even your enemies. You don’t wish harm on others, only oppose anyone from doing harm to others.

Such good will once dominated American society. Just think of the 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life! to get a taste of that American culture. In politics, there was often fierce debate, but after the Civil War especially the culture decided it was better to talk things out with good will to all then to grab guns and kill each other.

And most of all, during each year’s Christmas season the desire to promote good will was everywhere, in everyone’s hearts and minds.

This ideal now appears to be vanishing. On the left that vanishing began with the election of Donald Trump in 2016, and has accelerated since. You cannot have a reasonable or rational discussion with practically anyone on the left about Trump. He is the devil incarnate to them, and anyone who even expresses the slightest positive thought about him must be blackballed, slandered, and even killed.

Think I am exaggerating? The widow of Charlie Kirk doesn’t think so. Neither does Donald Trump, who survived two assassination attempts. Nor does someone like Elon Musk, who now readily admits he can no longer appear in public out of fear of violence because of his support of Trump in the 2024 election.

A more benign but equally ugly example of this lack of good will occurred just last week — in the midst of this year’s Christmas season — and the anger and hate didn’t just come from the left. Watch the vile behavior of this leftist woman in a Walmart when she saw an senior citizen and Target worker wearing a Charlie Kirk “Freedom” t-shirt (warning: her language is decidedly obscene):

Leftist woman BERATES Target employee for wearing a Charlie Kirk "Freedom" shirt

"Are you f*cking stupid? Why the F*CK would you wear that?… You support a racist?… Piece of sh*t."

Insufferable.pic.twitter.com/WcyRztN0eQ

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 16, 2025

The woman who recorded the video and attacked this Target worker is named Michaela Ponce. Her behavior is quite typical of many on the left, who feel somehow it is their right to scream at strangers for daring to have different political opinions. They do it in restaurants, in classrooms, in conference rooms, on the streets, almost anywhere a political opinion might possibly be expressed.

The Target worker, named Jeanie Beeman, demonstrated what I mean by good will by her reaction to Ponce in the video. She remained calm and reasonable, and ended the exchange by saying quite sincerely “Have a nice day,” as she walked away. She further proved her good will when others tracked her down and asked her if she thought Ponce should be fired from a job for her incivil behavior:

NEW: Ms. Jeanie Beeman speaks out after being harassed over her Charlie Kirk shirt at Target and says she does not want her attacker fired.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right. She wronged me, but I don’t want to wrong her. I really wouldn’t want to see her lose her job over it.”… pic.twitter.com/FZumZoSjd9

— David J Harris Jr (@DavidJHarrisJr) December 18, 2025

No. I don’t think that’s right. Two wrongs don’t make a right. She wronged me, but I don’t want to wrong her. … I really wouldn’t want to see her lose her job over it.

Beeman’s kind reaction does not however seem to reflect the growing trends on the right. The calls to have Ponce fired have been many, with many conservative pundits doing whatever they can to attack her. The sense I get is a deep lust for revenge, the very opposite of what good will entails.

And those calls have succeeded. First there was a threat of a police investigation, followed by an investigation into Ponce’s behavior by her employee. Ponce then responded by issuing a public apology on line.

For many on the right, that apology seemed fake and insufficient, and demanded more. And those demands worked, as Ponce’s employer finally fired her.

Ponce was wrong, utterly so. And yes, her employer had every right to fire her, especially because she is a health care worker treating parents.

We as decent humans however shouldn’t be relishing that fate upon her. Her apology was insufficient, because for an apology to be true, it must be done face-to-face with the injured party. Posting something on line accomplishes nothing. The right way for Ponce to have apologied would be for her to find Beeman, to apologize to her personally and publicly, to shake hands, and then to work to encourage a dialogue between them.

If Ponce’s employer demanded that from her — instead of firing her — we might actually be moving back to a society of good will. And demanding such in the Christmas season would have been wholly appropriate and fitting.

Sadly, that didn’t happen. Instead, Ponce has lost her job, and the amount of good will in the world has go down. The right will chortle with glee, and the left’s anger will simply rise.

And the chance for peace on Earth will diminish significantly.