It's time to pick the winner of the comment contest from Buck-a-Hit Day yesterday. The winner gets to steer $250 of our charity donations to the nonprofit (501(c)(3)) organization of his or her choice.

Here are our contestants, in chronological order:

Bronson:

Jack, thank you for your blog. In an era of diminished journalism, this is what a blog is supposed to be. It provides information not covered, or lost under bigger headlines. It provides new perspectives. It's focused, but willing to step outside its bounds to look at other issues from time to time. It balances news with humor. For all these reasons, I visit the site every day.

As for my contribution. Well, it's been a rough week. And after weeks like we've collectively had, you have to make a choice of either growing bitter and retreating from an increasingly crazy world, or you have to chose to find a path forward and make society grow from the experience. And so I share with you a fitting poem by Whitman:

A Christmas Greeting - Walt Whitman

Welcome, Brazilian brother--thy ample place is ready;
A loving hand--a smile from the north--a sunny instant hall!
(Let the future care for itself, where it reveals its troubles,
impedimentas,
Ours, ours the present throe, the democratic aim, the acceptance and
the faith;)
To thee to-day our reaching arm, our turning neck--to thee from us
the expectant eye,
Thou cluster free! thou brilliant lustrous one! thou, learning well,
The true lesson of a nation's light in the sky,
(More shining than the Cross, more than the Crown,)
The height to be superb humanity.

Allan L.:

Be generous, folks! Use your credit cards. Remember, the world is ending on Friday, before the bill comes.

Gibby:

Happy "Buck-A-Hit" day! Before breaking out the credit card this year I decided to Google the history for the organizations listed, because I really knew just a smidgen about each. I wanted to read the real story about why each was started, and why. Better than reading the news lately, right? I was a little worried it might be depressing, but hell, surfing the net couldn't get much worse than the info posted this week anyway. Luckily, I was inspired and lifted into a renewed Christmas spirit. That's why I intend to give a little today, and still have a strong desire to stick around this nasty old world for as long as I can (at least until the end comes Friday).

INFO/Clackistani/tighty righty:

Hi there all you people.

This is my first comment here.
Just kidding.

I've been reading bojack, for a long time.

How is it that Jack, a liberal democrat, can be so much like me while at the same time remaining liberal in many other ways?

He's messing up the natural order of things.
We can't maintain the great divide in this country if clowns like Jack are continually blurring the stereotyping lines of separation.

I've noticed the local deep blue progressives don't like him at all and the far righies get agitated when his liberal core surfaces.

So how are we to label this bojack guy?
A freak of nature? That can't be.
He a charitable guy with a nice wife, two lovely little girls, a home in a neighborhood and Stenchy.

Is he just too normal? The new normal?
Eeek! That's got to be offensive to a lot of people.
Too bad.

I'm going with that for now.

So Merry Christmas to Jack "the new normal" (and family) for disrupting the polarization of society one clever blog at a time.

Linda Kruschke:

So this is a little more serious than I was planning, but in looking at some of my original poems to share I found this one. I hope you like it.

Words are powerful. Let’s use their power for good, and not for evil.

The Power of Words

Sticks and stones
will only break bones
but words cut hard and deep
crushing heart and soul
when cruelly we speak
leaving scars no one can see

Sticks and stones
can make buildings and homes
but words sink soft and deep
lifting heart and soul
when lovingly we speak
healing scars only God can see

Take care with your words
use encouraging ones
let the cruel ones remain unspoken
shower kindness and love
offer mercy from above
in a world already too broken

Merry Christmas, Jack!

Newleaf:

Here is my hope and prayer for the New Year.

Each among us has a relative, friend, neighbor or acquaintance who seems strange, doesn’t fit in, is distant and disillusioned or isn’t all there. That’s someone who especially needs a hug, a warm smile, a friendly wave or a kind word. Please find it in your heart. Someone who acts out horrifically does so only when he has lost hope. A small gesture guarantees nothing, but it can go an incredibly long way. This, each and every one of us can do.

Thank you.

Sally:

Your "No donation is too small" got me. We had a wicked year, mostly owing to enormous medical expenses. But I made a "too small" donation, in thanks for everything you do here and my partaking of it, to Ronald McDonald House.

Separately: my mother is well advanced into some sort of dementia, in all probability Alzheimer's. But I happened to speak with her last Friday, the day of the horror in Newtown, Connecticut. Somehow that monstrosity had penetrated past and through all the disconnections and un-comprehensions in her brain. We had a conversation almost like those we would have had, and did, years ago. She even sounded like her old self. Somehow that tragedy brought a few moments of clarity as well as tears. Things that make you wonder.

Portland Native:

There but for fate, joss, luck, the gods, whatever....those in need could have been or be any of us.

We'll leave the balloting open until noon tomorrow, and formally announce the winner tomorrow afternoon, just in time for the big holiday weekend.

Thanks to everyone who visited here yesterday, left a comment, or made a donation. You are greatly appreciated.