I find it necessary to open my heart on this Halloween and to share some honest thoughts. My first observation is about the current holiday. There seems to be a parallel between the Halloween of the past and the political scene of a kinder, gentler time. TSD in no way longs to roll the clock back and go back in a time machine to relive the racism or less technological times. I can speak of a childhood in the 70's and 80's. During my younger days, Halloween was simply the high holy day of candy. Clunky costumes and brown paper bags for collecting the tons of treats were the order of the day and teaming up with family or friends for the effort. We were free to dress as a devil or witch or ghost or vampire....non twilight kind or a zombie or werewolf without anyone taking it personal or being offended. I also remember local churches having haunted houses in their gym areas. The rumors began to swirl of apples with glass or razor blades in them and poison candy. These rumors took hold and evolved into fears of Satanic worshipers taking kids from the street and using this date as a Satanic high holiday with blood sacrifices. The sentiment spread across the land and the churches stopped the haunted houses, the costumes had to be non scary and we even had the war cry of "reclaiming the holiday". The celebrating of Halloween has become forbidden unless you are at an approved event, typically a "trunk or treat" event at church and don't bother showing up if you dress as anything scary. I do have an honest confession and apology to make here. There was a small point in the life of TSD when he was searching for truth and had thought the answer was in a strict church life. I participated in the theory and practice of Halloween being evil and bad. I have since had an awakening and know better and could never, in good faith, deny the kids the right to celebrate the greatest candy day of the year. I say all of this to relay my current experience to you. I took one of my children and her friends out tonight for trick or treat. I never gave much thought to the fact that today is Sunday but it quickly became apparent that this clash is ongoing. Some churches had trunk or treat tonight, some had a regular service, some had no service and many told their congregations of the horrors that society has bestowed upon us and the sin of celebrating this day. Entire subdivisions and groups of people decided to protest this holiday being on Sunday by offering treats only on Friday or Saturday or a very limited time on Sunday. My crew started in a large subdivision at dusk. There were a few front porch lights on and the kids went to the doors. We were quickly informed that they had done the trick or treating on Saturday and there would be no treats tonight. We also found a neighborhood that secured their gates to keep the trick or treaters out for the night. After a lot of driving and searching, we were able to find at least 2 areas that welcomed the kids. Some of the homes that we located were decorated for the event and the kids and parents on site were very much into it. Thankfully, we were able to celebrate the holiday enough that the kids never had to know of the conflict within the event. I couldn't help but be sad about the state of affairs. The truth is that we have become so divided as a Nation by all of the scare and fear of the political players that we can no longer reason together. There are bad people out there and they do want to harm us. The Liberals have been so vilified that we almost find reason to be skeptical of legit threats and the conservatives have found comfort in the hate and they feel that they can control the message and the world by convincing the public that there is a terrorist or Democrat hiding behind every door. Can we ever get back to the common sense and common courtesy that made us a great Nation? Can we agree that there is a common enemy and that we can work to be safe and believe in each other? We have a system and a game in place now but I long for a new, fresh time when we no longer allow witch hunts for our fellow man just because they are on the other side of the political isle but what I really fear is that this change can only take place through violence and cleansing of the worst kind. We have ignored the signs of failure and we have winked at the evil that does lurk in some of our hearts and minds but for some, there will be no change of heart until our bleeding hearts cease to beat. Maybe we could start with a simple step of giving Halloween back to the children by allowing them to dress as they choose and let them have a night of sweets and escape in a world that has become so dark and bitter.
