LET’S GIVE HALLOWEEN BACK TO THE CHILDREN
(….and if that idea offends anyone….tough pumpkins!)

There was a time when – Halloween – was a fun-filled American folk festival allowing its children to dress up in fanciful costumes to roam around their neighborhoods happily “extorting” sweets of one kind or another, from indulgently smiling grownups who, should they fail to deliver the goodies, would find themselves subjected to discomforting pranks and tricks….hence….Trick or Treat.
It was generally all done as good clean fun (although the evil genius of teenagers could occasionally carry such pranks to extremes). Even so, Halloween, became one of America’s more cherished folk festivals which many generations of its children have enjoyed, to later fondly recall as they grew older and became parents themselves.

Not so today. Over time, like too many other of our traditions, it seems to have been taken over by the commercial interests of the candy and costume suppliers and, increasingly, by grownups as a barely disguised excuse for a bit of bacchanalian revelry. Even worse, however, is the un-American ghoul of political correctness which has raised it ugly head lately, leading school district bureaucracies around the country to ban the wearing of Halloween costumes and related activities at school, all on the grounds that these might “offend” immigrants to our country.

Such is the steady and ever increasing perversion of our American traditions!

Immigrants (legal that is) should indeed be offended, but not about this Halloween folk festival and tradition of ours, but by the condescending and presumptuous attitude of such bureaucracies who assume that immigrants are unable to accommodate themselves to and accept these traditions of their adopted country. How insulting this must be to such new citizens joining our nation!
Well, perhaps it’s time to give Halloween back to the children so they can once again enjoy its former simple pleasures and innocent fun, and if that idea “offends” anyone….tough pumpkins!

CENTURION