Halloween Cancelled/Uncancelled in Milford

David:
In a curious turn of events, the annual Halloween parade was cancelled in a small Connecticut town in the name of inclusiveness. In other words, if anyone is offended, then no one gets to participate.

Doug:
Are you talking about this:

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Milford-schools-ban-Halloween-6565263.php

http://www.fox35orlando.com/news/u-s-and-world-news/32670724-story

The facts: A small community cancels the school-sponsored Halloween parade. Parents are upset. War on Halloween! Assault on tradition! Political correctness destroying America! School board relents, continues tradition.

First, for the record, let me state that Halloween is my favorite holiday. Secondly, I could not care less what the school board in a small town decides to do regarding the parade planning. I wouldn't care about our own school district's parade planning. There is plenty of injustice in the world, but cancelling the Halloween party is not an injustice.

Tradition is fraught with injustice. Take Columbus Day for example. Why is that a national holiday? What are we celebrating? In our house, we celebrated Indigenous Peoples' Day instead.

I'm used to being in the minority, and so if traditions change to be more inclusive, I think that is a good thing. But if things don't change, well that is the tradition, too. 

David:
As anyone who knows us at all will attest, halloween is a big celebration at all of the Blank homes. Next to Christmas, it is also my favorite holiday. And we are not alone. Halloween now ranks as the second-highest spending holiday behind Christmas. Since the country was founded, halloween has been a family-themed celebration with costumes and games.

Doug:
I don't know about "family-themed"... but then again I work at a college. I also don't know about "since the country was founded" but I have seen my share of slutty Benjamin Franklins at Halloween time, so I guess so!

David: 
Well, then, you might find this interesting.

http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

I agree with just about everything you've said. (That statement itself is very scarrrrry!) Because this is America, you can choose to celebrate anything you want. Or, you can choose not to participate. But in this case, the school board decided that because some people might choose not to participate, then no one gets to participate. And this is done in the name of inclusion. Over and over, we see that if any single person might get left out, then everyone must suffer. And I say that is wrong. And that is not inclusive, but minority rule.

Doug:
Schools should just stay out of the holiday business. They have enough to focus on, and not enough time or money. 

"Over and over again" is the theme song of the Tea Party Warrior. The opponents (whoever they are) have declared a War on Halloween and War on Christmas, and the TPWs must save us! And Easter and Columbus Day is also probably at risk...what's next ... War on Boxing Day? Traditions are going to change, and they will become more inclusive. It isn't war; it's evolution. Can I say that word?

David:
Why so vitriolic? I doubt you have ever sat down a talked to anyone other than me who believes in the ideals of the tea party: smaller government that is fiscally responsible. Despite what the Huffington Post says, no one I know in the tea party is racist, or uneducated, or sitting around showing a toothless grin while playing their banjos, and they don't walk around with guns shooting everything in sight. Sorry to pop your little thought bubble.

Doug:
You forget that the airways are covered with the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity. We all hear racist, uneducated diatribes everyday. They are at war with anyone and anything that is different from what they understand.

David:
There are certainly some traditions that have become antiquated, or have worn out their welcome and are no longer beneficial to society.  But there are certainly many that serve to bind us together as a society. An annual halloween parade for the town seems to fit that description well. To ban that tradition because there are a few who don't want to participate is wrong. It actually segregates the local society unnecessarily, in the name of "tolerance".

By the way, Boxing Day is not an American holiday…but you are free to celebrate it as much as you want.

In some Southwestern states, school districts have ruled that students cannot wear American-flag designed shirts on May 5th, because hispanic children might be offended. The irony is that Cinco de Mayo isn't really a celebration that hispanics even celebrate. (It's a bit like Festivus.)

https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/on_the_front_lines/us_supreme_court_refuses_to_protect_right_of_students_to_wear_american_flag

http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/cinco-de-mayo

"For many Mexicans, however, May 5 is a day like any other: It is not a federal holiday, so offices, banks and stores remain open."

Doug:

War on Shirts! I could not care less about all these "injustices"... I'd make them all wear uniforms. Not Nazis uniforms. But maybe Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses. Wearing a flag just isn't fashionable. Want to show your American Pride? Pay extra taxes! Now, let's get back to carving the pumpkin and worshiping the devil or whatever…

David:
Those are pretty strong words from someone who complains about "micro-aggression". In fact, I find your last comments to be micro-aggression on a macro scale. Choosing to wear a shirt with a message is free speech. Choosing to wear a shirt with an American flag, in America seems to be a no brainer in the free speech realm. Rather than ban the American flag, it seems to me the correct response would have been to counsel the hispanic students they should be tolerant of the flag of the country in which they reside, not to tell the patriotic  American students they cannot display the flag of their own country for fear of alienating foreign students. Tolerance is a two-way street, and embracing a common culture brings us all together. 

We are a melting pot of cultures. New ideas meld with the established ideals. A country cannot survive long if it is only a collection of separate cultures without a common and unifying social identity. "E Pluribus Unum." Out of many, one. Traditions.

Doug:
First, I don't believe anyone made those poor little white kids stop wearing their 'Merican t-shirts. Second, that isn't a micro-aggression, but I am glad that you have been paying attention. What I find most alarming is that these kids want to wear an American-Flag t-shirt. These shirts were probably made in China, and all of the profits go to our very own 1%. Those are injustices. War on Halloween, no, not an injustice. Now, I am going to go carve my pumpkin and listen to music from "Damien VI-VI-VI: Revenge in Milford"…

David:
Now, go put on your Donald Trump costume with the crazy hair and the clown suit, and I'll go put on my Hillary Clinton costume with the constantly-alarming lie detector, and let's go get some candy!

Happy Halloween, to my favorite brother!

Doug: (That is us in 1968. I'm Casper the Friendly Ghost, and David is... well, David is David. Happy Halloween!)