Tricks or Treats?

October 27-28, 2001 John Derbyshire NRO Contributing Editor.

We had a flyer from the elementary school both our kids attend, instructing us that for the school's Halloween parade this year, no weapons and no masks would be allowed. The rationale given was that these things might frighten some of the little ones. Why a tot should find a plastic sword or a Scream mask any more frightening this year than it was last year is not clear to me. Have our grade-schoolers been traumatized by the events of last month? I see no sign of it. My own kids are as blithe and boisterous as they were on September 10th, the only real innovation in their lives being the game of World Trade Center that I noted in one of my columns. ("Wheeeee.... BOOOOOOOM!!")

Should we be showing special consideration to the sensibilities of more nervous children in these days? Rather the contrary, in my opinion. This is wartime. We must stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood; and our children should see us doing this, and be encouraged to do it themselves. A ban on plastic swords? Fiddlesticks: I plan to take my kids to the range with me next time I go, so that they can see guns in action. To prosecute a war, you need a nation of warriors — or at least, a nation of citizens who know how to put fear in its place. Let the training begin early. There's candy waiting at my door, and I want to see swords, masks, guns and claws — the scarier the better!

Rod Dreher Columnist, New York Post.

At our house, we'd be in a quandary over Halloween even if 911 hadn't happened. The celebration of this holiday sits queasily with our faith. Our son just turned two, so this is the first year we would have had to have thought about it anyway. Prior to that infamous day, my wife and I agreed that we were not going to trick-or-treat, but instead let our son go to a neighborhood mommies-group Halloween potluck dressed as ... a New York fireman. The boy has been wearing his little plastic fireman's helmet all year anyway, especially when we'd take him by the neighborhood firehouse to visit the firemen, so it seemed like the thing to do.

Now, more than ever, it's the thing to do. We're going to dress our son in his full FDNY turnout gear — a visored helmet, rubber boots, a plastic axe, and an el cheapo plastic black coat from Walgreen's — and let him deliver Halloween cupcakes to the neighborhood firehouse, which lost eight men on 911. Then we'll bypass trick-or-treating, go straight to the potluck dinner, and let him play with his little costumed friends. All the mothers in my wife's circle seem determined to keep the scarier aspects of the holiday — ghouls, goblins, witches, spider webs, and so forth — hidden from the little ones. Those New York babies have seen enough horror already this fall. There's no fun in being scared anymore.

-- Anonymous, October 27, 2001