Header image by Eleni Petrounakou on Unsplash

No more Halloween for me. Too many
embedded bad ideas. Sugar candies? Flam-
mable costumery? The Other as vampire?

Although who doesn’t love dressing up &
inspecting neighbors’ living rooms or the
front lawns & lit porches of strangers?

Still, why such impish incantations? The
repeated threatening of bully pranks un-
less the expected gifts? “Trick or treat!”

It’s partly why we have a Halloween cos-
tume in the White House. And what’s
with celebrating nightmares, McRedeye

sez, as national holidays? Or Columbus
Day? Or all those Southern statues of the
brave defeated slaveholders? It’s the

exceptional American myth
on parade. Taking off the masks
& putting on our worst faces

Photo by Sunira Moses on Unsplash