World In Changes

As I'm writing this, it's Halloween, and only 4 kids showed up at our house for Trick-or-Treat. The entire neighborhood has been strangely quiet, in fact, which I find very puzzling. We live in a typical middle-class neighborhood, about twenty minutes south of Boston, and every year, we usually get a good-sized crowd of kids coming by for Halloween candy. But not this year. 

I wonder if people are feeling stressed out. A lot of my friends have told me that's how they feel, and with good reason. I mean, things are certainly much more expensive these days-- and that includes Halloween candy. Grocery prices haven't come down either. (Sometime, we can debate the great results tariffs were supposed to bring: I'm just not seeing any.) Meanwhile, a lot of people are getting laid off, or only able to find part-time work: maybe they can't get time off to take their kids out, or maybe there's no money to buy costumes, or maybe there's some other reason that Trick-or-Treating was postponed this year. 

Okay, here's another possibility: 18-20% of the city where I live in comprised of immigrants-- from China, Vietnam, India, and Middle Eastern countries like Morocco and Pakistan. Maybe people are afraid to let their kids go out Trick-or-Treating. Maybe they've gotten the message that they are no longer welcome here: they've seen images on TV of immigrants getting accosted for no apparent reason, and they fear it could happen to them. I have to admit I still can't get used to seeing law enforcement officials wearing masks. But then, I still can't get used to law enforcement officials zip-tying little kids, or arrested 13 year olds, or knocking women to the ground, or any of the other things they've been doing, seemingly with impunity. 

I have some friends who don't even like Halloween: they think it goes against Biblical principles and they don't want their kids to participate in it. But for everyone else, Halloween used to be just another fun time when kids (and even some adults) could dress up, go out in their costumes, and visit the neighbors, getting free candy wherever they went. I'm sure there are still many places where that is happening. For example, I live near Salem, the so-called "Witch City," where tourists come from all over the US to dress up in costume-- the more creative the better. In Salem, all is fine. But in many other cities, this year's holiday seems a far cry from what went on in years past. 

I'm a big believer in keeping children innocent. There's a lot of unkindness and bigotry and hatred in society, and it would be nice if children didn't have to hear their ethnic group referred to in racial slurs. It would be nice if children didn't have to worry about classmates (or their parents) being suddenly taken away by ICE. It would be nice if children didn't have to watch masked agents grabbing people up, often without any explanation. It would be nice if children could just have fun, and go to school, and look forward to celebrating whatever holidays there are. And whatever the reason why the streets in many cities were silent and empty this year, it's a sad commentary on where we are as a country, and a sad commentary on what we are teaching our children.