-Mahatma Gandhi
My mom has never been a fan of Halloween. It's her second most hated holiday after Valentine's Day. There's something about delighting in fear and horror that creeps her out. I guess that's why some of my most famous costumes were a French maid, a flapper, a tiger, and, yes, Rhoda from the 70s. (See picture for reference). Fairly innocent, wouldn't you agree?
Unlike my mom, I grew up loving Halloween. Every year my elementary school had a parade, a highly anticipated event for me. I'd go to bed with my costume laid out at the foot of my bed, and hardly slept because of all the anticipation. Don't even get me started on trick-or-treating. Free candy from strangers never seemed so wonderful. There used to be this guy who lived down the street, and would go all out in his costume as the grim reaper. He'd sit motionless on his front step with the bowl of candy just a few feet in front of him and wait for a courageous trick-or-treater to come close enough for a piece. It was both unbelievably frightening and thrilling at the same time.
Halloween seems to have lost its innocence, if ever it had any. I imagine from a parent's perspective, it's a nervous holiday. For law enforcement, it's probably a full day of pranks and vandalism. According to the UPS guy who dropped a package off for my neighbor, all drivers were not allowed to leave any packages outside on Halloween. Philadelphia certainly puts a new spin on the holiday.
Sadly, this past Halloween proved to be a tragic day for a Philadelphia family. A police officer was shot and killed when he intercepted a robbery at a Dunkin' Donuts. The incident happened only a few miles from LaSalle, so my class was cancelled as the school and general area were in lock down. The city is up in arms as the manhunt continues, especially since this is the third police shooting in a short amount of time. What the heck is going on with our world.
Please pray for the Cassidy family and the city of Philadelphia.
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