The Classic Halloween Debate

In homeroom a couple of days ago one of my friends informed me that a town in Illinois was trying to pass some Halloween legislation that allows any trick or treaters over the age of 12 to be fined 100-1000 dollars.

I think that's ridiculous. I still trick or treat, and I KNOW it was definitely okay to trick or treat in 7th grade. I fully plan to trick or treat this year and next year. After that is college, so it's a good time to call it quits

I understand the basis of the law. They don't want older kids scaring the younger ones, or dressing up in a costume that shows absolutely no effort and going around asking for candy that the younger kids could be getting. I do get that. But I personally think that as long as you put a legitimate amount of effort into your costume, you should be able to trick or treat. That's all in the spirit of the holiday, isn't it?

Maybe what they're objecting to is large groups of high schoolers roaming around together at night. If that was really an issue, why couldn't the town just encourage parents to make sure their kids didn't go in a large group? That's always been something I've considered, because it's kind of intense to have like 10 people show up at your door at once. Ever since, oh maybe 8th grade, my friends and I have always been careful about splitting up into small groups.

Anyway, I think this law is ridiculous. You should be allowed to trick or treat as long as you do it right, and don't steal candy, or kick pumpkins, or whatever else this town seems to be afraid of. Split up in small groups, put effort into your costumes, don't be obnoxious, and don't scare little kids. That's all there is to it.

Happy Halloween!

12:35, and it's raining on a friday.

I'd be the first to tell you that I'm not a particularly poetic person. I understand that it's sort of the painting or drawing of words, and intended to evoke certain emotions or pictures in peoples' minds when they read it, but I personally just find it slightly superfluous. If I'm going to be inspired by a miraculous snow storm with snowflakes falling in perfect form and sticking to the grass like a fresh coat of fairy dust, I'm gonna want to see it with my own eyes first.

That being said, as a student who has written poetry for classes over the years, I'm perfectly aware that a good poem has to come from some inspiration of its own. That's really where I'm trying to go with this blog post: Inspiration. What inspires us to express ourselves?

Recently, whenever I've felt like expressing myself through any material method, I've written letters to some of my friends in college. There's something nice about getting a letter via snail mail...even if it takes over a week to get a response. I write to them because I miss them, or I'm remembering some good, bad, or crazy time we lived through together. So I guess, because of that, I've sort of started to associate inspiration with memory.

I feel like that's a pretty normal inspiration. But it's just interesting to see how it developed. A year ago if someone asked me what inspired me to do anything at all, I probably would have spit out some preformed line about how working towards that single spotlight on a Broadway stage gave me all the inspiration I ever needed. Who says melodrama is a bad thing?

They say what inspires us is what we hold the closest to our hearts. What do you think?

Every Bird Needs a Right Wing and a Left Wing to Fly

So when our topic in class on friday turned to gay rights and the Laramie Project, we started talking about the discrimination that comes as a part of that from organizations like the Westboro Baptist Church. In class we were unanimous in that what that group does is wrong. But we live in a pretty liberal state. And so I started thinking about those two ends of the spectrum. Although most people, especially in our area, believe that what the extremist right wingers do is wrong, what about the extremist left wingers?

I want to make it clear before I go any further with this that I, personally define myself as liberal. And any offensive stand point I may take in this is purely for the sake of argument and is not intended to offend.

So. Let's say the WBC is the right most of the right wingers. Where are the left most of the left wingers? I honestly can't really think of a definite group. Sure I know people who are gay, people who are very pro gay rights and work towards them, feminists, and other types of people who are generally defined as left wingers. But I can't think of someone so on the left, that they offend a fair majority of the population because of their beliefs or actions.

I think there are two possible reasons for this:
1. That super liberals just plain old aren't offensive to a lot of people like the super conservatives are.
2. That they are offensive to SOME people, and we just can't see it because we live in a generally liberal environment.

So, where I'm going with this is, we see what the WBC does as morally wrong, and a enormous detriment and wound to society. Most people in the middle of the spectrum, with no opinion either way would probably agree. But what do those right wingers see? What if the thought of a man marrying a man makes them as sick as us thinking about a Marine's funeral being protested?

It's obviously not the same though. I can tell because I looked up for about 5 seconds and completely lost my argument. But maybe that's because I'm operating from a liberal bias. That's not a phrase you hear too often, is it? Liberal Bias.

But if conservative bias exists, why not liberal bias?