Irvine World News (Irvine, California), November 3, 1994:

Someone unfamiliar with our customs and traditions might find it peculiar that every last day of October, American adults find it festive to purposely frighten their children, dress them up as ghouls, ghosts, witches and monsters, and feed them unhealthful foods.

Someone unfamiliar with our customs and traditions might perceive this holiday as a sort of sanctioned communal exercise in child abuse.

It is often argued that "recreational fear" serves as a desensitizing exercise. We rationalize that small children should learn to confront their fears and a good way to do this is for trusted adults to fabricate morbid imaginary characters.

Regardless of whether or not you believe there is a satanic connection with Halloween, we know that today's children will face such horrors as homicide, suicide, drugs, teen pregnancy and AIDS, either in their own lives or the lives of their friends while they are still children....

Perhaps Halloween could better be celebrated by dressing up in ethnic costumes that teach kids about other cultures, about tolerance. Or, in memory of the past, wear costumes that remember the heroes that have gone before us.

Given our collective concern for violence and crime, now would be a good time to stop dressing children in horrific clothing and calling it entertainment.

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