October 24, 2004

Make It a Crime

I was going to write about a client whose excuse for missing the driveway to the gas station by 20 feet and hitting the power pole was not her blood alcohol reading three-and-a-half times the legal limit but the fact that she got new glasses 4 hours before and couldn't see clearly, but that kind of thing happens every day; and it's not every day that every little kid's favorite
school event, Halloween, is canceled. I dressed up as a bum hobo itinerant wanderer with a dirty face and disheveled clothes every year. I suppose that was rather insensitive of my mother to allow me and help me to portray that kind of derogatory stereotype, which might have been offensive to hoboes everywhere.

Gone are the days of witches and wizards.
witches.jpg

And the days that fellow artist, Kurt Vonnegut, predicted in his short story, "Harrison Bergeron," are fast approaching. I, for one, will have my headphones tuned to selected works of John Cage.

Posted by Bill at October 24, 2004 10:13 AM
Comments

I see where you get your inspiration from now.
We ban Muslim headscarves here but the primary age kids will be sure to celebrate Halloween!

Posted by: Anji at October 24, 2004 12:07 PM

So you'll be dressing up as Buddha this year?

Posted by: lucy at October 24, 2004 04:01 PM

What's next? Animal rights groups saying it is offensive to dress as dogs or cats? Good Grief, Charlie Brown, we've killed the Great Pumpkin.

Posted by: Cowtown Pattie at October 24, 2004 05:12 PM

here's a link to that short story. it's very short. but a "doozy."

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html

Posted by: stacey at October 24, 2004 05:57 PM

Ya'know... it's hard to believe you've never had any art lessons.

Posted by: philip at October 24, 2004 08:07 PM

we do not have "Halloween" parties in our school district... however at the end of October every year, we have a "fall party". This would be very similiar to the "winter party" we have on Dec. 23.

- Dana

Posted by: -d at October 25, 2004 06:57 PM

Hi Bill, thanks for stopping by my blog earlier. (for those just joining us, I've been writing about college kids dying of alcohol poisoning). Start here--has links to the previous posts"

http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2004/10/sometimes_paren.html

I started in on this because of Gordie Bailey, who is the child of a friend's friend, and who reminded me of...well never mind.

The big big big regret I have about a child who is now an adult and is wandering around doing nothing but smoking dope is that we did not follow up on the threat to test his urine weekly for drug use.

If we had done that when he was 16 and 17 (in addition to treatment and therapy) I think he would have had several years of sobriety to get a handle on the other things. But we didn't, because we were too spineless. it was too invasive.

I hope that some day he realizes that sobriety and facing the demons is better than a drug haze....

And oh, parents? Don't just talk. Snoop. Go ahead, be invasive if you think your kid is using.

And oh, parents? Don't send your kid off to college without knowing that binge drinking--jello shots--beer bongs--can kill you or your friend.

How would you like to be the parent who gets the phone call from jail, because your kid put another kid to bed, dead drunk...and the kid died. Look at Gordie Bailey and Blake Hammondtree--some of the boys who were in the house will probably do jail time because they were complicit in the behavior that lead up to those boys' death.

Posted by: Liz at October 26, 2004 12:55 PM