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Meditation 270
Banning Halloween

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A politically incorrect image of an apparently derogatory stereotype.

The Puyallup School District in Washington has banned Halloween this year.

A spokesman for the District stated:[1]

"Witches with pointy noses and things like that are not respective symbols of the Wiccan religion and so we want to be respectful of that."

School District guidelines state:

"Use of derogatory stereotypes is prohibited, such as the traditional image of a witch, which is offensive to members of the Wiccan religion."

It seems some area Wicca practitioners actually complained, which brought about the ban.

I would suggest to any Wiccan who is offended by little children dressed up as Halloween witches,[2] "Cast a sense of humour spell[3] upon yourself."

I understand that Wiccans want their religion to be taken seriously. But this? It just presents them as a bad joke.

And kids - if you want to dress up as stereotypical apathetic agnostics for Halloween, this year or any year - you will get no complaints from me.

Footnotes:

  1. As reported on www.komotv.com
  2. It is not the little ones who dress as ghosts, ghouls, goblins or witches who frighten me, it's the ones disguised as politicians.
  3. Of course I don't expect such a spell to actually work; but it might have a placebo effect. (And I fully expect complaints that a reference to Wiccans casting spells is another derogatory stereotype.)
31 October 2004