Originally, I didn't want to donate any more space of my column to Halloween this year, but unfortunately, what started out as a good holiday weekend degenerated into something much more sinister come early Sunday morning, and damnit, I feel like weighing in on the topic!
Firstly, I'd like to thank City Council President Mike Verveer and the Madison Police Department for their efforts in keeping the Madison Halloween tradition alive. After last year's mindless State Street riots, the city could've easily cancelled the public party and made it more difficult to congregate in a large mass.
It may be of little significance now, after the festive Halloween spirit was again uprooted by ill-conceived, riotous behavior, but I for one appreciate the fact that the very people who probably would've been better served by attempting to shut down the party were the ones working hard to keep it alive.
We all do thoughtless things when we're drinking-it's the nature of the beast. Take me for example. After a night of partying, I'll come back to my apartment, crank up Sgt. Pepper or '80s rock, regardless of the lateness of the hour and proceed to drive my roommates nuts. Yet there is an immense difference between drunken tendencies of minor annoyance and those that involve violence and destruction.
Everyone is allowed to mess up once in awhile. The pressures of school, relationships, money and life in general are going to be compounded from time to time when you throw a case of Miller Lite or a bottle of vodka into the mix.
However, if every time you go out to enjoy some spirits you end up destroying other peoples' property or getting into physical confrontations, you have a problem. It may sound hypocritical coming from me-especially after my plea not more than two weeks ago urging the college students of today to get out, take some risks and create their own legacy-but there is a fine line between memorable revelry and shameful destruction and violence.
We all must adopt the ideals of John Locke: Everyone has an inalienable right to life, liberty and property-thus everyone has a right to go out, party and have a good time. But the moment you infringe upon these same rights held by those around you, your rights to do whatever you choose become void.
For a city that prides itself on an unfaltering commitment to uniqueness, we sure spit in the face of our historic originality this weekend. The value of rioting just to riot is equal to that of blindly conforming to meaningless fads, unrepresentative government and outdated mores of society. Those who felt breaking store windows and tearing up our beautiful downtown were good ideas-regardless of whether they were visiting for the weekend or life-long residents-were ultimately the biggest poseurs on the planet.
The celebrity of Halloween in Madison should never again be marred by the infamy of the ugly mob behavior that has plagued these last two Halloweens. It all begins and ends with the UW-Madison community-next time, let's show the world we can do it right.
If there is a next time.
writePNL@yahoo.com.
