Dear editor,
As a young father, and fairly new citizen in Fort Frances, I am confused and saddened by this town’s fascination with all things death and gore around the season of Halloween. Frankly, I’ve never seen another town like it. I wonder if we have really considered what it is that we are “celebrating” when we decorate our lawns with skeletons, grim reapers, and zombies.
Death is real. It’s ugly. It’s painful. It’s raw. Even in our modern age, where some of the harshness of death has been softened through pain medication and great palliative care, many of us know personally the cavernous blackness that accompanies the very real death of a loved one. We weep as we lower our loved one’s remains into the ground. Death is no joke. We know this in deeply personal ways. And yet come October, we unflinchingly litter our lawns with bones, caskets, and scenes of horror and violence.
Have we considered, when we sprawl a skeleton filled casket on our lawn, what that may do to our neighbor who just buried their spouse? Have we considered, when we hang ghostly bodies from our trees, what that may do to the family down the street whose brother recently committed suicide? Have we considered, when our yards are scenes of violence and horror, what that may do to the refugee families in our town who have fled the very real violence and horror of war? Have we considered, when we portray zombies crawling out of our grass, what that may do the indigenous community in our midst, still reeling from the discovery of mass graves of children across our nation?
Our lawns are home to signs touting “everyone is welcome here,” and “every child matters,” and at the same time home to heinous scenes and characters that bring up trauma and pain for so many in our community.
One person’s “play” is another person’s reality. Consider that this October.
Alain Reimer
