Word: halloween
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Emulators of the Tylenol killer made this Halloween truly scary...
...hysteria of consumers who blame any nausea or headache on poisoned food and medicine; the FDA so far judges only 36 of the incidents to be "hardcore, true tamperings." Still, that was more than enough to send real rather than make-believe chills coursing through many parents as Halloween approached...
Provoked by such incidents, and the prominent display they got almost nightly on TV news last week, more than 40 communities in the U.S. banned Halloween trick-or-treating. "I feel like the Grinch-you know, the one who stole Christmas," said Councilman Paul Sharp of Hammond, La., which enacted a ban. Rhode Island Governor J. Joseph Garrahy urged parents to substitute Halloween house parties for trick-or-treating, and New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean signed a law mandating six months in jail for anyone convicted of contaminating Halloween candy, even if no one was harmed...
...weekend indirectly caused these incidents to occur. With countless articles about the issue (prompted by countless meetings prompted by many over-reacting parents), newspapers and television spots put ideas into that many more sick heads. Just as paranoia builds on itself until the subject is immobilized, so the elaborate Halloween precautions may have spurred the very attacks they were meant to protect...
...would tell me. "You can't live in a city and worry about crime all the time--it's completely futile." That's the same attitudes society in general has to take towards sporadic signs of sickess. Common sense is one thing, but over-concern over such things as Halloween candy can lead to unwarranted paralysis. If the sense of communal anxiety that overlook much of America last Sunday continues' to grow--who knows?--may be people will stop buying food altogether...