When we spoke of a war on Christmas, they rolled their eyes.

They told us to “grow up” when we wanted to keep our high school logos.

They said cancel culture was a myth.

Now, they can’t believe that the forces of diversity, equity and inclusion want to cancel Halloween.

Word spread this week that, under the guise of “inclusiveness,” the Melrose Public Schools were eliminating Halloween, a tradition nearly everyone enjoys.

Now people are upset.

Maybe they should have paid attention when we told them it wouldn’t stop with Columbus Day.

Maybe next time they’ll listen before it’s too late. Except, it’s already too late. It took normal people too long to wake up and now it’s just a matter of time before the woke avalanche crushes something that you care about.

It happened to the citizens of Melrose, Massachusetts this week.

After forcing the age group least vulnerable to COVID to wear masks for two years, Melrose schools decided that Halloween masks are inappropriate.

“Over the past several years, MPS has worked to de-emphasize Halloween and shift our focus toward community building through fall celebrations,” Superintendent Julie Kukenberger wrote in a memorandum to the Melrose school community.

And when kids think of fun, they think, “community building through fall celebrations.”

“This is in line with our mission, vision, values and district priorities,” Kukenberger wrote.

Apparently, that mission is to cancel fun.

Oh, sure, there can still be Halloween events in the community outside of school. But the schools are sending a message to kids that celebrating Halloween is bad and so is anyone who participates in it. I’m sure this does wonders for kids’ social emotional wellness.

Of course, once Melrose parents got wind of the plans, the backpedaling began in earnest.

The schools weren’t canceling Halloween. Where would you even get such an idea? They’re merely “moving away from an emphasis on celebrating Halloween.”

Oh. That’s different. Just like in Wakefield they weren’t getting rid of the Warrior logo, just “retiring” it.

Educators have a million euphemisms and buzz words to obfuscate what they’re really up to. “We’re not eliminating advanced placement classes. We’re just ‘leveling’ them.”

My father wasn’t a formally educated man, but he had his own expression for what we now call “groupthink.” It’s an expression that’s particularly apt to this situation.

“They all went to the same school,” he’d say whenever he heard people in the same field parroting the same talking points.

In this case, they literally all went to the same school. Teachers’ colleges are steeped in the “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” agenda that we’re not allowed to identify as Critical Race Theory.

Similar to the elimination of the Warrior logo in Wakefield, there was no groundswell in Melrose demanding that Halloween be canceled. Sign-holding residents weren’t storming the superintendent’s office chanting, “Hey ho, Halloween has got to go!” No, this didn’t come from the community.

Likewise, there was no popular uprising in Wakefield demanding the elimination of the Warrior logo. One or two members of the Human Rights Commission worked on the Youth Council, who then brought it to the School Department. And the educators were only too happy to run with it in the name of being “inclusive” and “culturally responsive.”

When it finally got to a popular vote, which the School Committee resisted (so much for “inclusion”), the people said convincingly that that they did not want the Warrior logo eliminated. But it was too late, because the School Committee made sure they took their own vote before the election.

So, now schools in Melrose are “moving away from” Halloween. And as Melrose goes, so goes Wakefield. That’s an old saying that I just made up. But it’s true.

Because they all went to the same school.
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[This column originally appeared in the October 28, 2021 Wakefield Daily Item .]