Attic Salt for Oct. 25, 2009

• By ED CULLEN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 25, 2009

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The two most popular Halloween masks are the likenesses of Bernie Madoff, alleged financial swindler, and Michael Jackson, a performer who survived his father’s ambitions and became rich.

What happened to witches and block-headed monsters with bolts through the neck? Next to Madoff’s, Dracula’s blood sucking is mild. At least, Dracula slept during the day.

I think reports of the hottest selling masks suggest what adults plan to wear to Halloween parties. Small children, I pray, don’t know who Madoff is. And Michael Jackson, I’d hope, is part of their parents’ childhoods.

The children on my street must be throwbacks. I’ve been putting candy in the bag of the same ballerina for years. Last year, she was as tall as I am.

Other tricksters I recognize, vaguely, as cartoon characters. After Buzz Light Year, I’m not real good at name-that-costume.

On cool Halloween nights, I like to sit in the driveway or the courtyard with a motion-sensitive Jack-o-lantern as company.

“You’ve had that a long time,” said a trickster who used to run screaming when the hideous cackling went off.

I used to put on a long, purple robe and faceless cowl to answer the door. But it scared the little kids, and I felt stupid when the older ones said, “Hey, Mr. Ed. Trick-or-treat.”

The people who scare me are the people who would ban Halloween for religious reasons, as they’d ban anything else they don’t agree with.

I’m afraid of people who throw things from moving cars at people on bicycles. That’s not exactly right. I’m not afraid of the people. I fear what’s become of us as a nation.

Why do so many of us think it’s acceptable to throw bottles, fruit or coins at bicycle riders or anyone else who rides a different wavelength?

When did “Republican” and “Democrat” become fighting words? Why is it all right to mock the president if the man in the White House isn’t the one you voted for?

People who go crazy at traffic lights scare me. We’ve become a nation of wired powder kegs waiting for someone to detonate us?