The evening before Halloween. Devil's Night.

Back when I was a kid, the worst we would do was to toilet paper someone's house, usually a crotchety old cantankerous man who had yelled at us to get off of his lawn one too many times. If we were caught, he'd grab your skinny arm with his calloused, big-knuckled hands and tell you all kinds of horrible things he was going to do to you. After you were sufficiently scared, possibly with a trickle of pee down your leg, he’d let you go and start to hose off the streamers.

Nowadays, idiots are burning down abandoned buildings and shooting guns in the air. I’m actually interested in how Detroit deals with the destruction this year, since they just went bankrupt. Not enough policemen, too many decrepit buildings and factories, and too many bored teens. Some real estate may be professionally burned down for insurance purposes.

Yeah, I’m old. Goofing around is good fun and all, but hopefully folks start realizing that by destroying their own nest, they’re destroying any bit of positive that can happen in their neighborhood. Also, firing guns in the air means those chunks of lead have to land somewhere, so why not on a toddler sitting on his porch? One never knows what can happen when they set something they cannot control in motion.

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