Mexican Drug Lord

[Geno Munari]

Belive me I did not want to use this title in a post. But I am behooved (sic).

It is Halloween and I have been going to the door and depensing some great Herseys etc., to many great young people. Group after group.... It is a tradition that has been wonderful and family oriented.

I have asked each person that appears who they pretend to be. They answer in their capricious ways....a ghost, a devil., a skeleton, etc,

The next group that comes are four people......I ask the same question...

'The first young man about 11 years old says, " I am a Mexican Drug Lord"

I gave everyone candy except him. What a pity to hear this remark. And I live in a gated community..what does that tell you?

My thinking......"There are no more standards in media or boadcasting" The media has no morals.......which is where all this is learned.

Not all media proglumates drugs and the fancy associations with them. Yet many movies, radio and television do.

Not one magic publication even courts the concept.

What a pity...

[David Alexander]

Geno,

I am unclear on what you want. You seem to be upset because some kid learned about Mexican Drug Lords, a very real and very nasty group of people, from "the media" and dressed up as one for Halloween.

While ethnic stereotyping is not pleasant, Mexican drug lords, as well as Columbian drug lords and Peruvian drug lords, drug lords from various ethnicities, do exist.

I am unaware of magic magazines promoting ethnic stereotyping so I am also unclear on what you think they ought to do about this.

[Geno Munari]

I just wanted to relay the incident since Halloween is typically associated with magic, however the point is it is a sad state of affairs in this country about the fight against drugs.

My mention was not targeted to any specific culture, except at the pathethic parents that let their child mask as a drug lord.

Thats all.

[Pete Biro]

You should have said, "come in, and let me call the cops, they are looking for evil people like you."

BTW... you gotta start watching Bill O'Reilly on FoxNews at 8 pm... he's on our side!

[Geno Munari]

Thanks Pete... you are all right...

[Bill Duncan]

Originally posted by Pete Biro:
BTW... you gotta start watching Bill O'Reilly on FoxNews at 8 pm... he's on our side!

As opposed to those of us who don't care for Mr. O'Reilly who are on the side of the Mexican Drug Lords Pete?

Geno's post reminded me of the end of Addams Family Values when the aunt asks little Wednesday Addams (who isn't wearing a costume) what she's dressed as and she replies:

"I'm I homicidal maniac. They look just like everyone else."

[Dustin Stinett]

While I agree with the essence of what Geno is saying about our society and its lack of parenting, I also wondered; where do we draw the line on Halloween? Allow me to play the devil's advocate:

On Halloween kids are supposed to dress up, and most of the time they want their costumes to be scary. What is scarier nowadays than the image of a ruthless drug lord? What about the axe-murderer that arrived at my door last night? How about the Billy the Kid that showed up? Billy the Kid was a real life murderer. Some years ago I had several OJ Simpsons come to my house (which was particularly nasty to me since I knew Nicole Brown in high school).

When I was a kid, my favorite costume was that of a pirate. A very real image of murderous thievery that still exists today (though they don't dress the same and say “shiver me timbers” anymore). How about 1920s-era gangster costumes? The idea of a twelve year-old all decked out to the nines sounds cute. But just because that image has not existed for over 80 years certainly does not mean that these gangsters were any less criminal than those that infest current society. What the hell is so glamorous about Al Capone? But Geno, would you have made the same comment if a kid had arrived at your door in a powder blue three piece or canary yellow double-breasted suit (two of Al's personal favorites, by the way) and said that he was Al Capone? How about a Machine Gun Jack McGurn costume (complete with spats and a violin case to complete the stereotypical image)? He was a snazzy guy: a cold-blooded killer, but snazzy nonetheless. Is that an acceptable costume?

I don't know Geno; times are changing. Some of the images and icons of those things and people considered scary are simply changing with the times, but I don't think that they are any more evil than the old images and icons.

Dustin

[Bill Duncan]

Dustin,
You make a good point. It's amazing how differently people view the same thing. I was startled when a friend told me he wouldn't let his kid play DOOM (a first person shooter computer game) because of it's content which involves the player (his kid) killing demons from hell which have overrun a military base in outer space.

He happily allowed his kid to play Dark Forces however, which is the same type of game only based on the Star Wars theme. I asked him why it wasn't ok for his kid to kill imaginary demons from hell but it was ok to machine gun Storm Troopers, which are, afterall humans.

I guess it was a rude question.

[Geno Munari]

All of your comments are good and reasonable, but if the theory that it is OK to be whatever, why doesn't a kid become HITLER? I have never seen a Hitler for Halloween.

Drugs have killed more than this moron. Could you imagine selling little moustaches, straight wigs, etc.

The point is that we must draw the line somewhere, or otherwise fall like Rome.

[Brian Marks]

Every empire rises and falls. What was that statement, "The sun never sets on Britain"

[David Alexander]

Geno wrote:
All of your comments are good and reasonable, but if the theory that it is OK to be whatever, why doesn't a kid become HITLER? I have never seen a Hitler for Halloween.

Drugs have killed more than this moron.

**********

Well, actually no, Geno. World War II involved casualties - civilian and military - on an unprecidented scale in human history, well into tens of millions... a minimum of 7 million in the USSR alone.
Illegal drugs in the US kill far fewer people than one legally available drug: tobacco. Conservative estimates now have 400,000 people a year dying from the use of tobacco.
The so-called "War On Drugs" has little effect on the ready availability of street drugs with there being approximately the same number of drug users now as before the "war" started.
You say we have to "draw the line somewhere." Well, the best place to do that is in your home where you educate and protect your children by giving them solid values. That is the best and strongest defense against what awaits them in the real world.

[Jonathan Levey]

Geno,
Trying to compare Hitler with a Columbian lord is just wrong!....... Columbian drug lords may be bad, but they dont go and commit acts of genocide and kill millions of innocent people....
This is a magic forum for topics to do with the art of magic, not a history or a politcal forum...

Jonathan

[Guest]

I have video tapes and books of guys that are masquerading around as magicians or experts. I only watch and read those on Halloween.

I see Geno's point. The drug lord and Hitler are very recent and real people that probably shouldn't be imitated, even in costume. Dressing up as a pirate or a viking, although they were real, is not consistent with the century we live in, so whatever bad meaning it may have held will most likely not resonate today.

By the way, you should check out Halloween's origins. That makes very interesting reading.

[Bill Duncan]

Originally posted by David Alexander:
You say we have to "draw the line somewhere." Well, the best place to do that is in your home where you educate and protect your children by giving them solid values. That is the best and strongest defense against what awaits them in the real world.

David,
I think that was Geno's point. That anyone who would allow their child to go out as a drug lord wasn't doing that. I'm not sure I agree.

People tend to make fun of what scares them in an effort to blunt the power of that fear. Look at the rash of (tasteless) jokes that arise when some evil monster like Ed Gein or Jeffery Dahmer is revealed.

I wonder if the kid assuming the persona of a drug lord isn't trying to assert some feeling of control?

If he can mock them they're not so powerful after all...