Who needs tales of lakeside murderers and masked ghouls for Halloween night fright when men in suits and women with badges and guns provide 24-hour chills?
The “Friday the 13th”, “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Scream” and other slasher-film franchises may be good for the once-a-year screamfest we embrace in October, but connoisseurs of true horror will find their inspiration in the world surrounding them.
While millions of people across the country— with hundreds of thousands in San Diego county, many of them in Chula Vista and National City—about to go hungry because the current president’s administration will not fund the federally subsidized Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, the president is building a $300 million grand ballroom at the White House.
The people won’t eat but at least there will be a dance hall for the elite in Washington D.C.
Incidentally, SNAP benefits don’t subsidize only the unemployed. Many recipients are individuals and families who are among the working poor. They are people who are employed at either a full-time job that does not pay enough to meet basic living expenses or they have cobbled together a number of part-time jobs that barely provide gas money and don’t provide health benefits.
Those health benefits that are elusive to so many may become out of reach for even more Americans as health insurance premiums have been increasing and the GOP Congress has refused to extend subsidies to health insurance markets that would benefit not just the working poor but also the middle class.
But not only do we have hungry and sick Americans scrambling to find ways to feed their children and keep them healthy we also have masked federal agents roaming cities across the country snatching people off the streets because they are suspected of being undocumented.
At the same time the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents turn their brute force and chemical weapons on citizens who are protesting or video recording the agents during their raids and arrests.
Who needs scary movies and monsters this Halloween weekend when all you have to do is keep your eyes open to the horror around you?
Maybe we are better off hiding under the sheets.
