Happy Hallow..awkward...

This weekend was Halloween weekend. At Babson, it is one of the biggest weekends all year. Well.. It is supposed to be at least. Halloween is a time for us to dress up as something we are not. We are allowed to not only create an obvious veneer, but also we are encouraged to do so. The more original the better. This weekend I saw so many hilarious costumes, from Avatars to infants. Everyone is free to send out whatever message he or she wants to.

...

However, I began to question this after seeing a couple of costumes this weekend. Are we actually free to send out whatever message we want? Of course, there is the freedom of speech, and we have debated this in class quite a lot. However, what about our ethical responsibilities? Or do we not have them? For example, I saw someone dressed up as a Chilean coal miner. While I admit it is a clever costume, it is also very insensitive. Maybe it is not sensitive at all. Maybe he is trying to turn the coal miners into heroic characters by creating them into a costume. And really when other people saw this costume, many of them didn't really know how to react. Some people chuckled nervously, other's gave a sympathetic sigh. And of course many just laughed out loud. The lady at Trim even took a picture hahaha

...

Another example I saw was someone dressed up as an oil transporter who worked for BP. His nametag had the BP logo and the phrase “Bad Planning”. His costume was covered in fake oil stains. The costume was met with both laughs and awkward side comments. While this also is a very clever costume, it is also a little bit insensitive since the oil spill is still a huge crisis. Sometimes I wonder if while we have our fun, do we still have this social responsibility to censor our own messages, not for the sake of law or even morality, but more so for the sake of compassion.