Don’t be afraid to be afraid

So what is it exactly that compels us to continually celebrate Halloween, a holiday that is designed to scare and elicit fear in our hearts and minds? Why do we dress up in costumes and attempt to scare one another all in the name of good fun?

Perhaps the best explanation is that people, as a whole, just like to be scared.

Now, I’m not referring to “scary” as in having a real-life, axe-wielding maniac running after you or having the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms busting down your door and annihilating your family, but the “scary” that comes from temporarily uncomfortable moments.

Roller coasters are a good example of uncomfortable moments. Many of us ride roller coasters to feel that short-term sense of living on the edge — of having the possibility of meeting your death — all the while knowing that nine times out of 10, you’ll be safe and sound at the conclusion of the ride. We find that brief moment of fear exhilarating, and in the end it actually serves to calm us down.

Another good example of this nearly sadomasochistic phenomenon is horror movies. The reason that some of the most popular films of each decade have been horror movies is because we love to be able to go into a dark theater and become terrified by on-screen horrors. Once again, we know deep down that what we are seeing is fictional and can’t harm us, but our mind effectively tricks us into jumping at certain bloodcurdling scenes and becoming frightened.

Strangely enough, films that drift away from showing the actual completion of horrific acts, but merely imply what is happening or is about to happen, are the ones that seem to stick in our minds the most. If you go back and watch Texas’ most famous horror film, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” as I’m sure several of you will tonight, you’ll notice that it really isn’t all that gory in the first place.

When I met the original Leatherface himself, Gunnar Hansen, a few years back he chuckled how only a very minuscule amount of blood was actually used in the making of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” Instead, he says, the film played on psychological fears because you never actually saw Leatherface chain sawing people to death, it was just merely implied. Your brain apparently fills in the supposed gory parts of the film and leaves you with the mindset that the film was very graphic.

I personally witnessed how the mind is the scariest tool of all this weekend by winning a costume contest at a club in Lubbock. My costume was relatively simple, a plaid shirt, denim overalls, and a $20 mask in the shape of a decrepit old man’s face. I never once jumped up behind people or grabbed them; I simply moved slower than molasses, and that bothered people the most.

Women and men alike would jump with fright when I came near them, and some people actually ran to the other side of the club. It was utterly amazing to see how much power I had to induce terror in people. But I have to admit, any power that I had actually came from the people themselves. I did not scare them; their own minds ended up doing that for me.

When we allow ourselves to have our heart jump momentarily, it serves as a release from the daily grind of homework and relationships. If we can let out a scream or two on Halloween, it serves us well for the rest of the year. All the troubles of life seem to fade away for an instant, and soon that scream will most likely turn into a laugh, and provide some much needed relief.

So if you go out tonight, be it to a haunted house, a club or even if you just stay at home and watch a scary movie, enjoy yourself and don’t be afraid to be afraid.

Boo!

Robert Davis is a senior computer science major from Garland.
He can be reached at (r.d.davis@student.tcu.edu).

Discrimination: It’s something that African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, poor people, Jews, Hebrews, Gentiles, Protestants, Christians, Catholics, vegetarians, Pink Panthers, Pizza Hut employees, fat people and guys named Shannon (unless it’s the rich tight end for the Baltimore Ravens) all face. Oops, I forgot to add a group to the list — gays.

Actually, I probably left out tons of people. But since this year is an election year, and there have been only two weeks since National Coming Out Day, the issue of gay rights has risen innumerable times.

I, for one, don’t support gay rights. Please continue. I don’t support straight rights either.

I support human rights, civil rights and civil liberties. Those rights defined in the Constitution and those inalienable, God-given rights that no government can take away from us.

Everyone deserves the right to be protected from physical harm no matter what his or her sexual, religious, or any other “preference” may be.

But we already have enough laws. We don’t need to create more rights or give special rights to specific groups or even make punishments worse for so-called hate crimes. Our government simply needs to enforce all the laws it already has.

And no matter how many laws you create, there will still be racism, discrimination and hatred. Just like there will always be people who speed, don’t signal and don’t wear their seat belts, despite what’s written in the law books.

If I’m correct, gays have the right to vote, the freedom of speech, the freedom of religious expression, the right to assemble peaceably and every other right that straight people have, except, of course, the liberty to have their marriages legally recognized in most states.

And that, my friends, is where the debates begin.

I realize that in the 21st century we’re trying to move into an age of political correctness, peace, equality, the pursuit of happiness, blah, blah, blah. But can’t we do that without abolishing all of the morals and accepted principles and values that we have?

By the year 2050 we’ll have to redefine the definition of marriage to include bestiality, pedophilia, and marriages with inanimate objects. No, I’m not comparing gays with inanimate objects or animals. I’m simply making the point that if you change the law to include the preference of one group, you’ll have to also change it to include every other.

I know. I know. You want to point out to me that slavery was accepted, and the inhumane treatment of blacks was accepted up until the late 60s.

But wait one minute. Being black and being gay is a totally different situation.

First of all, in my opinion, you’re born black. You’re not born gay. Black is a skin color, but homosexuality is a lifestyle, just like heterosexuality is also a lifestyle. To me, to say that one is born gay is just as erroneous as saying that one is born Democrat or born Protestant.

Second, blacks had chains, whips and masters preventing them from being free. Maybe you can argue that gays have mental or spiritual chains and whips preventing them from breaking away from the evil that constrains them. But as far as the comparison between the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement is concerned, I’ve never seen a “STRAIGHTS ONLY” restaurant or a “Homosexuals” water fountain.

And when is the last time you saw a gay person move to the back of the bus because a heterosexual wanted to sit in the front? Never.

The idea here is not to attack gays or any other group of people, or to discredit the fact that they do encounter discrimination. But we do need to realize the exaggerations of inequality propagated to us every day.

John Sargent is a freshman computer science major from Fort Worth.
He can be reached at (s.w.sargent@student.tcu.edu).

You wouldn’t know it by taking a look at the stands in Amon Carter Stadium, but the Horned Frog football team is ranked ninth in the Bowl Championship Series, The Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN polls.
As a result, TCU is ranked in the top 10 for the first time in 41 years.

You wouldn’t know it by taking a head count at home games.

Only 30,762 people saw the Horned Frogs defeat the Rice Owls 37-0 Saturday — TCU’s first victory against Rice in their past five contests.

It was the smallest attendance of the Horned Frog’s four home games this season. On Homecoming weekend, no less.

What else does it take to get fans to support the home team?

An undefeated season? Check.

A Heisman Trophy candidate? Check.

Good weather? Check.

All three ingredients were available Saturday afternoon, but still the “fans” didn’t show.

TCU probably needs to finish in the top six in the final BCS rankings to clinch a spot in one of the four BCS games. Should they not finish among the nation’s top six teams, the Frogs need to be ranked in the top 12.
One of the factors the four BCS bowl games consider when selecting at-large teams is fan attendance. Or more accurately, how many people will travel with the Horned Frogs should they play a bowl game in, say, Tempe, Ariz.

So there’s a possibility that the Horned Frogs’ fans are hurting the team’s chances more than their weak schedule.

After Saturday’s victory, Franchione appeared to be in good spirits until he was asked his opinion on the attendance, or lack thereof, at the game.

Franchione offered only this: “I can’t go there.”

Apparently, TCU fans said the same thing Saturday.