One of America’s most controversial public figures has been in the news again lately. Unfortunately, due to the dominance of the war on terrorism in the news, most haven’t heard about the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s latest attempt to influence America.

Wednesday, a letter from the Rev. was printed on the Drudge Report, urging parents not to let their children take part in trick-or-treating.

The letter went way too far.

It starts off talking about the threat of terrorism and the chance that another attack will occur. It then goes on to explain that President Bush is right, American, should not let the terrorists strip us of our way of life.

Jackson then makes a fool of himself.

The letter explains how Halloween is “a holiday of risk.” You know, with all the poisoned candy, apples with razors and other “sick treats.”

His fear – that Halloween will make it far too easy for these terrorists to poison and kill innocent children.

“The occasion offers too much temptation for those who would do wrong,” the letter reads. “The prospect for mischief is too great – if not from fanatics abroad than from our own homegrown crazies.”

Our own homegrown crazies?

Now when I think of a homegrown crazy, something that comes to mind is a person who says “people opening the door to costumed monsters are likely to be jumpy, suspicious and edgy – and well, they should be.” Which is exactly what Jackson wrote in his letter.

This is not what we need right now. I really wonder what in God’s name Dr. Lovechild was thinking when he wrote this piece of work.

Yeah, some unfortunate things have happened on American soil, but people like Jackson are going way too far when he says people should be scared of monsters at their front door.

Jackson said he knows the arguments against his view. He said he understands we cannot give in, we cannot be made victims of paranoia.

But he doesn’t understand. Not at all.

He said “there is a difference between giving into fear and using prudence. A difference between victimizing children and protecting them. A difference between cowering before bin Laden and making ourselves vulnerable to him.”

True, but what Jackson is proposed for Halloween is giving in. There are a lot of things parents do in order to protect their children.

Parents do simple things every year, like check their children’s candy before they eat it or actually going trick-or-treating with their children to ensure their safety.

Halloween is the perfect holiday to celebrate our freedom and show bin Laden he is not going to bring us down, that he cannot steal our way of life. We won’t let him.

On Halloween we threw that in bin Laden’s face in a number of ways.

There was the obvious – not stopping our way of life.

But there was much more creative ways we proved to bin Laden that he is not going to stop our great nation – the bin Laden masks.

Sure at first they were scary, but when you think about it, they were great.

Some of the masks depict bin Laden as a psycho, which is exactly what he is.

By wearing this type of costume we are proving to bin Laden that we are not afraid of him, that he is not strong enough to bring us down.

There were also the bin Laden masks with arrows or knives through the head. Basically, these masks told bin Laden to screw off.

And what makes America look like it will survive, telling bin Laden to screw off or doing what he wants?

Jackson needs to calm down. What he proposed was a horrible idea. If Americans would’ve listened it would have been a major victory for those who want to see this country fail.

Zach Calef is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Cedar Rapids. He is an assistant news editor of the Daily.