Reports from local Madison police that this Halloween weekend was ""the safest in years"" has left many students feeling hollow and filled with regret. While previous Halloweens have ended with exciting numbers of arrests and dramatic amounts of illegal activity, many students said this Halloween will be remembered as a miserable failure during which people too often felt ""safe.""
UW- Madison Sophomore Christian Leoting put it plainly.
""It wasn't nearly as dangerous and chaotic as I had been hoping for, to be perfectly honest. When you hear all the reports about the lack of overturned vehicles, the non-existent violent mobs, the street corners where people didn't feel like they or their loved ones were in danger—well, it just makes me feel like we all could have done a little more to contribute to a crazier Halloween,"" Leoting said. ""Like maybe someone could have tried to instigate a jousting match between two mounted police officers.""
And Leoting is not the only student who feels disappointed by the lack of exciting mob violence and the low number of arrests. James Harding, a junior at Florida State University with a reputation for getting into trouble with the law, said he felt ""partly to blame"" for the safe Halloween after failing to get arrested, or even break the law during Halloween weekend.
""It just sucks because usually I'm the guy that everyone can rely on to get the police involved. Unfortunately, I made a severe error in judgment when I vowed not to get blackout drunk this weekend,"" Harding said. ""I remained aware of my surroundings all weekend and failed to break the law even once. All I can say is this decision will haunt me for the rest of my life.""
Harding is one of several students who appear to be suffering from what University doctors describe as ""responsible guilt."" According to Dr. Lawrence Kemble of UW Health, responsible guilt is a growing sense of shame among UW-Madison students that they behaved too responsibly over Halloween weekend, thus contributing to the lack of violence and arrests that help make most Madison Halloweens such magical occasions.
""The number of students suffering from responsible guilt seems to be dramatically increasing every day,"" Kemble said. ""I mean, every single day more students seem to be coming into the health center complaining of stomach problems and severe guilt due to reports of the safest Halloween in years.""
Kemble asks that any student who believes he or she may be suffering from responsible guilt go to the UW-Health center for a medical evaluation immediately Kemble also wanted to send a final message of hope to guilt-ridden students.
""These students feel immensely responsible for the safe and relatively incident-free Halloween, as they should,"" Kemble said. ""But the student body must remember that while the low amount of arrests and chaotic violence may temporarily make UW-Madison slightly less cool, it is only temporary and the university's cool levels are still three times those of most other Big Ten institutions, such as Northwestern or Michigan State.""
