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Sometimes, we really have to wonder if there's any excuse for bad taste.
The answer is yes. Poor judgement. Phillyist reader sfg tipped us off, via Democracy Project, to Penn student Saad Saadi, who went costumed as a suicide bomber to Penn President Amy Gutmann's annual Halloween party.
Since the pictures made their way around the internets, Saadi has posted the following on his Facebook profile:
My friend, Jason, and I express our condolences and sympathy to all offended by our costumes. We wish to make it clear that we do not support terrorism, violence, or anything that is against society. There is no agenda or statement associated with our behavior shown in these pictures. The costumes are meant to portray scary characters much like many other costumes on Halloween. We are deeply sorry for anyone who has been hurt or upset. Additionally, we strive for all societies to instill healthy non-violent democratic values.
There's a difference between scary-Dracula and scary-mass-slaughter. The kid wasn't making a political statement, he was just being dumb. And while dumb is scary, it's rarely dangerous in contexts like these. Scarier, however, is how happy President Gutmann looks to be posing with a suicide bomber, real or not. Her poor judgement did, however, have a limit. Saadi's caption to the above photo reads:
On October 31, the actual Halloween day, Amy Gutmann, the UPenn President, hosted a party at her house. Here is a photo of us. I asked her if I can take another photo where I'm pointing my gun at her, but she did not allow it.
You've still got 362 days till next year's Halloween, but we urge you to think about your costume next year a little more than Saadi did. And to think about who you're photographed with, if you're a semi-public figure who should really know better.
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It's Halloween. As in, pretend. As in, imagination and role playing. As in, harmless. There is no problem here that I can see. When we start debating what people can PRETEND to be, then we're getting silly, in my opinion.
grow up. its halloween! there were probably thousands of people dressed as suicide bombers this year and last and the one before that. it is bad enought hat the kid goes to penn can't we just rip him for that and let the costume go?
That's not his "friend" standing next to him--that's Amy Gutmann herself, the president of the university!
Yeah, I know--I went to Penn and definitely recognize good ol' Amy. I had originally put in a picture of him with his friend, but decided the Gutmann photo was better, and I forgot to change the text. Thanks for the catch, I'm editing now.
As far as I know, the first amendment of our constitution still protects everything from offensive costumes to bad taste. Clearly there was no security threat here, so if you're offended, too bad. You can cry all you want (tears protected by the 1st amendment too), but you can't do a damned thing about it.