Stop clowning around

"Stop clowning around." There was a time in my life where that was a funny statement. Where it meant that the class clown was goofing off and now we needed to focus on the course work. Now it means something entirely different. Now it means that creepy clowns are attempting to lure children into the forest. That students are paying clowns to murder teachers. Now it means that there is a very real danger to my family.

Today I was happily scrolling through Facebook for work and noticed a video a friend and neighbor had shared from KSL news. At first I scrolled right past it thinking it was nothing. And then I read the caption. It was something about Fairfield Junior High being vandalized by clowns. and I froze. I couldn't think for a couple minutes.

My junior high, the one my youngest brother still attends, was vandalized. And they weren't inane statements. They were things like "We'll kill all the children on Halloween" and "Kill the Falcons". There were other things too, like "Ha ha" etc. but this is quite shocking.

For a while this has been something in my periphery, something I knew was going on nationwide, but not something I felt was actually real. And then it was in my own backyard. It was endangering my siblings, my family.

It has gone too far.

I don't know who decided to take a clown, something that is already frightening and not funny or cute to so many people, and use it as the vehicle and guise for committing petty, and often terrifying crimes. I don't know who they are, and I don't know who is perpetuating this crime spree nationwide. I could actually probably care less. What I do care about is that this continues to be as big a concern as it is. That more and more people are committing crimes at clowns.

All I'm saying is that this can be as scary as terrorism at home. In fact I think it is more scary. It's not something we can say is a problem abroad. Terrorism we can and often do, relegate to "their problem". We shouldn't, but we do. However, these clowns we cannot relegate to "their problem". It is our problem, our concern and we have to fix it. We have to do something about it, because if we don't no one will. People around us are being hurt, they are being threatened. And we need to be the ones to fix it.