A friend of mine whose credentials are in psychology works with troubled young people. Before Sunday school started last week, she mentioned a story she wanted me to research. Fox News Channel had aired a segment on a company that makes “pimp” and “ho” Halloween costumes for children.



If you think you’ve missed something here, folks, you haven’t. Pimps and ho’s aren’t storybook characters. A pimp is still defined as a person who solicits customers for a prostitute. A ho or whore, to be more grammatically precise is still the prostitute.



My friend seethed. “Here I am trying my best to help kids in trouble, and this company makes money dressing little girls up like ho’s,'” she said.



At home, I logged on to the Internet and plugged the words “Halloween,” “costume” and “pimp” into Google. Sure enough, a Los Angeles-based company, Brands On Sale, offers a wide range of Halloween wear for all ages including children’s pimp and ho costumes.



Costume creator Johnathan Weeks’ unapologetic defense of his design speaks volumes on where our culture is.



“We’re not telling everyone to buy them,” he said in an interview with World Net Daily.com. “If they want, they can purchase a devil costume, or a ghoul or ghost costume I don’t care.”



Why should Weeks care? He’s just making a buck. If he fulfills some pedophile’s dream, in the process, it’s just business, right?



I wanted to believe no adult was sick enough to let their children dress up like 14-year-old Jodie Foster’s sad streetwalker character in the movie “Taxi Driver.” An ordering note on the Web site said this:



“Due to overwhelming demand (emphasis mine), our child ho costume is currently sold out. However, we are currently accepting preorders which will be delivered in time for Halloween 2004.”



About a third of the costumes sold were shipped to Florida.



The outrage my friend expressed as she told my wife and me about these vulgar costumes is, to put it intolerantly, the only correct response. When kids can’t escape from sex and innuendo even when it comes to Halloween, our collective sense of outrage needs nurturing.



“We all want progress,” C.S. Lewis wrote, “but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”



Need one more sign that our culture is rocketing down the wrong road? How about this “pimp” and “ho” stuff our culture throws at our youngest and most innocent?







To contact City Editor Heath Griner, call (229) 244-3400, ext. 274; or, e-mail him at heath.griner@gaflnews.com.