Ignorance towers over two college students;

Insensitive costumes spark anger

Halloween. A time to spend with friends, eat mountains of candy, and dress up in silly costumes. This past Halloween, two 19-year-old British students at the University of Chester dressed up as the Twin Towers for a costume contest at a club.
Amber Langford and Annie Collinge donned American flags on their heads and sported tower-dresses that depicted planes, smoke, fire, and tiny people jumping to their deaths. By some sick twist of fate, the girls won a costume competition as “best dressed” at Rosie’s nightclub in Chester, and they were awarded $240. Soon after the news was released of their controversial costumes, the teenagers released a statement: “We never meant to be offensive, but we apologize if any offense was caused. The idea was to depict a serious, modern-day horror that happened in our lifetime and was not intended as a joke” (Huffington Post).
The University of Chester and Chester Students’ Union also released a joint statement: “Both the University of Chester and Chester Students’ Union utterly condemn the appalling photos which have been shared on social media” (ABC News).
Stonegate Pub Company, owner of Rosies, also offered an apology. A representative told the Chester Chronicle it was “a serious error of judgement” for the women to win the contest. They blamed their DJ for awarding such an inappropriate costume, and said that investigations are now taking place.
Clearly, many of these organizations realized the error of these girls, and made an effort to apologize. However, the fact is that this sort of “mistake” should not be taken lightly. Imagine the possible consequences if these girls had been from somewhere else, like the Middle East. They could have been perceived as terrorists, put in jail. who knows?
“It’s just interesting to think about the fact that they were white girls, so they got a slap on the wrist, but if they had been of Arab descent, they probably would have been named terrorists, just because of their nationality,” said junior Hannah Gross.
Whether or not race came into play, the fact is that these girls must be either uneducated or cruel. But what does it say about our society that they could win a contest with such inappropriate and offensive costumes?
“Although their behavior is insensitive, I think it really reflects the important task that we have to educate future generations,” said Mary Fetchet, founding director of Voices of September 11th. “Not focusing on the horror of the day, but about the wonderful lives of those victims who died.”
Naturally, families and survivors of 9/11 were completely disgusted with this display.
“This is unbelievable — 9/11 happened in their lifetime. It’s hard to understand where they’ve come from to do this without a thought for those who died or the families left behind,” said Patricia Bingley, who lost her 43-year-old son, Kevin, that day.
Another woman, Liz Gilligan, whose husband died in the flames demanded an apology.
“I can’t begin to tell you how angry and disgusted I am. To say I’m shocked and upset is an understatement,” she said. “These girls and Rosie’s need to be made aware that 9/11 was very real and while it was 3,000 miles away, it affected people on their door step. I will be contacting Chester University where these girls attend and want a public apology.”
It doesn’t matter how sorry these girls are, they have made a mistake that they will never be able to take back. They have insulted the United States, and made light of a tragedy that will haunt this nation forever. The girls need to realize that they were fortunate to have received such minimal consequences. In the future, they will hopefully think things through before addressing a traumatizing disaster with such insensitivity and ignorance.