Thanks to the Mid Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC), kids in Columbus had to trick or treat on a cold, wet Thursday night this year. Then, after having to start trick or treating in the freezing rain, kids had to hustle home to bed because it was a school night. And that's after a week of confused parents checking websites to see which night their neighborhood was having trick or treating or if it had been rescheduled.

All this could have been easily avoided if trick or treating in Central Ohio was just held on Halloween, like it is everywhere else in the United States. Halloween on a Friday night would have let kids trick or treat without parents needing to worry about them getting enough sleep for school the next day. And the weather on Halloween is much better than the weather on the MORPC-designated trick-or-treat night, this year and in many other recent years. Coincidence? Or the universe telling Central Ohio to get with the program?

Fortunately, there's an easy solution at hand: let's tell MORPC to drop its confusing, unnecessary scheduling scheme - starting in 2026, LET COLUMBUS KIDS TRICK-OR-TREAT ON HALLOWEEN!