Today I feel like posting two posts. Woo Woo!
The 4th Of July! Independence Day! The day we celebrate our independence as a nation...oh boy, I almost started off on another direction than I intended entirely. We will save that one until Friday.
Tonight I'm sitting here listening to fire crackers, poppers, those loud and obnoxious, not to mention dangerous articles of entertainment we use to celebrate the 4th of July. Call me an old fogey, a square, a wet blanket, call me what you will but I hate those things! I'm not against them entirely. I think they can be beautiful and a lot of fun. I remember my Sister and I would go with our Dad to the big shows, sit in the back of the truck and eat our Taco Bell or Kentucky Fried Chicken and watch the fabulous displays...the bigger the better! If one happened to be directly over our heads, my sister would freak out, I thought it was pretty funny.
Well, if I thought that people were responsible enough to use them, I wouldn't mind so much, but they aren't. It's the few stupid ones that spoil it for the rest of us. For weeks before the actual date I am up all hours of the night listening to them going off all around town. Animals barking from the sounds, not to mention the ones that get maimed or killed by the horrid beasts that think it's pretty funny to tie one to an animal's tail and watch it panic until it's burned, has a heart attack, or depending on what they tied to it, explodes. Last fall there were some old enough to know better teen punks running around tossing lit fire crackers into the dried leaves around the neighborhood. Kids get a hold of them and think they are fun and pretty to watch but end up blowing off faces and hands either from their playing with them directly or the ones with defects that go off too soon, or too late and they try to light them again.
Then, we could even go a step farther and talk about the ones who drink while playing with these destructive detonators. There is just too much to be said about them. I couldn't tell you the percentage of people that drink while doing this, but I would venture to guess it's pretty high. People love to find excuses to get drunk and holidays are the best ones. Mix the two and you are only asking for trouble. So what's the answer? They'll drink if they go to the shows and they'll just drive drunk which isn't any safer than the firecrackers themselves. Is there always a lesser of two evils? I don't think so.
How do you feel about firecrackers? Innocent fun or not to be left to the careless and irresponsible? It's impossible to make available only to responsible adults, so do you support a ban on them? Do you think that there should be stricter enforcement of laws regarding using them before/after the holiday or very late at night? Should people be able to do what they want to do because it's just not possible to regulate and our forces should be worried about more important crimes?
For the animals and the people who have to work in the morning everywhere...I vote we leave it to the professionals.
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A controversial issue to say the least. Washington, DC has banned them altogether. If you are caught in the District with fireworks, it could be jail time. The mayor and the EMS chief recently had a press conference stating a lot of what you had said about safety. Unfortunately, even those people that seem to responsible can sometimes turn into little children and act stupid. Yep, I agree 100% Leave them in the hands of professionals for our safety and the safety of the innocents.
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