[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a Letter to the Editor, written by a Reader. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The B-Town Blog nor its staff:]

Fireworks are Banned on the 4th, Let’s Enforce the Ban and Stop Hurting: People, Pets and Property in the name of Freedom

The arguments for fireworks on the 4th of July:

  • Celebrate the founding of our country
  • My right as an American citizen
  • Great childhood memories.

As kid, I too loved the fireworks, but I have never seen them as a right. Where I grew up, they were illegal and plentiful. These days I see them as either a privilege, prohibited or both. I think more about our Vets (who are the true heroes of the 4th), animals, personal injuries and the potential for property destruction through fire. More than that, I see the 4th as a celebration of our collective freedom.

Let’s be honest, most who celebrate the 4th use it as an excuse to party with little or no thought for this country.

Imagine this on the morning of the 5th:

  • Vets getting past a horrible nightmare of PTSD
  • Animals resurfacing after hiding out all night
  • Kids and parents getting back from the ER, some burned, some minus a finger or an eye, some just badly burned
  • Houses and cars reduced to ashes. I keep thinking how dry it is as global climate change sets in and this could be 10-12 houses all burnt to the ground at once not just one here and there.

Does this sound like the sound of freedom? Not to me.

Yes I am in favor of a fireworks ban and for appropriate fines to enforce the ban. I am also in favor of permits and public displays. I’d like the carnage and mayhem to stop, it does nothing to make me proud to be an American on the 4th.

Respectfully,
David Feinberg
Burien WA

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