No Fan of Fireworks

My plans for the long Fourth of July weekend include a hammock, sunscreen, Netflix, several good novels, a plethora of sunshine and EAR PLUGS!  My quality time will surely be curtailed and I’ll be driven inside before too long due to illegal explosive detonation.  Usually in my locale, we end up with a cloudy weekend, several timely commitments and an overabundance of illegal explosives purchased from the local Native American reservation and illegally exploded like ordnance - against city ordinances - surrounding my humble abode.  

What a terrific experience it must be for those who suffer from PTSD episodes from time spent defending our freedom.  So that their inconsiderate neighbors can spend way too much money on illegal fireworks and have public servants and first responders come to our aid when we unsuccessfully blow ourselves, our properties and those of others into smithereens with careless abandon.  Isn’t that the true intent of the holiday weekend?

First responders hate the incessant alarms to respond to and the level of burn injuries seen on the weekend, usually to innocent bystanders.  Neighborhoods go to great lengths to protect their properties from destruction by smoldering embers.  My sensibilities and sleep are affected by our neighborhood being turned into a battle zone and having to breathe leftover charred fumes for days afterward.   

The amount of money spent on fireworks every year is astounding, pointless and wasteful. No one blows up all that they buy at the reservation booths on reservation land as the law intends.  Truckloads infiltrate the surrounding communities torturing veterans, pets, small children and hearing aid wearing elderly folks with overpowering noise pollution.

Injuries are uncontrollable and inevitable. In my teen years, I watched a safe and sane spinning firework burn the stomach of a teenage girl lying on a blanket watching a fireworks display. My sister interned in the burn unit of the local trauma center where fireworks injuries were a common story. In later years, had to quench a smoldering bottle rocket in my garden with a hose in the middle of more firework shrapnel landing in my yard.  

According to a Bloomberg report, "the U.S. spent $1 Billion on fireworks in 2012. The average commercial fireworks display costs $15,000. According to the American Pyrotechnic Association, consumers spend around 211 million dollars every year on fireworks.”

“11,400 Estimated number of injuries caused by fireworks that were treated in U.S. hospitals in 2013.” – Time magazine article

Cities plagued by crime, homelessness and cuts in social services spend major funds on fireworks displays.  Private consumers literally burn their money on 15-30 minutes of light show that leaves pollution of land, noise and air in its wake long after the oohs and aahs are over.  Those funds public and private could be better put to use supporting homeless day shelters, children’s summer lunch programs, food banks, summer day care for employed parents who rely on school to provide care their budgets cannot. 

Our cities have outlawed fireworks except for certain hours ON the designated holiday, yet my windows rattle for weeks before the event.  Imagine the impact the $211 million in public donations would have on social programs that struggle to survive.  

Isn’t it time to stop burning funds in explosives and putting those funds where they get a bigger BANG for the buck?