The Foolishness of Fireworks

July 12, 2010. We survived another Independence Day holiday without burning the desert to a cinder, but it wasn't from lack of trying. Washingtonians, chafing under rules that prohibit private display of fireworks except at New Years and Independence Day, exercised their semiannual freedom into the wee hours of the morning on July 3rd, 4th, and 5th. In years past, the local fire departments were barely able to keep up with the fires that the celebrations caused. This year, we were safe.

Every time we have fireworks holiday, I question the patriotism of fireworks. Yes, our national anthem sings of "...the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air..." but how many of us actually connect with those images? The numbers are probably pretty small, and among the ones of us who actually can connect with rockets and bombs, the percentage of fireworks fanatics is probably very, very low.

We don't need to glamorize war. Our last president thought of war as a glorious thing, and look at where he took us without having a clue as to what would actually happen. Even if he didn't, I knew that the wars in Afghanistan and later Iraq would kill and cripple thousands of our young men and women, and that Americans are eternally ungrateful for the sacrifices that their servicemen make. And to make it even worse, the country usually abandons its debt to its veterans because the money might win more votes somewhere else. Vietnam veterans who survived seeing their friends die on the battlefield weren't overcome with pride in their friend's glorious end; rather, they were mostly overcome with guilt that their friends died while they survived.

Anybody who believes in the glory of war is a fool. Just ask anybody who has actually been there.

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