There’s something about children and the Fourth of July — the expressions on their faces — the combination of panic and rapture as they wave their sparklers through the air.
Fireworks have long been a staple of youth and summer. The image of families arranged on folding lawn chairs in smoky neighborhoods is straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, but that was a long time ago. While most adults have vivid memories of lighting fireworks with their friends and family over several Fourth of July holidays, children nowadays are treated to a different, safer sort of celebration.
Threats to public safety have prompted many city councils over the years to strictly regulate — and in some cases prohibit — the use of fireworks.
Fireworks are loud and obtrusive; they’re dangerous. It seems only logical that laws are in place to protect residents’ safety, property and peace-of-mind. But some folks ignore those laws, leaving city leaders little recourse but to ban fireworks altogether.
It’s too bad the actions of a few spoilers stole from many local families a generations-old tradition on the Fourth of July — the excitement for some of lighting fireworks with their children for the first time, and the joy of being young again for others.
But common sense has to prevail; one fireworks-related injury is too many.
Lynnwood City Councilmembers, when deciding whether or not to ban fireworks, passed the issue on to residents in the form of a questionnaire.
The public sentiment opposed a fireworks ban and so did the council.
Perhaps other cities facing this decision will follow Lynnwood’s lead.
We people are a tradition-oriented bunch. It’s sad to think images so symbolic — the cul-de-sac littered with cardboard shavings and melted bits of plastic, the father kneeling to light his child’s sparkler — are nearly outdated.
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