Fireworks

Good morning,

In one week it will be the Fourth of July, time to celebrate the Independence of the USA.

I like fireworks and since I was a little girl I have enjoyed going to the professional displays that are so exciting and beautiful.  I remember one year about 20 years ago Kjell, Catherine, and I went on board the Belle of Cincinnati on the Ohio River and watched the fireworks over the Cincinnati skyline.  It was fabulous.  We also have fond memories of annually attending Red, White, and Boom, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra Fourth of July Concert at Riverbend, the Orchestra's Summer Home on the Ohio River at Coney Island.  The concert of patriotic music always ended with the 1812 Overture and a full fireworks display.  Marvelous! 

But, I have a different feeling about fireworks in residential neighborhoods.  I once had a German Shepherd who would go through plate glass windows when she heard fireworks or thunder.  We had gotten her as a rescue when she was about six months old.  We had no idea what she had endured before that and what had traumatized her about loud noises.  My kids were little at the time and the neighborhood bullies would throw lit firecrackers over our fence and into our yard to see the dog go crazy.  Sadly, when something was thrown into the yard, my children, just toddlers, would run to see what it was, too.  Fortunately, there was no catastrophe, but the danger was real.  I asked the parents of the boys throwing the fireworks to stop, and the father told me I was un-American because I didn't like fireworks.  *sigh*  These parents and some others were the problem in that neighborhood.  The kids went from fireworks to breaking and entering to vandalism and beyond year after year.

When the same kids and their friends started shooting many people's pets (including our cats) in the neighborhood, then a child in her own driveway one block away from us, I started house hunting.   The parents had completely lost control and even encouraged their kids to break the law beginning with the fireworks when they were small.  After we moved, some of those young people were arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to jail for the shootings.  We moved to our present home 41 years ago because of this.  None of this had anything to do with race.We moved from an all white, suburban neighborhood of new four bedroom homes to an ethnically diverse neighborhood of very old homes where we felt much safer.

So, now our kids are grown, well educated with honors, and independent.  No arrests, no jail time, no tattoos, either.   We have four Labrador Retrievers who don't have problems with loud sounds;  in fact, our Erik loved gun dog training.  But, I know there are dogs in the neighborhood who are terrified and have been every night for weeks.  Also, humans, especially combat veterans, often have a terrible time with constant fireworks.

It's sad, isn't it, when people insist on illegally shooting off fireworks in a residential neighborhood with no consideration for those who suffer from the constant loud sounds.  It's bad enough when the parents to it, but those parents who encourage their children to break the law are the biggest part of the problem.

This has been a much more serious post than usual.  If you've read through it this far, thank you.  Enough said, and I'll put away my soap box.

Lois