Merica!

It’s the time of year when we celebrate our freedom by blowing up as much stuff as we can…

Those who live outside the United States probably get confused when they to try to understand why we do what we do here in America, but for that matter, there are many Americans who are confused about what we do here too. One of our fun oddities in the good ol’ U.S. of A. is July 4th, also known as America’s Independence Day.

On this day (and the days leading up to it), the American expectation is you will head to a fireworks stand where you’ll wait in long lines to spend your hard earned money on various explosives.

In the U.S. its an annual competition to see who can activate the most car alarms or shatter the most windows with the loudest boom. If you can leave the biggest crater in your yard, BONUS! As such, even the most quaint and peaceful neighborhoods sound like a war zone. All hours of the day and night are like a box of Rice Crispies – Snap, crackle, and pop, for hours, and days on end, only much louder than a box of cereal and much smokier.

As a lifelong American, I find some of our laws regarding this sort of thing quite humorous. If you’re 18 years old, you can’t buy alcohol or cigarettes in many places, and you can’t buy a pistol that shoots bullets, but it’s perfectly fine to purchase enough artillery and high explosives to outfit the army of a small nation.

Hey, if we can, WHY NOT!?!

Well, one of the reasons one might reconsider this practice is what happens after the purchase. I love a good fireworks show or big explosion as much as anyone, but the general population of our society is not the smartest (Common sense is not one of biggest strong points). Perhaps I’m a little harsh with that comment, but each and every year without fail, emergency rooms are filled with thousands of people who blow off a finger or hand, or acquire various other firework related injuries such as severe burns. In some cases, they burn down their homes (or someone else’s), but I guess that’s all part of the the celebration.

A good fireworks injury (hopefully with only minor scars and not disfiguring injury or death) makes for good stories, and fun future lessons for the young ones. That’s part of what makes America great! We have the freedom to do stupid things!!!

I’m not condoning the 4th because I too will be out making noise, but what I am saying is there should be a limit on the level of stupid. This is where things get tricky though because freedom is dangerous (literally). You don’t want stupid people doing stupid things, but if we hinder the ability to do so, we infringe on the rights for which we are celebrating.

If you have the ability to purchase the things that make big booms, just be careful. If you find yourself saying a comment that starts with the phrase, “Hold my beer”, know that it’s probably not going to end well. But if you do blow off a hand, just make sure it’s not the one you use to light the fireworks. You might need that hand to blow stuff up again next year.

Have fun today, and eat some pizza too.

Happy 4th of July!

~ Marty ~

---

---