I've written about this before (here) but I'm going to touch on it again.
As you saw from that piece, I am not a 4th of July fan. I dread it most years now. And as I was thinking about it yesterday I was thinking it was probably my first taste of what was coming. I just didn't realize it.
Since I've not been a fan for a long time, and since I'm not shy about saying I'm not a fan I've gotten push back about it. And the first time I got push back, or I guess the level of push back I got I was a little taken aback.
Living in San Diego and in Colorado where private fireworks weren't allowed due to the fire hazard I saw how you could still have a 4th celebration and even a big beautiful fireworks display without terrorizing the rest of your neighbors. I think the whole country should go to this model. I told a friend that's what I thought and you would have thought I'd said I thought we should all march on the Capitol and try to overthrow the government...
I mean he got HOT. Fireworks were his right! And not only that but to not be able to shoot off fireworks would be unAMERICAN. And people who don't like fireworks should just leave.
I tried explaining how they bothered the pets. WHO CARES ABOUT PETS? PEOPLE CODDLE THEIR PETS TOO MUCH ANYWAY! I tried to explain that it was really triggering for PTSD for vets and that we had a lot more vets with PTSD with the Vietnam and Gulf Wars vets. And he didn't believe me. Like I made it up that mortar fire from fireworks would sound like mortar fire from well...mortars. How it was a fire hazard. EVERYTHING IS A FIRE HAZARD. Well...no, not everything, but for sure fireworks are. I mean it's right there in the name.
And then he gave what he thought was his winning blow...You just don't like them.
I don't. I'm upfront about it. I don't like them.
But how passionately he argued about keeping them, to the point where there was nothing I could say that would be accepted as a reasonable argument, should have been a warning shot. A really loud one. That scared the neighborhood dogs half to death.
See, his idea of how the 4th should be celebrated, and surprise surprise it lined up with exactly how he wanted to celebrate it, was the ONLY correct way to do it. And to disagree was to be less than American somehow. As if not liking blowing things up was a moral failing instead of a dislike of loud noises and terrified animals and people.
It was a sign of what was coming. I just didn't realize it at the time. I didn't know that we were all about to lose the ability to say America is a lot of things, and to know that was true. That people were going to calcify into their own narrow bands of what they thought a good American was. What they thought was appropriate, and they were going to force those decisions on other people.
I still think we should leave fireworks to the professional displays. Have the parades, the picnics, the celebrations, then have big displays in different locations. (Though I'd like to see even those switch to drone shows, they are SO freaking cool now) But that's what I think. What I'd like. I don't think you're unAmerican if you don't agree.
If you set off giant mortars from 2 in the afternoon until 1 AM I do think you're a giant asshole and I'd really like to know which house you were sleeping in this morning when I had to get up...
And that's really the deal. Last night the cats hid under the bed. The neighbor's dog tried to hide under our front porch chairs when he ran away (thank goodness he ran to a safe space). Nobody in our area got much sleep unless they are able to sleep through window rattling booms. It's fucking rude as shit to do that. To impact everyone else so you can blow shit up. For hours and hours.
I should have seen it coming.
Being rude to your neighbors in the name of patriotism is as American as storming the Capitol to overturn an election....
I just didn't realize it was the first warning sign.
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