07 July 2007

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The evening of the Fourth was the same as it always is. Up to midnight and beyond, continuous volleys of firework noises rat-tat-tatted through the night, as if my apartment were surrounded by a vast herd of bean-fed dinosaurs. Enforced wakefulness threw me off my usual schedule for a couple of days (I'm normally an early-to-bed-early-to-rise kind of person). Sirens were added liberally into the auditory mix, and no doubt many a fireman will see substantial overtime on his next paycheck. Nothing in the immediate vicinity got burned down (the complex I live in bans fireworks, but I think neighboring residents are working on longer-range WMD delivery systems). Citywide, the usual idiots perpetrated the usual idiocies.

Seriously, I've always thought that the ever-growing emphasis on infantile noisemakers detracts from the dignity of the anniversary. Independence day is about more than who can generate the most annoying racket.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

When I lived in St. Louis instead of using fireworks the gang members in the city would shoot off their guns.

Every year it never failed. You could hear Ak-47's etc going off in the distance. It made me proud to live in Beirut, I mean America.

They had commercials before every 4th: "Please refrain from shooting your guns into the air. This is dangerous and takes away from the celebration. If you feel compelled to shoot your illegal weapons please have the common courtesy to at least fire them into large crowds gathered to watch the fireworks shows strewn throughout the city. Thank you."

07 July, 2007 10:29  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Yeesh. Well, Portland is actually a pretty law-abiding city. I should have figured there would be other places where it was worse.

My own preferred commercial, however, would have ended: "please have the common courtesy to at least fire them into the large crowds gathered to shoot off illegal fireworks throughout the city. Natural selection isn't working fast enough. Thank you."

07 July, 2007 19:48  

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