by Re-posted from Forbes.
Fireworks rock. And they make the Fourth of July awesome. After a long day baking in the sun and gorging on BBQ, nothing’s better than sitting back and watching explosions of color and light paint the night sky.
Fireworks have been an Independence Day tradition from the get-go; the colonists launched fireworks to celebrate the Continental Congress’ decision to declare the the American colonies independent.
But why do we only think of fireworks on July 4th? Why can’t we have fireworks for every holiday? Take Valentine’s Day for example; maybe I’ve seen too many action movies, but I want to kiss under a big explosion. Or Christmas: I mean can mistletoe or tree lights really compete against bright multi-colored blasts in the sky?
Halloween is another tragically boom-free holiday. Ireland, Nova Scotia, and Vancouver make fireworks central to their Halloween festivities– why can’t we? Instead, we have Halloween house parties, where you just sit inside with a bunch of people you already know doing nothing worthwhile. No, I want to sit out on the National Mall looking like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, sparkler in one hand, pizza in the other, watching things explode and make pretty colors. Sounds pretty American to me.
Also, I don’t particularly blame people for wanting to launch a few in their backyard as a personal July 4th celebration (as long as they’re safe), but, every year police confiscate thousands of fireworks from individuals who want to demonstrate their own pyrotechnic skills.
This year, police departments around the country collected thousands of pounds of illegal fireworks. In Colorado, the small town of Loveland confiscated over 75 pounds of illegal fireworks from its 50,000 citizens on Independence Day. Albuquerque, New Mexico, won’t release the number of fireworks collected, but they did receive over 50 reports of illegal fireworks on July 4th evening alone.
But nothing compares to New York City. The NYPD collected over 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks on July 3rd and 4th. And instead of leaving them in a storage locker, the department had a special Independence Day celebration. The NYPD bomb squad blew up all 5,000 pounds at once!
Don’t tell me they didn’t get a kick out of that. Boom.
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