Opus 2019-118: Why Not Firworks

You may have noticed that more and more locations are making it illegal to shoot off your own fireworks.  It is illegal to sell them in many places.  It always amused me to see a fireworks stand right across the city limits from a no-fireworks domain.

I understand the stated logic of banning them.  First you want to keep your houses from burning down.  That makes sense.  People sleeping under a roof covered with old wooden shingles might not appreciate a still burning rocket landing on them unannounced.  Dry shakes do not mix well with sparks.  I am not sure that is a reason to ban all fireworks but city councils love to flex their muscles.  I wish citizens realized how easy it is to vote out a city council.  It is the way a democratic form of government is supposed to work.  If you don’t like them, vote them out.

Second, Aunt Nanny wants to keep her children safe.  Start a list of things the government does to protect you starting with mandatory seat belts, bicycle helmets, medicine bottles with safety caps and proceed to smoking in public and nutritional content labels.  The list goes on and on.  What we fail to see is that each law that is passed for out safety also limits our freedom.  It is sometimes limited by banning what used to be common practice such as fire works.  Other times it reduces our freedom by limiting our choices.  That is what government required licensing for things like barbers and eyebrow weavers do.  By limiting competition they also increase the cost of living.  That is both by limiting competition and raising prices because the business now has to pay a fee for the permit.  But they only do it because they want us safe.

But there is also a hidden reason for banning fireworks.  Exciting displays encourage people to be involved in celebrating their liberty.  It might even get people to think about the words of the national anthem.  The Progressives in charge of education, the media and government want us to sit down and be obedient, not blow things up and get excited about being free.  If you can make things boring enough, people will lose interest.  We have seen this in education.  When the feminists succeeded in making books boring and non-violent, boys have been dropping out of reading.  When colleges require freshmen to get in touch with their feelings in special tolerance classes we see fewer young men interested in a college education.

The recent celebration that President Trump led in Washington got a lot of people stirred up.  Some were stirred with patriotism and love for their country.  You could see that when the cameras were forced to turn around and see the solid mass of people all the way to the Washington Monument.  No, they were not photo-shopped in.  Others were stirred in horror at the fact that there are still people proud to be Americans.

I am for more fireworks.  I am for freedom.  Keep in mind that limiting immigration does not mean limiting emigration.  If you don’t know the difference, the first is what illegals do and the second is what liberals promise to do every election.  Maybe if we shoot off enough fire crackers some will keep their word and move to Canda.

homo unius libri