Independence Day

Well, maybe I'm a little less patriotic than I used to be--I still love the country and always will, but the country whose politics I love is gone. From historical readings, I'm guessing that the political United States I'd love is that which existed between about 1880 and 1910. That, my friends, was a FREE AMERICA. I'll probably write about it sometime. I liked growing up in the 1950's, in retrospect, but there's always the danger of selective memory. You remember the good stuff.

Not much of the liberty America's Founders set up for us is left, and more of it disappears with every election.

My enjoyment of Independence Day is an old habit I'm not sure I want to change. I enjoy the get-togethers with friends, the bbq's. I enjoy the Sousa marches and the fireworks.

I really used to like the fireworks--the skyrockets, the Roman candles and the firecrackers.

Used to?

Look, these sterile, polically correct, sit-on-your-ass-and-watch municipal light shows are about as far from the good ol' family 4th 0f July cul de sac celebration as a Yankees ballgame is from neighborhood softball at the park: The Yankees play a lot better baseball, but softball with friends is more fun.

They say it's because of fires. Throughout my first twenty years of life, I don't recall a serious fire caused by fireworks in my town. We could buy and use any fireworks until I was entering my teens, then some of the local money-sucking parasites decided that some firecrackers were too powerful for us poor dumb peons.

Yeah, I know there were a few kids who blew off a finger or two, but y'know, they have parents, and parents should teach 'em. Mine did. I even blew up my share of tin cans and ant hills.

It's a little different here in Southern California, with the dry brush in the hills. It means we have to be more careful how and where we light our fireworks off. It doesn't mean fireworks should be outlawed.

Property owners should pay attention. Brushy land and the houses and other buildings thereon should be insured against fire. Insurance companies should use tort law to exact reimbursement from careless fireworks users. That should force responsibility in fireworks use in the neighborhood and pretty much end the problem.

Empty-headed bureaucrats can't see that. Rather than think of a way in which Productive Americans can enjoy their holiday, they'd rather just stop the fun with the force of the police and establish fines, to help pay for their extravagant vacations.

They've killed freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California