Ban Personal Fireworks in Port Angeles?
Apparently this past July Fourth had more fireworks complaints than ever, and the City Council is considering banning personal fireworks entirely. Brad Collins said:
“I think that they've gotten so bad that we should take the step to eliminate fireworks in the city.”
Lee Whetham said:
“I'd be interested in further exploring a reduction, or elimination, of fireworks by city residents.”
A Port Angeles resident said:
“This was the worst year I've ever seen in my neighborhood, absolutely the worst...I think there are other ways that we could be celebrating the Fourth of July without this amount of violence. The noise levels are just too high, too much, too long.”
“I think that they've gotten so bad that we should take the step to eliminate fireworks in the city.”
Lee Whetham said:
“I'd be interested in further exploring a reduction, or elimination, of fireworks by city residents.”
A Port Angeles resident said:
“This was the worst year I've ever seen in my neighborhood, absolutely the worst...I think there are other ways that we could be celebrating the Fourth of July without this amount of violence. The noise levels are just too high, too much, too long.”
posted by Tom Harper at 10:45 AM
9 Comments:
I remember block parties when I was a kid when the neighborhood would gather in the streets and light off their fireworks. It was a lot of fun. There was no "violence" there, I think that lady's got the wrong idea about things. It was just a good time for the kids and the adults.
I'm a little skeptical about banning ALL fireworks except for the state approved half hour show. Seems like that would take a lot of the fun out of Fourth of July. But I'm in a minority here. Even my extremely pro-gun, anti-government acquaintances want to ban personal fireworks. So, whatever. Ban away! Instead maybe we can all just sit indoors and watch computer generated fireworks on our HDTVs until that's ruled "too violent" too.
I'm all for banning them in the whole county.
Makes me think of so many situations where the actions of a few, ruin everything for everyone else.
Of all the people that blew off fireworks on the 4th, how many really did so in a "bad" way? But now we hear calls for laws to control them.
Of all the plumbers, mechanics, lawyers, doctors, teachers, etc out there doing their jobs everyday, how many really are "bad"? But we all hear how bad lawyers, etc are.
We hear how "government" is bad, corrupt, and made up of crooks. Distrust of "government" is rampant. We find examples to support this view, but we don't spend too much time talking about the majority of government people who do their jobs without controversy.
We hear of fathers, mothers and children who do all kinds of "bad" things. Do we think all people are "bad", as a result?
Is it possible to acknowledge that "bad" things happen, without seeing it as a reason to impose actions on everyone?
4th of July evening on the spit produces more pollution than the mill does in a year, those things have all kinds of nasty shit in them that is hard on the environment.
2:51 - You are comparing dangerous non-essential things, with normal, non-dangerous, essential careers.
When a bottle rocket imbeds in one's eye, that's bad. Not "bad". You are an idiot.
BBC, I agree, they should be banned. But what will happen to all those "unemployed" seven year olds in Bolivia? That's a "bad" thing! They will "lose" their "jobs"!
There is a doctor in southern Bolivia that specializes in lessening the pain of those "miniature people" with "tiny little crispy lungs" that have been exposed to too much gunpowder and coloring agents found in sparklers bound for the "US market". He's going to "lose" his "job" too! Sad!
Next five, ten years, fireworks sales are only going to go up with all this teaparty bs in rural America. Thank God we still have a liberal and a "fake" liberal on our council, ha ha.
@5:30 PM
When a car smears a pedestrian, that is "bad", but we don't talk about banning cars, do we? Does it matter more or less that the driver or pedestrian were not doing anything "essential"?
When a nurse mixes up the medicines, and people die. According to CNN: "Medical errors kill more than a quarter million people every year in the United States and injure millions." (For comparison "Number of serious injuries in the US each year by fireworks, 9,300.")
Do we talk of closing hospitals, stopping dispensing medicines, or getting rid of doctors and nurses?
Or, perhaps you are differentiating between fireworks because you think people INTEND on harming others when they set them off?
Oh. You said "non essential". Different from, say, drunk kids cruising after a night of partying? ("Teen alcohol use kills about 4,700 people each year.. Almost every 90 seconds, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash." MADD)
Cars can only be used for "essential" uses, what ever those are, right?
Like spouses beating each other up? ("Anywhere from 1-3
million women are battered each year by their intimate partner.)
Better outlaw marriage, people living together, or any other "non essential" human relationships, right?
Personally, I think sidewalk fireworks are lame, and a stupid thing to waste time and money on. That wasn't my point. My point is that, at some point, we as a society might try to *think*, instead of just *react* to the sensationalist bs being put out by the media.
Yeah, "if it bleeds, it leads" has been the hallmark of American so-called journalism for a long time. Sells ad space real good!
Can we do more than just react so predictably? Is regulation the only response to any "bad" thing that happens?
I'm not holding my breath.
That won't work. Ban fireworks in the city and there will be a flood of people to the outlying areas to shoot them off. Gales addition to Wal-mart will be crowded with people who don't even live there. They will just be there because it's legal to shoot fireworks there instead of a few blocks over. The city AND the county will have to ban fireworks.
why don't we just enforce the laws we already have? It isn't that difficult to figure out who's setting off fireworks after the 11pm curfew. Too bad the cops are too lazy to do it.
good reddens
Post a Comment
<< Home