rockets' red glare
Jul. 5th, 2009 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynIt makes a difference where you "live" online. Yahoo mail's headlines kept touting the North Korean missile launches, but this didn't make the main page of MSNBC (I had to dig for it in world news) or what shows on my iGoogle news tab.
About 8 years ago, I started questioning the wisdom of shooting off fireworks when half the world wanted to kill us.
I also live in a city. Where there really is not a lot of open space. And therefore fireworks are illegal. Not to mention the plethora of gang-related (and other) shootings that are so common that they don't even make the local-only newspapers.
It's hard for me to sit through what sounds like an attack for hours every July 4. It sounds like what it's supposed to emulate, bombs flying through the air and causing structural damage.... because that's what this celebrates--- our ability to fight off entrenched overlords. It makes sense to honor the sacrifices made to recreate America as its own country. By starting over, American law did not need to be backwards-compatible and some of the ridiculous detritus was eliminated, though most of it has edged back in since. But I hate that we have to celebrate it through simulated violence and destruction.
I also think it's a really bad idea to get people inured to the sounds of violence.
I wish the city where I live would have had officers out fining people for illegal fireworks. They could have raised MILLIONS. My neighbors with their hellspawned child would have had to pay thousands in fines... Then they'd trade in their monster for an actual human child.
My head still hurts and my ears are still ringing. So I am grumpy. But I am really thinking I have a list of people the North Koreans could kill first.
About 8 years ago, I started questioning the wisdom of shooting off fireworks when half the world wanted to kill us.
I also live in a city. Where there really is not a lot of open space. And therefore fireworks are illegal. Not to mention the plethora of gang-related (and other) shootings that are so common that they don't even make the local-only newspapers.
It's hard for me to sit through what sounds like an attack for hours every July 4. It sounds like what it's supposed to emulate, bombs flying through the air and causing structural damage.... because that's what this celebrates--- our ability to fight off entrenched overlords. It makes sense to honor the sacrifices made to recreate America as its own country. By starting over, American law did not need to be backwards-compatible and some of the ridiculous detritus was eliminated, though most of it has edged back in since. But I hate that we have to celebrate it through simulated violence and destruction.
I also think it's a really bad idea to get people inured to the sounds of violence.
I wish the city where I live would have had officers out fining people for illegal fireworks. They could have raised MILLIONS. My neighbors with their hellspawned child would have had to pay thousands in fines... Then they'd trade in their monster for an actual human child.
My head still hurts and my ears are still ringing. So I am grumpy. But I am really thinking I have a list of people the North Koreans could kill first.
