Since 1960 the number of laws designed to “protect us from ourselves” has multiplied massively, including laws on evil fireworks.
Way back in the 1950s we all played with fireworks. Sparklers. Cherry bombs. Silver salutes. Lady fingers. We had sprayers and flashers. We had streamers and shooters, spinners and pin wheels. We even had those that went fizz-whizz-shooz-BANG. And Roman candle wars. They were fun.
And, yep, we got burned. Had some ‘crackers explode in our hands and suffered split fingers from our stupidity or carelessness. Burned down a shed or two and spent lots of time paying for and replacing the fruits of our negligence and lack of wisdom; Dad made sure we did! Maybe we even learned something.
Back then we were exposed to many evils that government now tries to protect us from:
Mom cut chicken, eggs and vegetables with the same knife . . . then used it to spread Mayonnaise on sandwiches . . . on the same old wood cutting board.
She defrosted hamburger on the counter; and sometimes my brother ate it raw.
We carried sandwiches, wrapped in plain wax paper, to school in a brown paper bag. No coolers; No e coli either.
We swam in frog ponds instead of a pristine, government-inspected pool.
We took gym classes, and played dangerous games like dodgeball. We got hurt, but survived, and nobody ever failed gym.
How did we survive before the government got so involved in our lives?
The new, less-regulated laws are a positive step in the right direction back toward personal responsibility.
Now, people will (or should) be held honestly accountable for what and how they use the high-flying fireworks.
Hopefully we’ll soon convince lawmakers to let us have: firecrackers, M-80s, cherry bombs, bottle rockets, Roman candles, mortars, and ground salutes to celebrate our patriotic holidays.
These are less dangerous than intrusive government regulation.
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