Letters to the Editor

Independence Day 2024 in Shelton

Editor, the Journal,

Pyrotechnics have become quite prevalent in my home town. The day’s first explosion was heard at 0535 hours. Then occasional detonations until evening when the frequency increased, then nightfall and the explosions were unceasing. Yes, few lulls, they served as a suggestion and a hopeful but unrewarded tease. There was nolet up until midnight when the detonations became less frequent and then toward dawn, then ceased for the day just after sunrise.

Do I need to repeat the “why not to do this” explanations? Nope. 

A few questions and one particular observation.

1) What’s the point of nonprofessional fireworks, besides the profit incentive for manufacturers and sellers?

2) What is the connection to claimed patriotism?

3) Are proponents of noncommercial pyrotechnics oblivious to the obvious; that enjoyment of the booms is a compulsory experience for those who would prefer no exposure to the noise?

I imagine the same mentality that plays recorded music too loud at home, in the city/state/national parks and at campgrounds is possessed by those who buy and explode consumer fireworks; heedless of the invasive noise that other people experience undesired through no effort of their own. 

Observed: There’s no artistry in

consumer-grade fireworks detonations. No timing, no script, no poetry. Why not? Any bonehead can take a match to a fuse. Light it, boom! Light it, screech! Light it, zoom and twinkle! Taking the time to present a spectacle might enhance the experience for the detonator and for the audience, however unwilling they may be. And of course, that would mandate a beginning, a midway, then a finale and a conclusion. That would be the best part for many. A known end. “The booms are over for the night, if not for the year.”  

Nonhuman animals, both domestic and wild, are excluded from the previous suggestion. I cannot imagine any sentient nonhumans thinking “how cool is that!”

Arthur Rohlick, Shelton