Fireworks on the Forth are a tradition

from

Steve otto

, Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner

For years Wichita has banned fireworks. The “over-safety crowd” decided they were too dangerous. People set them off for years and when the couldn’t by them legal, they went out of state or out of county.
Bottle Rockets have been illegal for decades in Kansas. But many people bring them in from Missouri. Some people make their own fireworks. They may use black or smokeless powder bought from a shop that sells gun loading equipment. Others use match stick heads. These aren’t the best explosives, but they do make a bang.
According to The Wichita Eagle the city could enact a firework ban sometime this week if the drought conditions continue. The fear is justified. It doesn’t take much to start a prairie fire. But people are already buying the fireworks now. Do they really believe no one will light them because of a last minute ban?
Fireworks have been a tradition of Independence Day for the last two centuries. Who is seriously going to try and stop than now?

According to Wikipedea,fireworks were used to celebrate the fourth as early as1777. On that day thirteen gunshotswere fired, once at morning and again as evening fell, on July 4 in Bristol, Rhode Island. Philadelphia celebrated the first anniversary in a manner a modern American would find quite familiar: an official dinner for the Continental Congress, toasts, 13-gun salutes, speeches, prayers, music, parades, troop reviews, and fireworks. Ships were decked with red, white, and blue bunting.