fourth of july gives war a magical feeling.

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fourth of july gives war a magical feeling.

Submitted by contron on Wed, 07/05/2006 - 11:39am.

i didn't experience fireworks everywhere in everyone's hands where i grew up, when last night came around i found it so eerie after dark. all of a sudden olympia became bagdad on invasion night but instead of being terrified or hiding in my house holding onto my partner, i was riding around on my bike and having a pretty good time watching fireworks when my partner said, "Fireworks sound like war and that's why people do them on the fourth of july." It made me shudder thinking about how every unfortunate place on earth goes through firebombings and battles but never here, and how truly priviledged (even in my poverty level working class life) i am. we live in a warlike culture not much different than the Romans and we are taught that power over others is okay throughout our lives.

The night still remained sort of magical. Fireworks are still awesome. It's just something we thought about

4 days too late, but I just

Submitted by kiki on Fri, 07/07/2006 - 10:18pm.

4 days too late, but I just saw this. I had the exact same thoughts while walking around watching the fireworks on the 4th of july. It's something I've thought of every fourth of July since the third grade, after the Persian Gulf War. It always brings to mind that eerie green footage of bombs falling that is etched on my brain forever. I think "what if those were bombs falling?" but it still seems so far away from my reality, I can't really place myself in that situation, I am very priviledged in that sense. I always think of it though. I never stopped and wondered if that was the intention of fireworks on the 4th.

It brings up really mixed emotions in me, I've been thinking about it all this week. There is the eerie feeling when the realities about the destruction of war are brought to mind, but I still feel the tingle of childhood wonder at seeing the fireworks. The fact that the wonder can still remain is a huge priviledge I don't want to forget.

Strange interaction

Submitted by Norm on Sat, 07/08/2006 - 4:28am.

I was walking with some folks and I actually had one say, "Yeah, my husband took our daughter to the grandparents house. He kept thinking, God I hope they don't have a little flag for her to wave in the parade." Well they did, and he bit his tongue. I asked why, and she went on about how bad our country is and we shouldn't be celebrating anything.

Now, I don't agree with everything our country does, I don't think there was a time ( maybe WW2 ) when everyone agreed with what the country was doing. Is it really such a bad place though that we can't celebrate it's birth??? I don't like everything our government does, or what our people do, but I am SO thankful that I had a chance in life, an opportunity to go to school, spent time with my family instead of being hauled off to fight a tribal war at 13. I am not a huge firework fan, I've seen too many folks burned badly from drinking and lighting. I don't want to take away anyone elses fun, I'll watch, but I just don't play with fire anymore in my life ( hence the disgust for arsonists ), but I still celebrate the 4th because I do love my country....even when it's acting like a hormonal teenager.

I've never correlated fireworks with the sounds of war, of course I do a lot of shooting so I tend to be used to booms and cracks. When I was younger though, we frequently spent time building and repairing barn rooves, putting up new walls, etc. and everytime we started putting in nails, I thought of gunshots.

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