View Full Version : A Resolute Independence Day 7/4/2020
dado potato
7-3-20, 4:29pm
Fireworks and parades are not so evident this year, because of COVID-19.
I don't mind giving the fireworks a rest, because I understand that the percussion can be quite harmful to the hearing of loons. It makes me sad to think I can enjoy the call of a loon, and yet 4th of July fireworks have made it impossible for some of the loons to hear each other.
I see that on Youtube there are a wide variety of people reading the Declaration of Independence. My own favorite is President John F. Kennedy, recorded while he was Senator from Massachusetts.
10:30 "... our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
If only... trump is spending LARGE dollars....
https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/trump-readies-fiery-speech-for-mount-rushmore-july-fourth/article_03c193cb-018d-56d1-8e6e-8e07c8ced3d0.html
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Trump-s-DC-July-4th-fireworks-and-face-masks-15379734.php
I love the 5th Dimension version of The Declaration of Independence....
iris lilies
7-3-20, 8:30pm
Giving fireworks a rest?
Sorry, OP, that is just a joke around these parts. Fireworks sales have been through the roof, and we’ve had to put up with loud pops, bangs, explosions, and soundS like gunshots throughout the month of June. It’s hard to know in our urban core if it’s a gunshot or fireworks. The fireworks go off beginning about noon and continue throughout the day until about 3 o’clock in the morning.
Everyone’s dogs are terrified, they are wrecks. People who have to sleep at night because they have jobs are tired, so very tired. Nextdoor is full of threads complaining about it and then others calling them Karens because civil life Can no longer be an expectation here. It’s a damn joke.
interestingly enough, there is a subculture of belief that the endless fireworks here and across the country are being carried out by anti-fa types or Police operatives. This program of fireworks serves to terrorize the black populace and get them accustomed to explosive noises so that when government goons start shooting, they will be acclimated to the noise.
I am not making this up, It is discussed on Nextdoor around here. This Atlantic article talks about it, excerpt:
My neighbors and I believe that this is part of a coordinated attack on Black and Brown communities by government forces,” the novelist Robert Jones Jr. tweeted to his modest Twitter following of about 58,000 people in a since-deleted thread. Jones hypothesized that the fireworks are meant to cause sleep deprivation, leading to tension and confusion in neighborhoods that have been protesting police brutality. They could also be a desensitization tactic, he wrote, to get the population used to incredibly loud noises. “It’s meant to sound like a war zone because a war zone is what it’s about to become,” he said.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/06/firework-summer-2020-conspiracy-theory-police/613450/
dado potato
7-4-20, 8:17am
Promptly at 7 this morning a neighbor set off a few really loud charges.
So, while public fireworks displays had been cancelled here (like many other cities and towns), volunteers are spending their own money, and getting a bang out of it.
Now that window panes have been rattled already this morning, I think I will start a chore using an electric sander on my deck. (Normally I would not make noise before 9.)
My favorite holiday (and my dog’s least favorite). You can keep your 1619 poppycock and ridiculous conspiracy theories, I’m sticking with the Spirit of ‘76. I’m keeping to the traditional “guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations.” I think we’re living in a great ongoing experiment, and I don’t care who knows it.
Here in our little Third Coast city, we are carrying on with our public display; although there is also a strong DIY fireworks culture.
I am not making this up, It is discussed on Nextdoor around here.
Nextdoor is a horrible creation. Not that Facebook neighborhood groups are much better (well, some are more moderated than others and, thus, more civil). But Nextdoor attracts the Gladys Kravitzes of the world like a bright light attracts moths.
To keep it on-topic, ordnance in this neighborhood hasn't yet approached the levels it had when I first moved in, when the Fourth resembled Beirut by night. But somebody seemed to have blown up most of a week's paycheck last night. Can't wait for tonight's show. I'm glad the dog is no longer around for this.
We must have a very old or incredibly tired neighborhood. Have only heard one loud firecracker so far. Yet we are an urban right downtown neighborhood. Knock on wood.
Other than two men (who post a lot of politics and like to name call and threaten people), I like our Nextdoor for getting the word out on what is going on. Learned about a break in on the next block, what our YMCA has for a new class, when our neighborhood meeting is, etc. Mostly what is going on around us since our newspaper/local tv is more about sensational headlines and not news.
happystuff
7-4-20, 10:44am
They just started allowing sales of and use of fireworks in our state. Used to be people crossed the state line to buy what they wanted and set them off, hoping no one would call the police. Now - we've had the mix of folks setting them off and other folks calling the police; sometimes the police show up and they stop, other times they do not show up so there is no stopping. It's quite a mix - LOL. I don't mind them as long as nobody burns my house down.
My neighborhood used to sound like a war zone on the Fourth until the city banned fireworks. So now there's just intermittent shelling, and not particularly close by. I don't know if we have loons, but we have a lake that is closer to the fireworks than I am, so I imagine our shorebirds are affected.
Teacher Terry
7-4-20, 12:07pm
We will have a few people set them off tonight and that’s usually it. They are illegal. The casinos cancelled our fireworks but 2 very wealthy people decided to pay for them. Of course it’s a bad idea with gathering groups of people plus the fire danger.
iris lilies
7-4-20, 1:23pm
We will have a few people set them off tonight and that’s usually it. They are illegal. The casinos cancelled our fireworks but 2 very wealthy people decided to pay for them. Of course it’s a bad idea with gathering groups of people plus the fire danger.
Being illegal is of no consequence here.
setting buildings on fire due to fireworks, yeah it happens.
No consequences.
Illegal means nothing here either. As with everything else these days, doing what one wants to do is just fine. Fireworks have been going off since mid June. Our backyard is full of dry pine needles so it worries me.
iris lilies
7-4-20, 1:45pm
Illegal means nothing here either. As with everything else these days, doing what one wants to do is just fine. Fireworks have been going off since mid June. Our backyard is full of dry pine needles so it worries me.
Idiotic fireworks would really worry me seriously about fire if I was out west where you guys are.
Teacher Terry
7-4-20, 1:50pm
If you cause a fire here even if unintentional and are identified you will be getting a very large bill.
iris lilies
7-4-20, 3:04pm
If you cause a fire here even if unintentional and are identified you will be getting a very large bill.
A bill they cant pay, so what’s the point.
Teacher Terry
7-4-20, 3:50pm
They can be charged criminally if negligence and they also can garnish your wages.
iris lilies
7-4-20, 3:59pm
They can be charged criminally if negligence and they also can garnish your wages.
That is true, and certainly that is a consequence that is better than not charging and prosecuting at all.
Our poor dogs hate fireworks so. The one comes and paws at you for reassurance. We have to take them inside and go turn up the tv so they can't hear them.
Tons of fireworks in my affluent suburban Chicago town.
Fireworks are illegal in IL. The IL State Police are known to stop cars coming from IN right at the border to look for fireworks. Tons of fireworks shops in IN just across the border.
iris lilies
7-4-20, 11:20pm
Tons of fireworks in my affluent suburban Chicago town.
Fireworks are illegal in IL. The IL State Police are known to stop cars coming from IN right at the border to look for fireworks. Tons of fireworks shops in IN just across the border.
My state sales fireworks to you all in Illinois and also in Iowa.
ApatheticNoMore
7-5-20, 12:35am
Fireworks have been going off here and there for a month. I actually don't think there are any official shows, we drove up to look down and there were more fireworks than I've seen before on the 4th I think (you know the typical 4th when there are official shows). So we got our show. But yea if people aren't even going to wear masks in a pandemic, one can't expect them not to set off fireworks, even though they are illegal many places. Actually the fireworks are less threat, and if they blow off their hands, well that is their problem, so long as nothing burns down.
Fireworks are illegal in MA, but there were so many going off last night that you would have thought it was not only legal but government-mandated to light off fireworks for the fourth.
Actually it was quieter last night here than it was on the 3rd. Or maybe the activity level was the same but the person who was popping cherry bombs in garbage cans in the next block had run out of powder. Either way, it was easier to deal with here.
The new people across the road put on a pyrotechnic display last night. I had to tranquillize both dogs, their anxiety was so high.
Oh well. At least he didn't set our barn on fire.
My neighbors set off quite a display, and interestingly, they were in the foreground, and in the background across the lake in New York the various city fireworks were also visible from our lawn so we had no shortage of fireworks displays.
Thankfully, my daughter and her fiance had left for home with their two dogs by then.
I was so upset for the dogs, and finally I looked out the window to see if they were exploding their house and it was quite gorgeous, and I thought, all these years you complain about not seeing fireworks, and here the fireworks come to you! So it was really pretty, I just feel their pain and anxiety and wish it would stop.
iris lilies
7-5-20, 9:48am
Fireworks were nonexistent all afternoon yesterday. And then they exploded in the evening when it got dark. And it was actually not bad, I didn’t mind the noise because it was going off all over the city and it was kind of lovely.
Fortunately my foster dog isn’t much bothered by it but I know others are driven crazy.
happystuff
7-5-20, 10:04am
Had several pretty displays right across the street as well. I did enjoy them, but one of the cats spent the night under a bed. LOL. I was quite surprised that all the explosions stopped quite early - by 10pm, I believe. Nothing appears to have burned down, so - all in all- it was nice.
Apparently frustrated by the lack of city-sponsored fireworks on the lake, neighbors set off their own sustained volley. It lasted about an hour longer than the original. I felt for the wildlife, but as far as I can tell, they didn't set anything on fire, so there's that.
Around here I think people made up for not having organized public displays by having backyard fireworks. The noise was unprecedented in my neighborhood and seemed mostly like loud booms instead of aerial displays, and well into the night. They are illegal. I thought back when I was a kid and coveted assembling a fireworks assortment, so I try to understand, but it's still slightly annoying. A rousing round of the 1812 Overture usually gets me in a Forth of July mood.
It was same here - lots more neighborhood booms that typical. My only worry was that something would burn down. We are in a drought in a desert.
Lots of fireworks going off tonight here.
Idiotic fireworks would really worry me seriously about fire if I was out west where you guys are.
Indeed. Lots of illegal fireworks here. Apparently fire departments all over the area spent all night saturday running around putting out brush fires and a suburban neighborhood south of San Jose had to be evacuated for a bit because one of the fires got out of hand.
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