Still Sparks of Freedom

Reporting From the Land of the Free [UPDATED With Firearms and Fireworks] | Power Line:

I recall my dad fondly remembering his dad LEGALLY setting off a stick of dynamite to initiate the day of celebrating the birthday of what used to be a proudly FREE COUNTRY with all sorts of LEGAL fireworks.

When I was a kid, scrounging up a few ILLEGAL firecrackers, and yes, in those days M-80s and Cherry Bombs was the only illegal activity that my parents condoned, It was the 60s ... we were still a nation that was willing to take great risk, effort and expense to go to the moon, but letting kids legally shoot off fireworks was beyond the pale nationally -- TOO RISKY! The all powerful State had to step in and limit freedom to "protect us from ourselves".

By the time I was a father, SPARKLERS were illegal in MN ... although the "nutcase", Jessie the Bod, did get those and a few fountains legalized. My most major brush with the law came when 3 police cruisers showed up to shut down our fireworks display ... we did go just a bit overboard, purchasing wholesale in WI.

At this point it looks like the America of 1776 is LONG over ... and it looks grim for the future. BUT ... there are still some bastions of freedom like South Dakota covered in the linked PL post.

Sometimes the actual sparks of fireworks ... legal or illegal, mean more than all the lofty works. Go out and shoot and blow things up! That is at least as much what it means to be American than any lofty words!

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