It Smells Like Independence Day

Ahh, yes. The smell of fireworks will soon be in the air. Dia Del Diablo in Guatemala is worse, but still, you have to admit there’s a distinctive aroma to fireworks and punks.

Or maybe I should say that punks with fireworks stink. Seriously, irrisponsible use of fireworks have made bottle rockets and firecrackers get a bad name. Prevent Blindness America and many eye doctors support the ban of consumer fireworks.

I grew up in Wyoming and day dreamed about fireworks as soon as the snow melted. I spend weeks in preparation for the 4th of July. Army men needed firecrackers strapped to them. Paper air planes needed bottle-rockets taped to them. Log cabins made of Popsicle sticks needed an M-80 placed inside them. Christmas wrapping paper needed to be thrown away so I could use the cardboard tube to make a bottle-rocket launcher.

Yup, I was the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s worst nightmare.

But I’m much older and wiser now. More to the point, I live in a state that outlaws bottle rockets and firecrackers, and I won’t do anything illegal because I don’t want my gun rights taken away.

So this 4th of July, make it a safe and sane holiday. Instead of whining to the government to outlaw consumer fireworks, lets sell stylish protective eyewear for everyone to wear in case they get caught as the innocent bystander to an errant firework.

And by the way, Prevent Blindness America, give me a break about that girl who lost her eye sight do to a firecracker getting tossed into a crowd. If you toss a pocket knife into a crowd you could poke an eye out, but no one is trying to outlaw pocket knives. Charge the perps- don’t take away my rights.

See another optoblog entry about fireworks.