I don’t mean to “rain on your parade” but, reading your recent “Help light the fireworks fuse” editorial lit my fuse of negative feelings I experience once a year over the frenzied emphasis on fireworks in Coeur d’Alene and surrounding areas.

I honor the celebration of America’s independence, however, it’s become less about honor and more about “pyrotechnical appreciation,” as you put it, with a huge focus on making the fireworks display bigger and better through the twisting of arms for more and more money.

The 4th of July has become much less about patrotism and much more about the spectacle we’ve built around it which has devolved in a way that brings out the worst of us — excess in everything — over-the-top fireworks, excessive drinking, loud motorcycles and louder boats, rude behavior, foul language, impossibly crowded streets and beaches, mountains of trash left behind by the very people who enjoy our beauty, and a general disrespect for our surroundings. I wonder what our Founding Fathers would say if they could witness Americans’ disrespectful behavior surrounding this holiday and how they would view the resulting consequences. 

Just take a walk on Tubbs Hill the day after the 4th. I did last year and was horrified at what I saw!  Our beautiful resource trashed with remnants of spent fireworks, garbage strewn everywhere, clothing hanging from trees, dog feces, beer cans, broken glass, food wrappers, trampled and broken flora everywhere. And what about the huge fire risk each time people illegally fire off their pyrotechnics there?! 

And, everyone knows the consequences of loud noises to our domestic animals — every July 4th numerous unsheltered dogs and other animals are frightened beyond their tolerance and run trying to escape it — resulting in hundreds of lost pets.  If they react in this way, have you ever wondered what effect it has on wildlife?! Suddenly their habitats become a war zone of unimaginably bright lights accompanied by intolerable percussion sounds that disrupt their highly sensitive hearing.  

Are we so selfish and arrogant that we have never considered the effect on the environment?  I enjoy fireworks, but it’s gotten way out of hand and, it’s sad witnessing the local Chamber of Commerce, with the full support of the CDA Press, begging for money year after year that aids in attracting all these negative consequences. This is not a competition is it? A more reasonable, scaled-down show would be just as appreciated and we could reserve hitting up business for more worthwhile causes.

In a CDA Press front page article the day before the 4th, a local man admitted that he plans to break the law by using illegal fireworks and was quoted as saying “It’s America.....We like to blow things up.” That pretty much says it all, sadly.

Please — let’s rethink the direction we’ve taken this holiday. We owe it to our beautiful country, brave founders and heroic veterans to honor America in a respectful way.

IRENE SMITH

Coeur d’Alene