Yesterday Des Moines City Council met to decide how they plan to enforce their ban on private fireworks. There are many Iowa cities that ban this practice after legislators acted on a State level to make firework celebrations legal.
I am often in Los Angeles, CA on July 4th and it seems that every yard is letting off fireworks there. It is hard to imagine that California is more patriotic than Iowa, but in this regard it would appear that is true.
I have pointed out a number of times that we celebrate our independence on the wrong day. It should in fact be July 2. It was on that day in 1776 that delegates from 12 colonies voted in favor of independence and the motion passed. New York voted in favor on July 9.
John Adams was very excited and wrote to his wife.
“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival…It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
"Illuminations" was the 1776 word for fireworks.
It seems however, that many cities in Iowa do not want Iowans to celebrate "the great anniversary Festival". Nor do they wish us to solemnize it "...with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
But a lot of us simply ignore these local ordinances and follow John Adams' advice anyway. Will you be?
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