When I was a little child, my dad would light a sparkler for me every night. He said he thought it would give me good dreams.
So now I buy them on July 4 at fireworks stands and try to light them throughout the year, when I can, for kids.
The ones that I was running out of were in a monochrome packaging and the new ones that I got tonight are all American USA flagly.
Wade Frazier in his most recent commentary reminds us of Albert Einstein's quote that "Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind” — which I see even infects the play things of childhood as well.
I cannot bear the sound of fireworks. How hidebound can Americans be when Palestinians in tents are being hit with US made bombs while we celebrate? Liberty and justice for all is the antithesis of ethnic superiority/Israel. The US is the hypocrite of the world. With every boom, think of it killing or maiming people, bringing down buildings. 250 years to arrive in the sewer with Israel. No joy for me, nothing to celebrate. The flag I use while demonstrating, and that includes at the parade in town today, is upside down for a reason.
Here's a fun thing: The characterization of the disease, measles, by one of the longest serving heads of the CDC, David Sencer ( his name is on the illuminated sign outside CDC headquarters right now) and his co-authors. Ironically, this was the opening of their published bid to *eradicate* measles in 1967: "FOR CENTURIES the measles virus has maintained a remarkably stable ecological relationship with man. The clinical disease is a characteristic syndrome of notable constancy and only moderate severity. Complications are infrequent, and, with adequate medical care, fatality is rare. Susceptibility to the disease after the waning of maternal immunity is universal; immunity following recovery is solid and lifelong in
duration. "Epidemiological Basis for Measles Eradication by 1967" Sencer, Dull & Langmuir
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1919891/