Reservations about Fireworks

 Before articulating my reservations, I want to be clear that I understand that since their invention in Asia, fireworks have been instruments of celebration and joy for centuries. Spectacular aerial color displays evoke oohs and ahs and loud bangs and bottle rockets in back yards thrill amateurs. Warnings about dangerous eye and hand injuries begin to appear right after Christmas and Flag Day. Yet, every year emergency rooms are crowed with accidents. Having had dogs who hid in the bathtub at the first bangs of New Year’s and Fourth of July, I sympathetic to the suggestions to be sensitive to animals in fireworks seasons.

 I am sure I heard The Star Spangled Banner at things like sporting events when I was younger, but my first memory is learning it in junior high orchestra to play at the opening of concerts. As a percussionist, I enjoyed getting the cymbals for the big crashes between phrases. That seemed to express “the bombs bursting in air.” At about thirteen years old, I began to associate the line about rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting with Fourth of July fireworks. Through my adolescence this association grew into some misgivings about what we were celebrating. Was it the joy of independence from Britain or was it bragging on US military power? As my peace ethic formed as a young adult, I became increasingly uncomfortable with fireworks as a celebration of war, but I have no interest in debating my thirteen year old observation about fireworks.

 Though a few freelance fireworks were set off in our neighborhood this year, several of the local official fireworks displays in our area were canceled this year due to wet weather. The dogs, my wife, and I noticed and appreciated a quieter Fourth of July. Which got me thinking again about the significance of the way we celebrate a number of historical events.

 This year I noticed something else for the first time that took my Fourth of July pondering in a parallel but different direction. On social media a number of people posted a variety of messages with the theme of: “Your holiday weekend was brought to you by citizens with guns.” These were clearly positioned as pro-gun rights messages. Though my values do not share that perspective, I believe they are right. Guns, war, and violent force as means of achieving goals and resolving problems have been intrinsic to US history from the founding of the country.

 What made me particularly uncomfortable is the connection between the proliferation of all sorts of firearms in our time (that would have been unimaginable in 1776) with the celebration of US independence from Britain. I cringe at the increasing rhetoric that suggests and even seems to welcome and promote armed resistance toward those whose perspectives and behaviors feel threatening. While I don’t want to debate a compare and contrast between Black Lives Matter and the events of January 6, 2021, violent force figures in those and other current movements.

 As a society we seem to be moving past violence on the margins to advocating violence in the mainstream calling for an armed revolution. As a US citizen, such attitudes and rhetoric cause me to question the future of our country. As one who aspires to follow Jesus on the path of peace and even love for enemies, I am compelled to distinguish myself from the advocacy of violent force. I am not objecting to fireworks or guns per se, but I believe I am discerning a deep moral disease eating away at not only the US but the witness of those of us who bear the name of Jesus.