Up in smoke
When lawyer Francis Scott Key, then moonlighting as a lyricist, wrote "The Star Spangled Banner", from the deck of a ship, surely he was inspired by sights and sounds of a new America's revolutionary struggle. The "red glare" of rockets and the bombs bursting in the air right before his eyes must have been compelling sights indeed.
War has an ineffable character that somehow takes hold of the psyches of those who were (and are) subjected to battle. Despite the horror of war, the celebration of it is a revered custom, demonstrated in yearly memorials by most Americans. War is not pretty to look at. Nevertheless, for some just singing or playing "The Star Spangled Banner" is enough to conjure up images of fallen comrades in arms, past or present. I do not seek to defame the fallen, or the causes they gave their lives for.
Even most of America's very small children are encouraged to participate in and enjoy fourth of July celebrations, all across the nation — most especially so when such celebrations are held in cities that pay millions for pyrotechnic (fireworks) displays. A large number of the young people at such urban gatherings are often from rural and suburban communities. It should be noted that their parents discourage their presence in these cities the other 364 days out of the year.
I have no problem with the celebrations, but the fireworks certainly do bother me. The people most likely to be crippled or killed by inexperienced, legal or illegal use of fireworks are those under the age of 17. Moreoever, even factories run by pyrotechnics experts have been accidentally blown up, killing several at the explosion scene. Let's face facts here: black powder is made to blow up. A ton of black powder is needed to pull off even a little one of the so called "pyrotechnic light shows". Sooner or later, at one of these gatherings, there is going to be a catastrophe that will defy description.
Cities like New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Denver — to name but a few — cough up millions of tax dollars to pay for these yearly displays. These
cities are themselves in dire need of internal structural repair. Sink holes, which can kill, along with bad sewers, bridges and roadways would be much better things to spend the millions on.
It costs very little to sing or play "The Star Spangled Banner", and wave the flag without expensive and dangerous fireworks on display. I wonder what the men, women and children who subsist hungry and homeless on those cities' streets were singing when they looked up into the dark skies of urban America and saw the price of so many meals and shelters blowing up in millions of dollars' worth of smoke.
With all due respect to songwriter Key, I think we can be fairly certain they were not singing "'Tis the star spangled banner! Oh long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He is happy to receive letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G2-51, GD&CC, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]