— from Steve Henigson —
It’s July fifth. The news is filled with stories of disastrous fires started by errant fireworks.
In one, the people who set off the bottle rocket that caused a serious structure fire continued to set off more of them, right over the heads of the volunteer firefighters who were putting that fire out.
What’s going on? Haven’t most Washington communities banned fireworks? Why are they still going off, and still lighting disastrous fires? Do we need more laws against the private use of fireworks?
Nope. Fireworks aren’t the problem. More laws banning them won’t eliminate, or even reduce, the problems they cause.
The real problem is that too many people living in the United States today have grown up without having been taught the lessons of personal and civic responsibility. Because they lack any sense of responsibility, they won’t obey laws that seek to regulate their behavior. They see themselves as important special cases. They park in Handicap spaces: “It’s only me, and I’m in a hurry.”
These people ignore laws because they’ve been taught that they’re special. Self-esteem has become more important than responsibility, so parents no longer effectively correct their children’s behavior. These kids have never been penalized as consequences of their actions. Therefore laws that restrict the rest of us just don’t apply to them: “It’s only a few fireworks. My kid likes them. I’m careful.”
The worst thing about this attitude of being irresponsibly special is that there is no quick, effective solution to it. We’ve taken two generations, 40 years, of relatively lax parenting to get into this situation. If we start teaching our children personal and social responsibility right now, it’ll take at least two generations, another 40 years, to get out of it.
But, you know, we have to do it anyway. And we have to start right away. If we don’t, we will assuredly face many more disastrous fires every July Fourth, and much, much worse.
Pretty hard, in one breath, to tell your children they can’t have any fireworks to celebrate America and in next breath watch on TV or in person America being celebrated by every city in the country with a fireworks display.
Nothing wrong with fireworks but let the professionals do their jobs and let your children watch and enjoy without fear of losing an eye, burning down someone’s home, or having to look sideways for horizontal missiles instead of up towards the sky at the beautiful display of patriotic celebration. Its a village of many; not a village of one.
Let’s teach (both adults and their children) what “individualism” and “freedom” truly mean and require if you want to keep both.
Most in America today seem only to focus on “your rights.” Guess what? There’s an equal amount of responsibility that goes with “your rights!”
There’s no freedom without responsibility!
Start teaching that to your children! Or else they grow up no use to anyone or to society. You can rest assured citizens like that had nothing to do with building this country into the Rome of the 20th century, or putting gas in the tank of this country’s engines– the fumes are running low folks and many of your children (and their parents) have no idea how to keep the engines running. Time to grow up! That goes for parents, too.
It is also time to rethink public fireworks displays. Why do we celebrate war…fire and noise (and danger). Isn’t there a better way to celebrate.