Who else thinks this about the 4th of July?

The pictures on CBS news of fireworks over Mt Rushmore were cool.

I hear a siren as I type - I hope the trees near me don't catch fire.

Umm..don't know where you;'re from but I'm in Chicago and we never get drunk and do fireworks at the same time. Plus...who said blowing things up isnt fun??? Love the fireworks!

I totally agree with you! I think the meaning of the 4th has been lost... Now its mostly getting drunk and pyros having a Grand old time!

I live in the South, and I didn't open a beer. I went to a church picnic. :)

sometimes it can seem a little redneck but hopefully the people with the fireworks aren't getting drunk. fireworks are really cool even though we are just blowing things up.

The "getting drunk" thing is something that the people who are going to do so -- will do at any occasion at any time and for little or no reason at all -- July 4th just happens to be another of "the occasions" that they can claim a reason for such behavior !! And, fireworks in the hands of the incompetent, stupid, drunk, or extremely young can be a disaster in the wings !! But, when done with thought and care -- they can be a most spectacular event and a delight for most everyone !!! There is nothing necessarily clean or uniquely American about "getting drunk" OR the use of fireworks in celebration of special events !! There is a very unique thing happening of late though -- this year I have been party to three seperate occasions where the documents of the original Founding Fathers were read and discussions of some of the trials and tribulations that these brave individuals went through were discussed !! And, there were things in this that I had never heard before or was aware of at all --- some incredible stuff -- the kind of stuff that makes one think in heavy terms about what all of this July 4th thing is REALLY about !! And, I can say -- of all the various ways that I have celebrated the 4th -- this year it has had a very special and very significant meaning -- up and above ALL the parties and "stuff" of bygone days !!

I just enjoy getting together with friends and family, playing games, sharing stories, having a good time. And being thankful for our men and women in the armed forces who put themselves in harms way for our country so that we CAN celebrate this day. Here is a thought. Read the words to the "Star Spangled Banner": O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Think about the "rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air". Imagine yourself back in 1776, fighting for your freedom against the British, seeing the rockets and bombs, then looking to see that the flag was still standing tall. The creation of fireworks was intended to be a sort of re-enactment, if you will, of that time, and that scene.

Dude,lighten up.