It may have been the first time it occurred to me: places like this were secret treasures, not to be given away.
— Ira Wood
Matters of Opinion July 2026: Playing with Fireworks
Ira Wood discovers that you don't have to blow things up to enjoy the Fourth of July
Click on the image to listen to Ira as he reads the column
July 2026 – Why do people drink too much on New Years Eve? Why do they eat way too much on Thanksgiving? And why do we blow things up on the Fourth of July?
What is ritualized excess?
Anthropologists tell us that societies throughout history have encouraged windows of ritualized excess—socially recognized periods when a community temporarily relaxes or inverts its usual rules—and that these periods serve as pressure valves to release the built up stresses of the daily grind, strengthen group bonding, and help us appreciate the norms of day-to-day life by contrasting them with a period when those rules don’t apply.
Who predicted July fireworks?
Two hundred fifty years ago our own John from Braintree (John Adams, that is) prophesied that The Second Day of July 1776, would be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shows, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one end of this Continent to the other.
Sure, he was off by a couple of days but ever since, people have been setting off firecrackers, bottle rockets, Roman candles, sparklers, cherry bombs, screecheroos, and smoke grenades, not to mention many town governments paying big bucks to host pyrotechnic displays so harmful to the environment that they would be regulated by the EPA if the EPA still regulated things.
What are drawbacks to fireworks?
Back when I was a Selectman, we used to have contentious debates about fireworks every year, always centered on the cost, about fifteen thousand dollars for fifteen minutes of colorful orgasmic explosions against the nighttime sky and thousands of dollars more for the police, fire and rescue overtime needed to handle the traffic, parking, and crowds.
In those days we weren’t thinking too much about the ecological harms. But we now admit that the propellants used to launch the fireworks are filled with perchlorates, a toxic pollutant that affects thyroid functions in children and pregnant women…not a great idea when they exploded directly over our town’s oyster farms.
And those pretty colors? They come from exploding heavy metals …aluminum for the brilliant whites, barium nitrates for the glittering greens; arsenic, hexa-chloro-benzene, strontium, and lead dioxide. In fact, the carbon emissions from Fourth of July fireworks have been likened to those produced by forest fires.
What about sparklers?
When I was a kid, I loved sparklers. My dad used to buy them on business trips down south, totally oblivious to fact that they emit dangerous amounts of ozone and barium. Sources say over thirty percent of all fireworks injuries come from sparklers; and over percent of those were injuries to hands and fingers. Sparklers are sort of like giving kids a propane torch to play with.
How do animals respond to fireworks?
Animals are terrified by Fourth of July fireworks. Dogs especially go into states of fear and trembling. Some dog owners I know have a cookout in the backyard and then retreat indoors, turn their media up loud, draw the curtains, close the windows, and blast the AC.
Birds hate fireworks, too. Baby bald eagles have been known to fall right out of the nest. Forbes Magazine writes that: when a fireworks display occurs near a wild bird roost, the birds explode into the night skies in utter panic, smashing their skulls or breaking their necks while flying into trees, fences, billboards, and houses which they cannot see in the gloom and ensuing chaos.
Who else is triggered by fireworks?
Another unsettling fact, from the website MilitarywithPTSD.org, says that fireworks can create a double bind for certain combat veterans, people who are very patriotic but whose traumatic memories can get triggered by loud bursts of color and light.
What is better than fireworks?
Disliking fireworks does not mean I’m a misanthropic party-pooper, a Fourth of July hater, or a lefty subversive dissident. It means I’m a guy who uses this particular window of ritualized excess to drink too much beer, stuff my face with hot dogs, and eat as many potato chips as I please…because you don’t have to blow things up to enjoy the Fourth of July.
I’m Ira Wood…and that’s my opinion.
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Ira Wood hosts The Lowdown, a weekly interview program on WOMR-FM featuring authors, politicians, artists, and scientists, as well as cops, addicts, and fishermen. His guests have included the famous, the infamous, and the eccentric, as well as dedicated men and women who work to make the Cape and the world a better place. He served four terms on the Wellfleet Board of Selectmen.
