ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

Tyler, did you take these photos? they're FANTASTIC!

that said, fireworks don't do much for me on two levels:
1. i've got a mild red-green color vision deficiency (the old, inaccurate term you're probably still used to is "colorblind"), so the very short-lived flashes of colored light don't really register for me as well as they could, meaning that the beauty aspect is diminished. (these photos, however, capture it indefinitely, so i can gaze and take it in!)
2. it's no secret that fireworks are representative of the mortars and gunfire of war, with explosions reminiscent enough to send some combat veterans far from the celebrations. "but it was the war that won us our freedom!" be that as it may, with every pop and boom i see people dying horrendous deaths. in a world yearning to move beyond war, continuing to celebrate it seems counter-productive and archaic.

i know that a fireworks display is often one of the largest costs incurred in an Independence Day celebration, and as i sit each year is Sarzotti Park after the parade ends, with people approaching to ask why there's no longer the food vendors, Jolly Jumps, and childrens' games that they remember, i start to wonder if there are other ways to celebrate that might meet everyone's needs.

thank you evan for saying what "ain't s'posed" to be said.....

and you didn't even mention the hundreds of injuries and even deaths, many to children, that occur every year from the handling of fireworks....

as well as the effects on animals and wildlife.... it is one thing to be bombarded with loud noises when you have a context and meaning with which to interpret them.... it is quite another when it makes no sense... especially to those whose ears are much more sensitive than ours...

i have tried to persuade myself that i am being hypersensitive about this, but then I heard a news report about dogs tied to trees during the fireworks who choked themselves to death trying to escape the terrifying sounds...

Yes, that is a spectacular photo!

I share the thoughts posted by evan and david.

There was an article in the LA Times yesterday on how
"Along with beauty, fireworks create a beastly mix of pollutants."

In case you missed it, here are excerpts:

...Traces of metals, fuels and other toxics can stay in the air and water for days, even months. Scientists are creating cleaner versions, but they're still not widely used.

When the rockets and the bombs burst in the air tonight, spectators will experience more than a spectacular show celebrating America's birthday.

When their blends of black powder, metals, oxidizers, fuels and other toxic ingredients are ignited, traces wind up in the environment, often spreading long distances and lasting for days, even months.

Although pyrotechnic experts are developing environmentally friendly fireworks, Fourth of July revelers this year will be watching essentially the same high-polluting technology that their grandparents experienced decades ago.

Throughout the Los Angeles region, concentrations of fine particles, or carbon soot, skyrocket for up to 24 hours after the Independence Day shows, reaching levels as high as those from wildfires.

Public health officials warn that people with heart problems or respiratory diseases, such as asthma, should avoid the smoky celebrations, staying upwind or indoors.

"I enjoy a fireworks display as much as anyone else, but we do have concerns about exposure to high levels of smoke and particles," said Jean Ospital, health effects officer for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Also, traces of poisonous metals, which give fireworks their bright colors, and perchlorate, a hormone-altering substance used as an oxidizer, trickle to the ground, contaminating waterways.

One Environmental Protection Agency study found that perchlorate levels in an Oklahoma lake rose 1,000-fold after a fireworks display, and they stayed high in some areas for up to 80 days.

European chemists Georg Steinhauser and Thomas Klapotke wrote in a recent scientific journal that "several poisonous substances are known to be released in the course of a pyrotechnic application" and that they are dispersed over a large area.

"It is clear from a vast array of studies that traditional pyrotechnics are a severe source of pollution," they wrote.

The black powder, or gunpowder, used in most fireworks has an extremely high carbon content; when ignited, it fills the air with fine particles capable of inflaming airways and lodging in lungs.

Every July 4 and 5, the Los Angeles region suffers "generally poor air quality for particulates," said Philip Fine, the AQMD's atmospheric measurements manager.

Particulates can cause coughing, sore throats and burning eyes. For people with asthma or other respiratory or cardiovascular conditions, the effects are much worse. Hospital admissions and deaths from asthma, heart attacks and respiratory disease increase whenever particulate levels rise.

In the areas around fireworks displays, particulate levels increase about 100-fold and don't return to normal until around midday on July 5, according to AQMD data.

During a fireworks show in Indio in 2004, particulate measurements peaked at 847 micrograms per cubic meter of air, nearly six times the federal health standard. Particulate readings are averaged over a 24-hour period, so that was not technically a federal violation.

Metals in the air also surge, although they do not exceed state health guidelines. Nonetheless, they build up in waterways and soil.

Ironically, green-colored fireworks are the least "green" because the metal that produces the color, barium, is highly poisonous.

Scientists in India found that airborne barium increased by a factor of 1,000 after a huge fireworks display there. Strontium, which creates red, and copper, which forms a blue hue, can also be toxic.

"The use of heavy metals like barium or strontium should be reduced or, if possible, avoided," said Karina Tarantik, a chemist at the University of Munich in Germany whose lab is working on cleaner pyrotechnics.

Much of the new research has been propelled by concern over perchlorate, which has been used since the 1930s to provide oxygen for pyrotechnic explosions.

Sorry about the length of the above post. I should have put the link!

PS I do enjoy when fireworks look like stars bursting and cosmic other-worldly configurations, like the middle photos (3, 4 & 5)

But it is heartbreaking to think that people would be so cruel and thoughtless as to tie up their dogs near fireworks, and then, on top of that, abandon them!

I weep for those dogs! Horrible!!!

My Queensland was so frightened by fireworks that evey year she would bury herself deep into the clothes closet. From a distance of several miles, my other dogs do not react to the noise at all. Not even the slightest tremble.

oh no! have we started a leftist rant against the fundamentally American institution of fireworks (and war)?

thank you both, david and Suza, for your deeply relevant comments! i too spent time last night comforting a dog - a big, blue-eyed brute - who was frightened enough to break free of his kennel and seek out some sympathetic humans to ease his shaking and whining. apparently we've bred that reaction right out of ourselves. what a shame.

I am against fireworks in this valley for all of the already mentioned reasons. Why, at a time when global warming is wreaking havoc on the planet is the City of Ojai sponsoring something so air, sound and mind polluting as this glorification of war and bombs?
We had to tranquilize our dog last night and stayed inside with him. I know several people who drove their dogs down to Ventura to get away from the booming explosions.

the Obama event last night in Meiners Oaks was fantastic! Jonathan McEuen and the other amazing musicians (sorry to not remember their names)were awesome. Thank you!

what is this firework thing anyway? We know it replicates
the "bombs bursting in air" and commemorates our move to
independence but haven't we as a nation grown beyond this type of symbol worship? It pollutes our air and our ears,
glorifies violent conflict, and helps to perpetuate the
man/gun/power myth. It needs to be ok to question these
old customs, whether they be 227 years old or 2027 years old.
If one of our founding "fathers" could see into the future
would he have decided that fireworks weren't such a good idea, just as the founders of the Christian church might
decide that having an image of a man being tortured to death as a logo really isn't such a good idea.

I constantly worry about the fire danger. To add to my misery, every year the neighbor kids would blow something up, usually around midnight, compelling me to be on fire watch. This year I told myself I would just call Ojai's finest if they decided to light up the skies. But they behaved...and another neighbor further down decided to have their own show. I went to sleep.

Wow! I just had a chance to read these latest comments. Good to now there are others who would breathe easier if last night was the last ever Ojai fireworks display.

The valley was already so hazy and smoked up from the Goleta fire. The time has come for public dialogue about fireworks in Ojai, such as what we are having here.

Does anyone have time to compile these comments into an editorial? (Or I might write one down the road when I have time.)

(Let us know if anyone decides to write a Letter or Editorial to the OVN's)

Maybe we should be talking about the Barium and other toxins being sprayed across our sky daily by airplanes. Contrails, airplane lines, vapor trails, call them what you want. Fact is, the government is spraying you with BARIUM on a weekly basis.

Look up in the sky, and chances are, you will see lines. If you are lucky, you will even see black beams sent from the ground going skyward to direct these planes to where the line needs to be put down in the sky. These contain the chemicals necessary to hinder moisture from forming in our atmosphere. It draws any availible moisture around the line and creates clouds when the weather conditions are right. From a clear sunny day, it becomes hazy and a thin layer of cloud cover has formed.

You can watch it on weather satellite imagery, water vapor imagery, and your bare eyes.

Please go here for more, an interesting read...
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=41991

Firework shows should be the least of our worries. It's like telling the parade officials to discontinue the parade after 2008 because of all of the cars and big rigs spewing carbon monoxide at idle speed going down Ojai Ave. for 2 hours. The only way they would be discontinued is if martial law was inflicted and there was a curfew.

Please don't write an editorial to the OVN about this. They already think so little of us and our commie ideas, this would only be playing into their hands. Come on, it's an election year and we really need to get rid of the Republicans. Don't make this election harder than it is already.

Don't worry, I see your point.
However, keep in mind that everything is connected, and there are other groups out there besides us that question this annual event under the present circumstances (fires, global warming, etc.,)

spk, why do you say, "They already think so little of us and our commie ideas..." I think there are many who do respect our thoughtful points of view. Some of the writers for the Ojai Post have been asked by the OVN's and other publications to write on, or be interviewed about, various issues. There is no need to downplay the value our respective views.

This seems like a good time to repeat the words of Margaret Mead:

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

#12, thanks, will check out the link.

There is no reason on earth why Ojai could not have an oil-free-human-powered 4th of July parade. We could show-case cargo bikes, work bikes, around-the-world bikes and all sorts of imaginitive forms of green alternative transportation.

Now there's an idea whose time has come!

On most of the issues we get it correct, but this one is a little to on-the-nose. Most of the right and many of the acquisitor class who call themselves Democrats, probably 60% of the Democratic Party, don't like what we have to say on many many issues. Doesn't matter to them that we are correct.

The whole fireworks thing above is exactly what they would love to exploit to paint us as whack jobs. And most of the electorate would agree. It's like that apocryphal, false story the Republicans and their friends in right-wing talk radio like to tell about the old lady who sued McDonalds because her coffee was too hot and she spilled it and burned her leg. Never happened, but it doesn't mean that the right didn't exploit it to push "tort reform".

As to linking fireworks with global warming, well, that's just a little silly isn't it. China is opening a new coal fired power plant every month. If fireworks could be made so that they were totally carbon neutral, I'm betting the commentors above would still have a problem with them. In fact, the majority of bad feeling about the fireworks seems to stem from their sound. The rest from the bomb symbolism.

As to the fire danger, the city sanctioned fireworks show has very very low fire danger attached to it. It's run by professionals who know their business. The thousands of Bar-B-Cues that happened all day were greater fire hazards, to say nothing of their global warming impact. The illegal fireworks used by people are a fire hazard. But they are illegal already, so they don't really belong in this discussion. The fire danger thing, with regard to the fireworks show, is a canard.

The words of Margaret Mead are indeed inspiring. In fact, it is words like hers and others that keep me slamming my head up against the bulwark of American ignorance. But please don't make the fireworks thing a cause. Strategically, it's a loser.

Personally I liked the cheap high produced by the vintage automobile's exhaust in the 4th of July parade.

I surrender... I wave the white flag...

In answer to evan #1, yes I took the photos, thanks. This conversation sure came full circle, eh? Hope everyone had a nice time with friends and family.

We all have individual voices here, running left to middle to right (not sure who the "commies" are), and knowing the OVN is aware of this, they have no reason to "think so little of us." I trust we can all speak for ourselves, though, without need for a single editorial meant to speak for all of us.

Declaration of Independence from Fireworks

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the public displays of fireworks which have separated them from Nature, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the dissolution.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that fireworks are displays of war, that they are loud and disturbing to all sentient beings, that they are dangerous to those who handle them, especially to children, that they pollute the atmosphere, and that they divert us from our bonds with Mother Earth.

Prudence indeed will dictate that practices long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and all experience hath shown that man- and womankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute displays of War, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such practices.

We, therefore, the Founding Mothers of Peace, appealing to the Supreme Judge for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority, of the good people of this Earth, solemnly publish and declare that this Valley is and of right ought to be Free and Independent of all future public displays of fireworks. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Animals, and our Sacred Honor.

That is very clever -- sure to create a Big Bang!

here's some advice from an oldtimer: pick your battles. don't you want to take on a cause that has some remote chance of gaining acceptance, of finding a like-minded constituency? try these instead, for example.

first, motherhood. check out the website facingthefuture.org or any other of many educating us as to the environmental and social impacts of overpopulation. it's the basic, underlying problem causing global warming and everything else. if there were just a few of us around and we used gunpowder solely as its chinese inventors reportedly did, for fireworks, big deal, right? especially if it was just once a year.

second, apple pie. do you know how many people have been poisoned by cyanide? the nazis called it zyklon-b. apple seeds contain hydrogen cyanide, a deadly poison with an almond taste, thus making apple pie the mafia's dessert of choice for offing someone. but who knows how much could occur naturally in an innocent slice? think of the irony of getting it straight from mom's oven.

i could go on but i think i've made my point.

A Veteran's Letter to the Santa Barbara News-Press:

Dear Editor,

Criticism of the Mayor for having fireworks on the 4th seems unfair. Last year, in response to one veteran's appeal to end the fireworks, Mayor Blum and the city council took some of the percussives out of the display. This veteran was a victim of a rocket attack and has Traumatic Brain Injury, the signature disabling condition of the Iraq veterans. Like many other veterans he suffers from the loud percussives and is unable to celebrate the 4th with his family. Last year's attempts to be sensitive on the 4th generated a lot of criticism of the Mayor's actions in letters to your paper. It happens to be my opinion that the 4th is not about fireworks but about holding oppressors and misleaders accountable and that we might be better served to have a day of contemplation of the Declaration of Independence and the degree to which our federal government serves the people. Lets direct criticism where it belongs! Where are the California Guard troops and equipment needed to fight the Gap Fire? In Iraq, along with most of your tax dollars and many of your sons and daughters!

Lane Anderson, USN 1966-1970, Vietnam Service 1967 and 1968

From the Archive
Op-Classic, 1990: Pyrotechnics? Such a Bore

Every week, the Opinion section presents an essay from The Times's archive by a columnist or contributor that we hope sheds light on current news or provides a window on the past.

In 1990, the columnist Russell Baker wrote that he was now old enough to admit that he found fireworks displays an exercise in tedium.

July 4, 1990

Observer: Hold the Fireworks

By RUSSELL BAKER
KENNERSVILLE, N.C.

The biggest fireworks display I ever saw contained a gigantic portrait of Lyndon Johnson's face. It was at the close of the Democratic National Convention that nominated Johnson for President in Atlantic City during the summer of 1964.

How long the display lasted I cannot say, for I was never a fireworks enthusiast, so hardly glanced at the thing except for the brief moment when L.B.J.'s face lit up half the Atlantic Ocean.

It was a remarkable spectacle, vast as all Texas, but no fireworks portraitist could possibly capture the essence of Johnson's thousand faces no matter how many Roman candles he threw onto the night sky's canvas.

At the time I was among several dozen people partying in a huge room atop one of the old Atlantic City hotels. It was an interesting crowd, including a rich variety of politicians of great cynicism, hence of great conversational and entertainment possibilities.

When the fireworks began, however, they all pressed up to the windows to goggle at this kiddie show, many of them even forgetting to bring their whisky. There most of them stayed until the last siss-boom-bah, pow-pow, and shower of red, white and blue.

My indifference to fireworks dates from childhood, and it troubles me. A person should get excited about fireworks, should really feel something delicious and delightful, shouldn't he, when the sky begins to explode in brilliant colors?

It is one of those things that seem indispensable to being a fully accredited man in America: love of dogs, admiration for professional jocks, thirst for beer, passion for pickup trucks. Fireworks.

Well, women seem fascinated by fireworks too. Or do they just fake it? I know I used to fake it when, at the seashore on the Fourth, everybody had to go down to the beach, spread blankets on the sand and sit there in the foggy blackness while the fire department blasted away.

At first it was small fun, with the whoosh of the launching followed by the spray of many colors, everybody saying, ''Aah!'' and ''Aaah!'' and ''Aaaah!'' and then the bomb-like roar.

Then fussy reason took control. ''Isn't it nuts to enjoy the illusion of being bombed?'' ''It's cold and damp on this sand.'' ''How many thousands of these things to go before we can go home?''

On the last of those beach bombardments I attended, we took a 3-year-old girl. She was terrified from the first blast. I clasped her in my arms and, after the third explosion, with hundreds more no doubt to go, I declared that common humanity demanded we get the child off that beach without further delay.

We left at once. At the house the distant thunder could be heard plunking away tediously through two tall rum drinks. I have had a special love for that sweet child ever since, though her mother tells me she has now become brave about fireworks. I could be only slightly more depressed to learn she had taken to beer, dogs and drivers of pickup trucks.

For a long time I was afraid to admit that fireworks bored me. It seemed too intellectual, too snobby. ''Oh ho! So good old American fireworks aren't entertaining enough for Mr. Egghead on the Fourth of July, eh?''

Maybe what accounted for my long reluctance to discuss my fireworks problem was a childhood memory that people who gave you the old ''Mr. Egghead'' line often finished by punching your nose.

In any case it wasn't until the Statue of Liberty centennial show in New York that I felt physically secure enough to come right out and say, no, I wasn't going to watch the famous fireworks exhibition in the harbor, and in fact the whole celebration seemed such a gross and tedious piece of media hype that I planned to leave town until it was over.

The reason I felt physically secure enough to say this was that age had by then rendered me immune from assault by any but New York's shabbiest louts, whom, as a veteran New Yorker, I was highly skilled in avoiding.

Dr. Freud's disciples could probably find an amusing explanation for my indifference to fireworks. I have only dull guesses. One is based on an early childhood memory of abject terror as a grown-up lit a Roman candle I was compelled to aim at an innocent sky.

The other is based on memory of a fifth-grade friend who played baseball with us until one Fourth of July night when he picked up something left over from the town's official display and lost the four fingers of his glove hand.

Last Fourth of July I watched the Washington fireworks on TV. It was even duller than being there.

Dear evan austin, david, spk, Meiners Oaky, plume d'argent, Lisa Snider, Founding Mothers, old ojai coot, shangrilalife, columnist Russell Baker and all you anonymouses, I sure appreciate reading all these different inter connected views on fireworks!

old ojai coot, i hear what you are saying re "pick your battles." Am acutely aware that we have only so much time and energy on the Earth Plane ...what pushed me over the edge was reading about how some dogs tied to trees during the fireworks choked themselves to death trying to escape the sounds...and the letter evan posted above about the veterans response to fireworks, gives me pause.