Breaking the Law to Celebrate It

by Tony Chavira

There’s no way you could have missed, last (Friday and) Saturday evening at about 9 pm, the Los Angeles skyline set ablaze with colorful firework displays of various sizes and scopes. A foreigner flying over the city might have presumed we were at war, as the explosions were unrelenting and sound waves echoed from one corner of the county to the other.

Not that I’m complaining. Saturday evening I was standing on a rooftop in Redondo Beach with a 360 degree view of a gunpowder-propelled mega-light show. It was glorious, as it is every year from any high vantage point in Los Angeles ... the glow of lights, the slap of the sonic boom against your chest, the cheesy pro-America vibe (and accompanying music if you attend a public event). What’s not to like?

For a moment let’s forget that, to get those pretty bright colors, fireworks are jam-packed with corrosive, environment-damaging heavy metals like copper, strontium and barium. Let’s ignore that the fuel we used to propel them into the air turns to a compound called perchlorate, which is basically an environmental contaminant. Or that its concentration increases by 1000 times within 14 hours of a 4th of July show.  Or that all of these compounds stay in the ground and water for days and sometimes weeks. Oh, and never mind that these are all health hazards to us and the local wildlife. That stuff will work itself out. Science will do it for us. The military is already on it.

One could easily argue that buying and firing off illegal fireworks has nothing to do with patriotism. That celebratory displays with fireworks are only a vehicle for a group of people with no regard for the law to do whatever destructive act they want, consequences be damned. The LAPD makes it no secret that anything other than a public show is against the law, and these people are shamelessly breaking it. Police crack down on at least one major distributor of illegal fireworks in the Los Angeles area every year, and practically alert the press at each annual event. You’d think that it would deter people—unless there are deeper motivations for having our own firework shows than simply breaking the law.

Moreover, doesn’t it all feel a little contrived, like a show the police put on to prove to everyone that they’re doing a stand-up job? When you look up into the sky on the 4th and notice just how many people were able to get their hands on illegal fireworks, you wonder how much the police really care about enforcing that law. Is it ultimately more important for cops to follow the intention of the law or its specifics? They have worse things to worry about than people wanting to party.

So, yes, one could argue that people are simply mischievous or just want to blow things up, but I think that would only be partially correct. I would argue that, deep in the primordial chasms of the collective human psyche, we seek more than to simply shoot something up into the sky. If that’s all we wanted, we could do it any day of the year. But we save things like this for special occasions like Independence Days, New Years Days, or days spent at Disneyland. It’s a form of celebration that feels half-primal, half-obligatory. Similarly to the existentialist anthem of “appreciating every moment since it’s your last,” bombastic firework displays are something we can stand in awe of, despite understanding completely. We can separate ourselves from the deep sense of malaise from living day-to-day and simply ooh and ahh along with the crowds to our brainless delight.

Let’s not forget, it is a celebration of freedom. Where is the line drawn between caring so deeply about your freedom that you take it to heart and caring so deeply about your country that you follow each law to the letter? Aren’t we in some ways limiting our patriotic expression by not allowing fireworks all over Los Angeles on the only night of the year we can all feel comfortable celebrating the state of being free? What does America mean to us anyway? Is it just a consortium of laws and lawmakers that dictate our destinies, or is it a system developed around the ideal true and uninhibited state of being free? What are we really celebrating here? America the country or freedom the ideal? Ultimately, shouldn’t we be able to display our love for freedom alongside our love for the doctrines of this country? Thomas Jefferson demanded that we rise to overthrow our government every seven years. Why? Because he felt that freedom was more important than government. Except for that time when he was president. He probably wouldn’t have appreciated it so much then.

So for now, let’s compromise. Think only about that sense of patriotic pride you get when you look up into the air, hear a live recording of Neil Diamond belting out “America”, and feel that gush of nationalistic gratification with each fiery burst and slap of artificial thunder. Really, it doesn’t matter that the fireworks were made in China. If you really think about it, it doesn’t matter that much if the show is a public show or something the local neighborhood teenagers put together. As long as no one gets hurt, it doesn’t matter if all the illegal immigrants on your block had their cousins in Mexico ship them crates of fireworks. It doesn’t matter if the white supremacists down the street stole a truckload of fireworks from a warehouse in the desert, if they’re putting on an awesome show. It doesn’t matter if you’re all up to 2 am reenacting the battle of Midway on your drunken uncle’s boat in San Pedro Harbor. Live in the moment and be happy we’re able to fire of anything at all! This is America, dammit! It’s a celebration!

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