Photo by Kristian Løvstad on Unsplash
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper recalls the 4th of July when, as a Trib columnist, he wrote that fireworks had a downside and were maybe not the greatest symbol of independence celebrating. Chicago readers reacted predictably with nasty letters to the editor demanding that the keeper be run out of town, or at the very least strapped to a rocket and shot toward the moon.
The subject seems worth revisiting as the stats from last year show that 18 people were killed and 15,600 injured in fireworks incidents. The keeper and his young family were at Elver Park the night many years ago when a professional fireworks operator was killed, leaving the crowd to wonder why the rocket display stopped so suddenly.
Nothing is going to change, of course, and the keeper should probably get with the fireworks program of “Ohs” and “Ahs,” and stop being such an old fuddy-duddy. Either that or crawl under the bed with the rest of the old gun-shy dogs who tremble in fear until the last BOOM echoes across the landscape.
