To the editor:

Mr. Garrett, 4,000 doesn’t even come close to a majority of Lawrence citizens (Public Forum, Saturday), but I’ll admit I’m amazed that that many people are so obsessed with matches and explosives that they can disregard the rights of the woman who told me that she and her husband spent three straight days this past Fourth of July trying to make their young daughter stop crying because she was so afraid of the noise.

That means 4,000 people in this town disregard pet owners who spend three days watching their animals stagger around on tranquilizers, or who can’t get their dogs out into their own back yards because of the noise. Four thousand people disregard veterans who have told at least one city commissioner that fireworks cause them to have flashbacks of their combat experiences. That’s your “American tradition”?

I wonder if that many people don’t care about the 12-year-old boy who is among those causing Pinellas County, Fla., to reconsider its fireworks regulations (St. Petersburg Times, Aug. 5). He was hit in the face by a stray firework that some “fan” was so certain he could safely control. That boy now gets to spend the rest of his life celebrating the “American tradition” in mono-vision, because that explosive put out one of his eyes.

Without a ban, sir, someone in this litigious society will eventually get hurt or lose property by fireworks and sue the city for having permitted them. As a taxpayer, who do you really think will ultimately end up paying that bill?

Is the one city-sponsored fireworks celebration really not enough?

Sue Novak,

Lawrence