To the editor:

This letter concerns the fireworks ban. If the occasion were to be celebrated with courtesy and in the true spirit of patriotism, I would not support a ban.

As a child, I used to hate hearing an adult start a conversation with “Back when I was young :” but here goes.

Back when I was young, we did not leave piles of debris littering the streets after our celebration. We did not want the trash ending up in the river. Every year, it seems that the mounds of debris are larger.

We did not shoot off fireworks so powerful they could shake someone’s walls across the street.

We did not shoot off fireworks after 10 p.m. or after Independence Day (remember folks, that what is being celebrated).

A recent letter-writer was right. Inconsiderate, immature, and thoughtless people have ruined it for everyone else.

Perhaps a compromise could be reached, allowing the blitzkrieg to go on for one day, our actual Independence Day. There would be less pollution, possibly smaller piles of debris, nonhuman and human animals would be terrorized only one day, threats of fires would occur for only 24 hours.

I shot off fireworks when I was a kid and had lots of fun. But that was another time. My, how times and people have changed. What a shame!

Kathy Schott Gates,

Lawrence