Love thy neighbor? That's tough.

I love Independence Day with Pride and knowing I am privileged to be an American. I love BBQs and Parades, and a few fireworks. As a kid I loved to hold sparklers till I'd almost burn myself. Our neighbor, the Sargent used to have every kind of firework made; there weren't many public displays available. All the families gathered together, there were lots of kids. We watched and ooed and awwed together. A few years ago a neighbor's house burned, to the ground, started by an errant bottle rocket.

My neighbors now are gathered DIRECTLY in front of my house, not any kids mind you, the adults; and have been shooting fireworks for hours. It wasn't even close to dark. We live on a cul-de-sac, they are clearly inebriated and #$*^# thinking this is OK. These are illegal fireworks with the sort of capabilities that rival the impressive displays over Lake Union. The smell of "explosives" hangs in the air. Geesh, is this a war zone?

The "littles" are trying to sleep and Niky is sooooo restless. As I listen to explosions, shrieks, and whooshes with the associated drunken revelry produced by these genius neighbors hell bent on destruction, I wonder how many hundreds of dollars were spent to produce such a sustained artillery campaign.

Some of these explosions were so loud that they reverberated throughout the neighborhood 4-5 seconds after detonation, and the rockets the lunatics fired reached a hundred feet or more.

Several in the arsenal misfired and landed in another neighbors yard, they have an 18 month old. What if this darling little girl or any other kid were just sitting in their yard and an errant rocket hit them? The young couple came out and there was almost an altercation.

I suppose my only recourse is to take the "littles" over to play beneath their windows, in the morning, at 6:30 when they wake. Would this be payback? Perhaps if they are grouchy from lack of sleep, besides experiencing that "BOOM" enough times that diapers disappeared right and left, I can achieve a level of noise at a bleary-eyed 6:30 am to remind these folks about neighborliness.

Ultimately, I think Independence Day, the reason for, has been abandoned and has given way to an excuse for adults to drink and act like teenagers. Odd, isn't it, how easily that can happen to an adult here in America.

But then, we have a president...