Editor,

For years, I lamented the “fuddy duddy” crowd that wanted to ruin the Fourth of July and ban neighborhood fireworks. However, after this latest Independence Day, I am forced to join that call to ban them, though not for noise reasons.

This past Fourth, my wife and I were treated to what has become an annual event, the visit by young relatives of area homeowners who allow the kids to spend 2-3 days setting off fireworks, day and night. I enjoyed fireworks when I was younger, so it didn’t really bother me. However, as the kids have gotten bigger, so have their toys.

Normally that wouldn’t be a problem if they were with adults who had at least some modicum of common sense. As this past Fourth shows, however, that is sadly not the case. No, this Fourth, I got to watch as the kids sent one aerial bombardment aloft after another, in swirling winds, over fairly sizeable trees on our property.

Not wanting to bother the police, I turned on a 13-watt porch light to try to encourage the kids to take their explosives further from our home and trees before they burned the place down. This prompted two of them to grab roman candles and begin intentionally firing them into the trees. I could both hear and see them. I pulled out some bright work lights from the garage, set them on the patio, and that got the kids to move their “show” around the other side of the house.

Two days later, I was outside and discovered that one of the mortars they launched landed on one of our cars in our driveway. The impact blast has damaged the windshield, which must now be replaced. I am having to get quotes for our insurance, and my wife and I will have to pay the deductible. As I am disabled and on a limited income, this is no small matter.

Now, after having to involve the sheriff’s department — deputies having contacted the party from where the bombardments were being launched — I have not heard so much as a whisper from the adults of that household.

Sadly, I am left to conclude that as a matter of safety, since the adults don’t have the sense to direct the kids to a safer area, and feel no responsibility for allowing the damage to occur, it’s time.

We have to ban fireworks in the county, other than professional shows, before someone really gets hurt. I can snap a picture of the kids next time they come to visit and send that on to the prosecutor, but I fear that with the level of fireworks available, and the lack of adult supervision, it’s just a matter of time before more serious damage is inflicted on something or someone.

Tom Pacher

Freeland