Fireworks Ban Excludes Sparklers for Individuals’ Safety

Malaya Tapp enjoyed Fourth of July celebrations with her family as a child in Benton, Arkansas. Among other things, “we would go to parades and see firework shows and hang out with friends,” she recalled doing. “Thanksgiving was always my favourite holiday.”

Since she is now an adult (18 and starting college next year), celebrating the holiday is more complicated.

It all began in 2020, when the Black Lives Matter movement brought widespread inequality to light. “I lost a lot of my patriotic feelings,” she said.

Ms. Tapp, a transplant to Atlanta, has found that many of the holiday’s traditional trappings don’t sit well with her either.

The fireworks have begun. She explained her unease: “Here, there is always something on the news about a shooting or something, and it’s hard to tell the difference between guns and fireworks.” They are harmful to nature as well. They give up a great deal of poisonous gases.

She usually celebrates Thanksgiving with her family, but this year she won’t be celebrating at all since her church youth group’s planned trip to the Navajo Nation in Arizona was cancelled due to a Covid epidemic.

There has been a reevaluation of the Fourth of July celebration by several Americans, particularly the younger generation. According to a YouGov study, 56% of all American people were planning to participate in the celebrations this year.

Of course, there are still many of individuals (including some famous faces) becoming patriotic. The CNN Fourth of July Special features performances from a wide variety of performers, including Demi Lovato, Post Malone, and Sheryl Crow. Independence Day festivities at Coney Island include a live performance by Ja Rule.

The vacation was never her favourite, she realised. She reflected on her childhood: “I remember feeling bad for the animals during the fireworks.”

She also has political concerns with the celebration. She said, “The overturning of Roe v. Wade last summer really made me less inclined to celebrate.”

She would be concerned about the message it communicated even if she wanted to rejoice.

Therefore, she is skipping the United States entirely in favour of Italy and the United Kingdom this year. “I’ll be in London for the actual Fourth,” she laughed. To quote Iron Man himself: “The irony is not lost on me.”

Publicist Allison Bartella, 30, of Brooklyn, is similarly rejecting a holiday she has never really enjoyed.

Ms. Tapp is aware that for some individuals, rejecting the Fourth of July is a novel and challenging experience. Quite a few of the individuals she knows “feel they have to participate in all the events and they have to show their patriotism just to fit in or to not have people get mad at them,” she added. Many people take offence if you declare you don’t want to celebrate the Fourth of July because they believe you don’t value the sacrifices that were made to establish this nation.

She felt the need to remind her followers that they may ignore the social pressure to rejoice by posting a video on Instagram and TikTok.

There are still numerous customs, both ancient and modern. The winner of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest will be announced, and fireworks in the colours of the American flag will light up the skies over several of Walt Disney World’s theme parks. The 1776 Collection is a series of NFTs produced by Melania Trump in honour of Independence Day.