Submitted by David Anderson.
What do plastic bags in Lacey; plastic straws in Seattle; work emails after-hours in France; after-shave and cell phones in Zurich; tanning beds for teens under 18 in Washington; new casinos in Fife; marijuana retail, gambling, smoking, and – speaking of smoke – fireworks sales and settings-off (the last four in Lakewood, Washington) have in common? 
Nothing. Although close to something.
All are banned except the last three.
Gambling was ok as was determined by a vote put to the public by way of initiative.
Smoking in parks was ok as determined by the city council if folks lit up beyond the buffer zone. “Overreaching common sense,” was how one councilmember put it were government to have played nanny when it came to nicotine.
To ban or not ban, whether it’s toxic plastic allegedly clogging our oceans or smoke clogging our lungs (cigarettes everyday) and the air (celebrations twice a year – July 4 and December 31, not including barbecues) there should be, one would think, a common denominator, commonly employed in making decisions of such magnitude (I guess after-shave ranks right up there).
The alternative to arbitrary-free decision-making is trench warfare where the outcome is on a par with the school playground where the bigger bully wins.
I once rescued a timid, terrified immobilized-in-fear mouse for example from a big fat crow which hopped about the little bewhiskered figure, poking and tormenting the poor fellow.
It wasn’t a fair fight.
Neither was the one in Lakewood where well-funded casinos for example were clear winners from the first four-color mass mailer to the fourth four-color mass mailer, overwhelming the opposed-to-gambling common riffraff’s copy machine propaganda in black-and-white.
Neither does it seem fair for Seattle to put on its Independence Day or New Year’s Eve Space Needle smoke-filling-the-air fireworks extravaganza while your child’s measly sparkler, Roman candle, smoke bomb box of goodies could get you a $2,640 fine (in Lakewood, CO), extra agents placed on patrol to focus solely on extinguishing your child’s pyromaniac propensities.
And what shall we say of your next-door neighbor’s barbecue where too much sauce is evidently causing too much smoke whereupon fines are levied by the environmental clean air types, notice of said infraction, minimum $1,000 – complete with photos surreptitiously taken with specialized night surveillance cameras – delivered to your mailbox?
For deciding such toxic issues above, including aftershave in Zurich and fireworks in Lakewood, a modest proposal, a suggested litmus test, where both conditions must be met: common sense coupled with equal parts consideration for the common good.
I suspect there would be far less outrage over fireworks if only the legal ones were used. Lakewood already has a reasonable ordinance allowing some fireworks and banning others. The annual public discussion over fireworks primarily centers on illegal pyrotechnics. Enforcement is difficult due to some confusion concerning which devices are legal and which are not. Also, there is little appetite for citing citizens who are celebrating the holiday. Many other jurisdictions have simplified enforcement by just prohibiting the sale, possession, and use of all fireworks. Until some method of effective enforcement is devised, we are left with the choice of a total ban or the status quo.
On July 3, 4, & 5, as our peace & quiet was constantly disturbed with the unending sound of pyrotechnical explosions & unwanted cancerous smoke, we wondered if these citizens with obvious pyromaniac proclivities might ever consider doing something other than burning & blowing up their money? We think it would be smarter to donate fire cracker money to feed the homeless or to our local mental health center.
You can’t make a dollar do 2 tricks, so why not be smart with what we do with our money?
Joseph Boyle
Our neighborhood was under fire on the 4th and of course days before and after. But the 4th this year was worse than any years in a long time. Not having been in combat and only seeing it in movies, it did sound like a war zone — with tons of illegal fireworks shaking the house. That is a big problem. When you allow fireworks you have the illegal ones. If you ban them all you can enforce it better. I have a friend who is a veteran who after this 4th is renewing her passport and leaving the country she supported as she feels it no longer gives a damn about her. Her PTSD cannot go through this again. This is true, we do not give a damn about our veterans in any way, shape or form. We only support them fighting for us but don’t help them when they are home. Sad but true!
I’m all for having fireworks in Lakewood. It’s been a happy tradition in our family from my father to my son. What we need to ban are semi-automatic firearms. Where is our common sense?
In the hundreds of facebook posts and conversations I have been viewed, I have noted that a majority of the complaints stem from or related to the following; Loud booms, bottle rockets, firecrackers, time of day, and unsafe use.
Let’s face it, for the most part, the list above contains items that are already illegal.
il·le·gal i(l)?l???l/
adjective
adjective: illegal
1. contrary to or forbidden by law, especially criminal law.
Many people are so unhappy that others are violating the existing laws that we should further compound the situation by adding another law. Utilizing that theory, we should continue to investigate other continued violations and add more laws.
How about a law that limits the amount of alcohol you can purchase? The act bans over-the-counter sales of beverages that contain the ingredient alcohol, which is commonly used to make intoxicating beverages. The sale of beverages containing alcohol is limited to behind the counter. The amount of alcohol that an individual can purchase each month is limited and individuals are required to present photo identification to purchase products containing alcohol. In addition, stores are required to keep personal information about purchasers for at least two years. Sound silly? Maybe, but that is the current regulation on cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, a perfectly legal ingredient that is used by people to make illegal things, I simply replaced the words.
Speaking of ingredients… Holidays also are often a cause for celebrations involving alcohol consumption, a major contributing factor to motor vehicle crashes. Nationwide, alcohol-impaired fatalities (involving blood-alcohol content of 0.08 g/dL or higher) in 2016 represented 28% of the total traffic fatalities. During the Independence Day period, 41% of fatalities involved an alcohol-impaired driver, the highest percentage among all the major holidays. So banning Alcohol consumption during the Independence Day Holiday sounds legitimate? Maybe we should ban alcohol? I wonder if that has been tried (we know that was a horrible failure).
The war on drugs has been a total failure, so much so we have legalized a portion of it. Everyone knows smoking cigarettes is bad and have created all sorts of laws regarding that, yet we have not called for an all out ban.
Laws have been created for thousands of years. We started with 10 (the Commandments) and have added hundreds of thousands over the centuries. Yet we still have trouble enforcing the first 10.
Lakewood is a great place to live. For the most part, our City Council does an adequate job trying to please as many as possible while ensuring a safe environment for all. I was not a supporter of City hood. I will not support a ban. Furthermore, I believe any municipality that bans fireworks should be required to hold a public display in lieu of the loss of individual freedoms.
I say ban the fireworks because nobody follows the law. After 11 pm, they should had stopped due to the law of Lakewood Police. Not many people want to call the police on their neighbor due to consequences.
If everybody followed the law, I’d be for the legal fireworks.
The Lakewood Police cannot keep up with all the illegal fireworks going off and many are not reported and believe me, they will do it again next year.
It hurts Veterans with PTSD, our pets, people who have to work the next day, not to mention fires, injuries, and elder people.
I believe Lakewood should have designated places to fire off their bottle rockets, etc. Not at home. Nobody is losing individual freedoms on the 4th by doing this method.
I agree with Jerry. Please ban fireworks in Lakewood. University Place is banning by initiative in 2019. Can we please have a vote in Lakewood?
Please ban fireworks. I don’t care if these idiots can’t make their $5 peddling explosives or whatever.
I was born in this area and Lakewood has been my home for decades and I cannot remember a 4th of July that sounded like an absolute war zone as it did in 2018. Their is no reason to have M-80’s to celebrate Independence Day until 2 am for 3 days straight. I called the Lakewood City Hall asking who I should talk with to bring attention to possibly banning fireworks in Lakewood and no one has returned my call. I was told that I should have called the Lakewood Police to file a complaint during the 4th, which is not a good use of our Police Department. I am all for banning fireworks in Lakewood after what we experienced this year. Let’s follow UP and Tacoma on this issue.
“Their is no reason to have M-80’s to celebrate Independence Day until 2 am for 3 days straight”
What you describe is already illegal in Lakewood. A total ban does not work, I lived in Tacoma and work their still. Fireworks are still an issue and low on the enforcement priority. The only thing that changed is those already obeying the laws with their fountains and sparklers had them taken away and those that were using illegal fireworks kept lighting them off.