Independence Day is just around the corner. I know just where I'll be shooting my bottle rockets.
Let's get this out of the way. I like fireworks. If I had a nickel for every bottle rocket I've tossed and roman candle I've pointed away from my eyes, I'd corner the nickel market. One fourth of July, driving home from a Big South Fork kayaking trip, I managed to catch 4 town fireworks displays: Hazard, Whitesburg, Jenkins and Elkhorn.
It's one of my favorite drives ever. I've enjoyed massive million dollar fireworks extravaganzas from Key West to Long Island and self-armed campfire displays by the river. I've even had the privilege, before 9/11 of course, to be a mortar loader at the annual Elkhorn City firework display. Twice!
When I say I'll be shooting my bottle rockets, I'm not speaking figuratively. I'll be holding that thing till the fuse is nearly burned down then letting it fly. Where it'll go, you never really know. That toss is only a suggestion.
If I were lighting one up now, I'd be looking toward the Gulf of Mexico.
In honor of the fourth, the state of Louisiana has mandated the Ten Commandments be displayed in every single classroom from kindergarten to university lecture hall. Nothing shouts freedom quite like being forced to follow a religion for education. There's confusion in the state legislature between the definitions of education and indoctrination.
Arguing the law was not a violation of the separation of church and state, Governor Landry actually said this:
“If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses who got the commandments from God."
So, according to Landry, there were no laws on Earth before Moses. I imagine he thinks there were no written words before the Bible, too. Hope nobody tells him about the early civilization courses down at the community college.
Interestingly enough, Kentucky once passed pretty much the same law. It was struck down by the Supreme Court who saw no secular justification in displaying a religious artifact in every classroom.
I'm guessing Mr. Landry was absent the day the Declaration of Independence was taught in American history class. If he wasn't, he would have understood that declaring their independence from the king included the king's church. The constitution put every American's independence from state sponsored religious indoctrination in writing.
You're right. It's a little early to be shooting Fourth of July fireworks. I'll save the rest of my bottle rockets for the right time, which is when I see Meat without Tater. Always fun to watch him dance around his porch. It's open season starting July 1.
I'm excited about Independence Day fireworks this year because we have a Levitt AMP Whitesburg Music Series concert to go along with it. I'll be at the Craft Riverside Park at the Whitesburg Fourth of July Celebration with Grammy and Americana honoree Jim Lauderdale and the Game Changers, Cory Michael Harris, Sons of FM and Cross Country Bluegrass.
The only thing that makes fireworks better is great music around it. Happy Independence Day!