I hate the 4th of July!

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I just have to say I HATE the 4th of July!

I like the U.S. fine, but can't we find a way to celebrate it without fireworks?

I'm sitting infront of my computer, dissolving into a puddle of sweat because the people next door are setting off loud firecrackers. I really hate sudden loud noises; they freak me out.

Ugh. Bad night.

I hate the noise to. Pretty but to noisy.

It annoys me, not because of the noise, but because of the patriotism. I may be living in the United States but I don't consider myself an American and find the majority's arrogant, public narrowmindedness rather embarassing.

Explain?

Example: Just yesterday, a few of my "all-American" friends were joking about how well the Europeans had driven the Native Americans away, laughing about how they just "fu**ing killed all the Indians" by giving them plague-ridden blankets, etc., etc. They weren't being seriously racist, it was just joking around. But I find it ironic that if the same kind of conversation was had about "n****rs", it would be considered hugely insulting and improper - yet because there are few Native Americans left outside of Canada, people here don't have a problem trashing them.

This probably only upsets me because I was raised in Canada, where teaching about Native American rights and respect for their culture is as important as teaching about slavery here. But it's a small example of the way many so-called Americans see themselves as the center of the universe, and forget that the history they are taught is as biased and slanted towards self-aggrandizement as the history taught in any other country. It's not objective fact.

Even the word "American" promotes the idea that the United States is the only country worth mentioning across the two continents of North and South America.

Gosh I hate sudden loud noises too. Personally, I think fireworks I find are okay if (a) you can SEE them (usually they'll be seen just before they're heard), or (b) far enough so the sound isnt crushingly loud. Your situation sounds really icky.

When I was a little kid, the neighbors (well the kids...middle school aged) set off firecrackers every Saturday Morning at 8 AM, like clockwork. On the 4th of July, the parents did it, and it was an all-day thing.

Hope the sound dies down! The 4th of July is meant to celebrate what is right with our country, and how what is right came about. Hopefully you'll be able to celebrate, and not live in nervousness over your neighbors' "celebrations."

I love the 4th of July. I make my own fireworks that shake the ground and echo several blocks away. They scare the crap out of the neighbors, but I design them so that they don't frag, break windows, or set off car alarms.

mm, can you make flashbangs, or maybe smoke grenades?

One word... magnesium...

Magnesium + primer= flashbang...

I know a bit about basic explosives...

The first year my parents took me to see fireworks was 1986. We had a party at my grandparents and one of my cousins was setting off firecrackers in the driveway. I was holding my ears each time he set one off.

Later one of my uncles set off a sparkler bomb in the front yard scorching the grass.

I hated bottle rockets. The whistling and the exploding didn't settle to well with my sensitive ears.

Yeah, I don't like it either.

Stupid Mondays.

I like fireworks to an extent, wish they were less noisy, I'm not an American so I don't celebrate the 4th of July but it does hold some significance in my life as it was the day I found out I was going to be a mother for the first time back in 2000, that little boy will be 5 in February.

I HATE fireworks. People around here begin setting them off in early June. So every night there are loud noises and it makes me startle and gets my adrenalin going. It's hard for me to fall asleep after that. ICK!

Gosh, I was ready to start a thread wishing everyone a happy one, and then I read this thread. Well, to each your own, but why? I know you all already stated your opinion, why would someone post this in the General Discussion forum? If I started a thread like this one, I would put it in the Members Only forum.

Last night I relaxed in a lawn chair and enjoyed Whitinsville's fireworks display from my front yard (they were only one block away.) But I agree with you about the continuous fireworks set off by neighbors, and I sympathise with you all about the noise; I too dislike loud, sudden, unexpected noise.

But there is more to the 4th than fireworks. Tonight the Boston Pops plays its annual concert on the esplanade. Since I live here, I get the whole show broadcast on TV. (you get the second half, on CBS) For years I've been taping that, and making cd's from the videotapes. These are some of my favorite cd's.

And of course I get the day off from work, and I get to listen to the traffic reports of the monster jams caused by those returning from Cape Cod and northern New England

pyraxis, as I read more of your posts I find I am coming to like you, I agree with many of your views 4th July isn't really an issue for me, being English, (well apart from the fact that my boyfriend is a similarly anti-patriotic UK-dwelling American with some Cherokee ancestry, so I was particularly interested in what you said above), but I dislike similar patriotism here.


On the issue of fireworks:

I HATE fireworks if they are let off suddenly with no warning.

I LOVE planned firework displays and setting them off myself

The difference between sudden loud noise and noise that I am expecting