The Nome Nugget

Letter To
The Editor

The
anti-fireworks bill passed
by the House is another attempt
to reduce our finest and most
sacred possession, "freedom".

There is only one day a year,
set aside solely for the remem-
brance of our first day of inde-
pendence from tyranny, the 4th of
July. To prohibit its celebration
by the use of fireworks is a crime.

The sponsors of the bill say it
will protect our homes from fire.
Cigarettes burn down more homes
every minute than fireworks do
in a year, yet, there is no law
against them. It will save our
forests. There are laws on the
books to protect our forests, yet
each year we have large forest
fires, most of them far from any
road where a carelessly tossed
cigar or cigarette could start
them. It will save our children
from getting hurt. Now we all
want that, but let's look at the
record, how many children are
hurt by guns, bicycles, autos, dogs
and drowned by swimming or
falling into rivers or out of boats,
by falling from fences, swings,
trees, sleds, skis, by playing ball
running or jumping. No one in
their right mind, would think of
prohibiting these things by law.
These things hurt, maim and kill
our
children. Then why fire-
works? Because there is a deep-
er reason behind this bill.
Kill the expression of an ideal
and the ideal itself will die. We
do not want our independence
killed, it must grow, so that we
will be free forever. Look at the
cities that prohibit fireworks now.
The 4th of July is dead. If it
wasn't for the American Legion,
VFW and a few other clubs, the
cities wouldn't even fly our flag
on the 4th of July.

We, the people, must stay awake
to this deliberate whittling away
of our independence and ask you,
as a leader and champion of free-
dom to help fight this anti-free-
dom bill.

If this bill passed, it will be
a red letter day in Moscow.

Thank you,
George W. Jarris
Fairbanks, Alaska