President John Adams wrote in a letter to his wife that the anniversary of America’s independence “ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

Sadly, just as people who delight in minding the business of others are successfully taking away our rights to smoke this same kind of people are also working to take away the right to traditionally celebrate the 4th of July.

When I served as Mayor not a summer went by without people coming before our City Council demanding that fireworks be banned within our jurisdiction. Our city never caved in to these statist demands, but many cities have, even one extremely rural city close to my current home.

Just as with pipe smoking bans health and safety is declared to be the reason for fireworks bans. Questionable reasoning indeed. Even if pipe smoking and fireworks were extremely dangerous pursuits individual Americans should not be denied the right to enjoy those pursuits. The bans are even more intolerable though because they are based upon false premises. As pipemen we know that pipe smoking in moderation is not a dangerous activity. Much the same with fireworks which manage to kill only 6.4 people per year on average in this nation.

Faulty facts won’t stop these public nannies though, nor will cries for liberty. All we can do is stop settling for second rate elected officials, stop voting for the ‘lesser of two evils,’ and start voting for men and women who are committed to upholding the freedom loving values our nation was founded upon.

The 4th of July is I think the perfect time for such reflections, especially given this Presidential election year.