Jim Hoagland: Selling fireworks this year is especially insane
An open letter to anyone in Stanislaus County who passed on the opportunity to at least attempt to ban all fireworks this summer: Why didn’t you do it? Everyone knows it will be insane to shoot off fireworks anywhere in the state. We watch and read daily of the horrific fire season we are experiencing. Each Fourth of July we experience plenty of fireworks-caused blazes. This year the situation is exacerbated by our unparalleled dry vegetation.
Of course, to ban fireworks would put a crimp in the money-raising efforts of many youth organizations, so it would be unpopular with those groups. But do these groups not realize their money raising comes at a greater cost to all of us? Selling fireworks this year will surely cause scores of dangerous fires. Would these same groups consider selling cigarettes to support their organizations? But, then again, selling fireworks runs a close second in terms of bad ideas. How about bake sales, car washes, scrap drives? There has to be a more sensible solution.
Jim Hoagland, Ripon
This story was originally published June 23, 2015 at 10:48 AM with the headline "Jim Hoagland: Selling fireworks this year is especially insane."