Fireworks

After the parade, my brother and nephew and I went to the Nationals game. What
could be more patriotic than that? We stayed long enough to witness Jimmy Smits
(who once served as president of the United States — Hollywood version) throw
out the first pitch (which I am happy to report sailed into the catcher’s
mitt), and then we all sang the National Anthem. We then caught a few innings
before leaving because we were literally melting.

We then joined the rest of the gang at the Knights of Columbus pool. When it is
the Fourth of July and the temperature is climbing close to a hundred degrees,
the best option in the middle of the day for the kids and for the adults is the
pool. We spent several hours there, cooked out some burgers, brats and hot
dogs, played horseshoes and generally kept up with the Independence Day
traditions.

People at the Knight of Columbus pool have strongly held views. There is no
shortage of politically charged stickers on the cars in the parking lot. One
lady was trying to get people to sign on to a petition to change Arlington
government. And if you listen in on the chatter, the conversations were mostly
likely to be about the deficiencies in the Obama administration.

My sister-in-law, who lives in Chicago, said: “There are a lot of people with a
lot of opinions out here.”

We drove back into the District around 7 o’clock to catch the fireworks on the
top of my office’s roof deck at 101 Constitution. It is always fascinating to
me to see how many people just pull off the on the side of major highways, get
out of their cars and set up shop to watch the fireworks. Despite the many
warnings that their cars would be towed, thousands of people parked them anyway
on either side of the road, got out, put down a blanket and waited in eager
anticipation for the show that was sure to come.

We missed most of the traffic, and we got to my office about 25 minutes before
the show, just enough time for my son and my niece and nephew to get some
sorely needed ice cream, which they ate up with mustard.

The fireworks didn’t disappoint. From our vantage point, they were doubly
impressive, because just as the Roman candles were going up, the sun was going
down.

My 4-year-old watched transfixed, unable to take his eyes off the stunning
display. We were far enough away not to hear the bombs bursting in air, so my
little guy wasn’t in any way scared by the display.

From the earliest days of the American republic, fireworks have been a fixture
of the Independence Day scene. While it was the Chinese who invented fireworks,
the American people love them with a special intensity.

The Star-Spangled Banner, our national anthem, is all about fireworks. The
rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there.

We observe fireworks today, knowing that our freedoms are protected not by the
benign displays of Roman candles shooting off in the night, but by the real
bombs and rockets that have often filled the sky with more deadly effect
throughout our national history.

I thought about that as I watched the impressive display on the western
horizon. From our vantage point, you could see far into Virginia, a state whose
political leaders once thought they didn’t want to be part of the union. Mr.
Lincoln and Mr. Grant disabused the Virginians of the notion that leaving the
union was an option, and the state played host to many tough battles where
rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting through the air were not an unusual
occurrence.

About 135 years later, war once again came to the D.C. region.

I worked at the Capitol at the time terrorists tried to fly a hijacked plane
into the building. They were stopped by a group of brave Americans who weren’t
going to allow them to complete their evil mission. I remember flying in a
helicopter over the Pentagon that Sept. 11 evening and seeing the flames dance
up in the air. Yeats might have called it a terrible beauty.

We are still engaged in the war that started nearly a decade ago by a bunch of
religious fanatics who are offended by the very idea of American freedom. We
don’t spend enough time or emotional energy thanking our troops for the
sacrifices they make on our behalf to defend our freedom.

Fireworks aren’t a terrible beauty. They are simply beautiful, because they
signify the triumph of peace over war. From a distance, the rockets might look
the same going up in the air, but they certainly don’t look the same coming
down.

People in Washington, as in the rest of the country, have a lot of opinions.
Sometimes those opinions don’t match up very well. But having a strongly held
opinion is an important part of democracy. And looking at the Capitol on the
Fourth of July from the rooftop of a building right across the street gave me a
special appreciation for the work that is done there.

People have a lot of opinions, and the best way to resolve those opinions is
through representative government. And we celebrate our democracy with a stunning
fireworks display every Independence Day, because we know that while it is hard
work to move a country forward democratically, it is far better to celebrate
our unity and our independence with fireworks than it is to fight each other
with real bombs and real rockets.

Visit www.thefeeherytheory.com.