Mark Platte proposed his thoughts about the "reckless New Year's celebrations" in the Honolulu Advertisers opinion column January 17, 2010. The Legislature is having a hard time enacting a law to make some fireworks illegal because residents in Hawaii are split 50/50 on the matter. In the article Mark Platte compares the situation to the smoking ban in 2006 and the new city law prohibiting hand-held devices while driving. Apparently, nothing has been done about the disturbances on New Years though.
"Even if there is a 50-50 split, does that mean that the rights of the half who want to make noise, pollute the air, frighten and annoy residents and pets and potentially endanger others trump the rights of the half who don't want to be bothered by these reckless celebrations?"
Clearly the people who want firework use limited or banned have some good reasoning. Sure its the New Year a time to party, but maybe some families are trying to put their kids to sleep, and all the sound the fireworks create becomes a nuisance all night. Residents also make a good point about the environment. Fireworks DO create a lot of pollution and could start fires, harming people and animals. There were no points listed by residents who wanted to KEEP fireworks, but I'm sure its because its a tradition of the New Years and it is fun. Can you think of other reasons?
How do you think the legislature will decide on what to do ? Does the 50/50 split matter or do you think they'll do what THEY, meaning the Legislature, think is best? I think a possible solution could be having designated areas to light your own fireworks instead of wherever you find an open area in your neighborhood.
What's taking so long ?
Mark mentions that the smoking ban in 2006 took two DECADES to enact, and the new city law prohibiting hand-held appliances while driving didn't require much time or study to make official. So what's the wait with banning fireworks? "Apparently the injuries to 112 people this New Year's, half of them children and the highest total since records were kept a decade ago, has made no impact on lawmakers." The number of people dead from reckless celebrations on New Years is unbelievable. I wasn't aware of any of this until after reading the article. Everyone loves watching fireworks but would you love to see someone die as an effect of your fun? I don't think so. I'm not saying fireworks are a horrible thing to do but obviously something needs to be fixed, and no that doesn't mean wait till the New Year "rolls around again" to deal with the problem.
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This is most def somethin' I can relate to! I normally hate new years cuz of the firecrackers! Its so irrahz!!! Especially the illegal bomb ones. In my neighborhood they start poppin em like an entire month b4 new years even hits n they pop em at like 3 am in the morning. I really want people to enjoy the holidays but I wish they were also a bit condsiderate of others at the sametime.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was just telling me about her frustration with the fireworks in our Waipahu neighborhood. It used to be that there were only fireworks on New Years eve. Now, there's fireworks starting in September and on New Year's eve, you can't see across the street by 8pm, there's so much smoke. From my parent's patio, you can see all of `Ewa--it's like a professional fireworks show!
ReplyDeleteOn your post: Good job with the title, link to source, and summary. You are starting to use some blog-style formatting--NICE! Keep working on deepening your analysis--it might mean picking articles that have more info or are more interesting to you.