Two summers ago, I worked for a special interest group and part of my job was to read several newspapers to see if there were any articles or letters to the editor relating to our issue. At one of the papers, someone had sent in a LTE asking whether the annual fireworks show could be moved, because it woke her baby and it probably scared children and dogs as well.
While there were a few reasonable responses like "Well, there are children and dogs wherever it would be moved to, too," and "Calm down, folks, she wanted it moved, not cancelled," most of the responses were in the vein of "Honour our troops, you hate America, terrorists have won."
Fourth of July that same summer, I was in my apartment playing World of Warcraft. Very few people were online in my guild, understandably, and people were trickling out to go watch fireworks. Eventually, it was only me and DJ. I made some offhand comment about the local fireworks, and he responded that he was not going to his own local show.
Because, he said, he'd only gotten back from Iraq about two months ago. They still sounded like bombs and mortars.
Let that sink in. A soldier wouldn't/couldn't go to the show that was ostensibly for him and his comrades and those before him, because it sounded too much like where he'd been.
Enjoy your fireworks. Maybe someday tradition will dictate donating several hundred dollars (the cost of my local fireworks show, your funding my vary) to veteran's charities for Independence Day.
As for DJ, he was re-deployed last spring. He hasn't logged in since. I can only hope that it's because he quit the game. It'd be happier than any other reason.
