For the first time in the years I can remember, I watched the July 4th fireworks on T.V. rather than in person. The “big bang” fireworks at the lakefront last night draws people reserving spots days ahead of time. They are major for around here but lose a lot of bang on T.V. The other one I saw on T.V. tonight from New York are considered to be the largest one in the USA. The coordination of the music and the multi fireworks display along the Hudson River was spectacular. I can only imagine what it might have been being there.

Just as watching fireworks on TV is nowhere near the experience of being present at fireworks, reading in the paper or watching war TV is nowhere near the experience of being present in war. One can only imagine, as I did on TV tonight, what it meant to be there at war.

But the imagination of adults in the USA is rapidly diminishing. Movies and TV shows live little to the imagination. The amount of violence and war in movies and TV desensitizes us to the experience of violence and war.

Perhaps this is why fireworks displays in the USA get bigger and bigger each year. When I was a kid my parents took me to Washington Park to watch fireworks that were a fraction of what we now watch. I can remember as an adult watching a small fireworks display with small children. With their imagination the small fireworks were large and their thrill affected me.

The newspaper today printed the Declaration of Independence from the first Fourth of July. The word ‘war’ in mentioned twice and, even then, indirectly. There is no mention of soldiers fighting although that was the result of declaring independence. There is no mention of fighting for oil or natural resources and no mention of ‘preemptive war’ or a ‘war of necessity’.

There is however, a strong statement of beliefs and values and the dignity of all human beings. The war of independence was a defensive war, fighting for human values. War was a last resort. Now with the rise of technology to fight wars, like drones and the increasing desensitizing American public to war and violence the USA is involved in military conflicts in six nations at one time. War is only personalized when an American is killed. God Bless America of old. May we replace our present wars of violence and killing with attacks of kindness and justice.

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