Let freedom explode
In addition to New York, in the past 10 years or so, the following states have liberalized their laws relative to the sale and use of consumer fireworks: Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Utah. The consumer fireworks products are safer today than they have ever been before. The sale of consumer fireworks can raise some badly needed revenue for government.
Americans love fireworks. Fireworks and the celebration of the 4th of July Independence Day are synonymous. Then future U.S. President John Adams on July 3, 1776 in a now famous letter to his wife Abigail mused that Independence Day “ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this day forward forevermore.”
Massachusetts legislators have the power to change the fireworks laws and bring Massachusetts to parity with the 47 other states that permit the sale and use of some level of consumer fireworks. This is too long overdue.
Write or email your legislator and ask for legalization of consumer fireworks in Massachusetts. Take Massachusetts out of the consumer fireworks dark ages and into the modern era.
Calling out pooshoodog
Editor’s note: This letter is in regard to the Advocate’s policy of publishing, in the print paper, comments made to the newspaper’s website and then attributing those comments to the writer’s screen name — which, often, is not the person’s true identity.
Today I am writing to you about a [Web comment] you published June 11-17, 2015, “A bygone education,” written as a response to one published May 28-June 3, 2015, “Four-year degree in Marxism.” I find, unfailingly, that those who offer sardonic critique of another’s observations have little to offer that is original. They always sign with some comic book pseudonym. Such anonymous sniping is usually found at any number of public places. It seems to have escaped you, that in light of that, the authorship of this missive must be assigned to you. When I write I always sign my name and I never allow anyone to quote me out of text. The idea that your publication is merely a vehicle for free thought is disingenuous. That is the logic of the getaway driver.
What is the goal of the U.S. prison system?
Thanks for the piece, “Time to Ditch Mandatory Sentences for Nonviolent Drug Offenses,” June 18-24, 2015. I have one thing I disagree with: the section where you write about the goal of the American prison system. CCA (Corrections Corp. of America) works to get a supply of “product”; That’s the folks doing hard time for, as Molly Ivins put it, “Aggravated Mopery.” In The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Era of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander lays out clearly the real reason for the war on drugs and mandatory minimums.
Bob Woodward said, “Follow the money,” and Lily Tomlin said, “No matter how cynical I try to be, I just can’t keep up.” As usual, they’re both right.
