Just shutthe s**t down. Expensive, overrated, take your kids to the movies.

I grew up in D.C. . 4th of July events are nothing but a sea of humans with too few port-a-pottys(sp?) . That always=inhumanity, no matter where the event is held.

I feel sorry for your kids. What kind of a loser parent takes their kid to a movie on 4th of July? Who the hell even goes to watch movies in a theater anymore? Talk about expensive and overrated. You want your kids to grow up to be bitter, deprived wall flowers like Troy, sitting in front of a blog all day screaming at the world outside their window?

I dunno; I went to fireworks shows as a kid (...and my wife dragged me to Chicago's show last year), and I've always left feeling a little disappointed. For all the hype around fireworks, it's just not that interesting to me. Given a choice, I'd rather go to a museum, read a book, play a video game, watch a movie, almost anything else other than deal with the drunken crowds and the traffic.

Given that, I agree that it would be a lot more fun if fireworks display actually involved blowing stuff up. Maybe Chicago could combine urban demolition with fireworks, blow up abandoned/condemned buildings instead of just making pretty lights in the sky? Heck, how 'bout some "naval training exercises" out on the lake, complete with arial bombardments and SAMs? That would make for a much more interesting show.

My real ire is reserved for all the people who have their illegal fireworks that choose to set them off for the whole fucking month surrounding 4 July, usually sometime between midnight and three AM. Seriously, some of us have to work. Do that after dusk, but before 10PM please. (At least it's not gunfire though.)

tellmewhy,

Thanks for neatly encapsulating everything that's wrong with contemporary America. You completely missed the boat on what's best about fireworks, and that's being part of a public spectacle, sharing blankets with strangers, rubbing shoulders with little kids and old people. I've been going to fireworks almost every year since I was a kid, I've done it in small towns or in cities like San Francisco. I always had a ball, made new friends, but then again I didn't just see "too few port-a-pottys".

Yeah, much better to just make it like any other day and ignore one of the few civic traditions we still have left. And one of the last -free- forms of entertainment that doesn't have an army of marketers behind it trying to make a buck. Screw the public square and just live your life in a mall.

What a tool.