We blowed it up real good

Perhaps it's the onset of middle age making me even more uncontrollably cranky, but celebrating the Fourth of July seems to to be getting out of control. From The Seattle Times:

At Harborview Medical Center, the number treated for injuries nearly tripled, from 11 last year to 32 this year.

The injuries included minor burns, eye injuries and lost digits, said hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson.

Near Black Diamond, a 20-year-old man was hit with shrapnel and severely burned Wednesday, said Mountain View Fire and Rescue Chief Greg Smith.
It appeared the man was holding fireworks or a homemade explosive device when it blew up. He was taken to Harborview, where he was expected to recover, Smith said.

In Thurston County, a small cannon exploded during a family gathering Wednesday, flinging shrapnel more than 200 feet and fatally injuring an 8-year-old boy.

And from a reader feedback page at The News-Tribune:

“This was the worst 4th by far. The illegal fireworks were everywhere. No one dares go out of town here as we’re afraid our wood roofs will be caught on fire.”

Things weren't much calmer in Oregon, where they supposedly allow only much safer fireworks, a law that has been routinely flouted over the years. Despite a much publicized enforcement effort, the carnage was evident. From The Oregonian:

Efforts to crack down on illegal firecrackers, M-80s, bottle rockets and Roman candles netted tens of thousands of dollars' worth of contraband and fines, putting the damper on scores of front yard fetes from Oregon City to Gresham.

Still, there were casualties, from the death of a 4-year-old Springfield boy early Wednesday, killed when he set off a stash of fireworks in his father's bedroom closet, to a blaze started by an innocuous sparkler that caused $475,000 in damage to a home in Southwest Portland.

Fireworks weren't the only problem in Oregon:

The stretch of the Clackamas River between Barton and Carver parks became a floating free-for-all July Fourth as drunken, fighting crowds caused what police called "near-riot conditions," forcing authorities to close the popular recreation spot and herd between 4,000 and 5,000 people out of the parks.

Between the 90-degree heat and a steady tide of alcohol, the parks -- popular with growing legions of rafters, tubers and other river-lovers who put in at Barton Park and take a leisurely three-hour float to Carver downstream -- were overwhelmed with the largest and rowdiest gathering police had ever seen there.

I must confess, my opinion may be biased by our own holiday experience, where the failure of some parents to adequately supervise their children left the task to Mr. and Mrs. Stilwell and some other sentient parents. It's all fun and games until little Maggie puts a hot sparkler in her mouth, you know.

In Clark County, over the years there have been increased demands for better enforcement or an outright ban, but that most likely won't happen. Things seem less insane around here than in some years past.

The idyllic image of some barbeque and a few sparklers seems to have morphed into, as one Oregonian reporter alluded, a bacchanalian festival. We always do things bigger and better in the United States, and it's all fun and games until someone is screaming "Where's my finger?"

Anyhow, no easy answers, and since you can't outlaw stupidity I guess there will always be some nasty incidents. We enjoy the holiday, and our kids enjoy the fireworks like any other kids.

But I'm wondering about making sure we go to a professional display next year.