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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brad Witt, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Pat Robertson, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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Geeze people…Take a look at the beaches at Ocean Shores, Washington. “The morning after.” Pretty disgusting.
FIREWORKS!
I know it’s after the Fourth of July. But I want to talk about fireworks a little bit this week. A little history and the aftermath of our celebrations. Sometime during the period 600-900 AD, recordings has it that a Chinese alchemist mixed potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal to produce a black, flaky powder, the first gunpowder. This powder was poured into hallowed out bamboo sticks and later stiff paper tubes forming the first man made fireworks. The Chinese believed these fireworks warded off evil spirits. Then around the 13th century and by the 15th century they were widely used for religious festivals and public entertainment. The Italians were the first Europeans to manufacture fireworks and European rulers were especially fond of the use of fireworks to enchant their subjects and illuminate their castles on important occasions. Early U.S. settlers brought their love of fireworks with them to the New World and fireworks were part of the very first Independence Day – a tradition that continues every 4th of July when we celebrate as John Adams had hoped with pomp, parade and bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.” Americans' spirit of celebration continued to grow and in the late 18th century, politicians used displays to attract crowds to their speeches. Fireworks, you think of the Fourth of July and the celebration of our country’s Independence. Fireworks have been with Americans since our nation’s beginning. Everyone loves fireworks. Clean up after yourselves! Pieces of plastic, paper, and cardboard that are not properly disposed of, can easily make their way to the beaches and the ocean to become marine debris. Marine debris is an eyesore along shorelines around the world. It degrades the beauty of beaches and deters tourists and residents from enjoying the beach over the holiday. Leftover trash from fireworks can pose major risks to marine animals when it enters the ocean. Both sea birds and marine animals can mistake debris for food. If ingested, it could result in a loss of nutrition, internal injury, intestinal blockage, starvation, and even death. Fireworks cause extensive air pollution in a short amount of time, leaving metal particles, dangerous toxins, harmful chemicals and smoke in the air for hours and days. Some of the toxins never fully decompose or disintegrate, but rather hang around in the environment, poisoning all they come into contact with. Exposure to fine particles, like those found in smoke and haze, is linked to negative health implications, such as coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, asthma attacks and even heart attacks, according to the EPA. People at greatest risk for problems are those with heart or lung disease, older adults and children. In 20015 over 75 tons of trash was collected from Westport, Long Beach and Ocean Shores Washington all by volunteers. Clean up after yourself, people how hard is it? Ocean Shores is a small coastal community in Grays Harbor, Washington with only 5,615 people living here. The beautiful area is a huge tourist attraction, with an estimated million people coming to visit during the 4th of July weekend. Dollars spent on Fireworks in the US A whopping 99% of consumer fireworks are imported from China. Undeterred by their origin, Americans spend more than $1 billion on fireworks each year, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association. By weight, that makes for roughly 268 million pounds of fireworks — or roughly a pound of pyrotechnics for every American man, woman and child. What makes the colors in fireworks. Bright GREENS are made with barium. Deep REDS are a product of strontium. BLUES come from copper. YELLOWS require sodium. MORE COLORS CAN BE CREATED BY MIXING COMPOUNDS: ORANGE is produced by a mixture of strontium and sodium. SILVERY WHITE by a mixture of titanium, zirconium and magnesium alloys. LAVENDER is obtained using a copper and strontium mix. SPECIAL EFFECTS ARE CREATED BY YET OTHER MINERAL PRODUCTS: Iron filings (from the ore mineral hematite) and small particles of charcoal produce GOLD sparks. Bright flashes are created by using fine ground aluminum powder. The use of larger particles, such as small flakes or granules, give a longer, shower-like effect. Magnalium, a magnesium-aluminum alloy, produces a tiny series of silvery-white flashes. Aluminum, antimony sulfide and perchlorate are other flash mixtures that are used. Now here is the question, should fireworks be banned from our beaches? Be banned period? My answer to the banning issue, No, but here is the catch. Patrol the beaches, put in place an ordinance with huge fines. Ticket as many violators as law enforcement can. I believe this would cut down on the people leaving behind their trash. Add in community service, cleaning up the beach after the rest of the ignorant people. That should deter dumb. Personally, I like the big firework shows done by professionals, which are set off over the river. Though I don’t participate in watching them because I don’t or won’t fight the crowds. I worry about dumb people setting off fireworks in fields or forests. But how much banning do we really need because if we banned everything people did that was dumb, we would not be able to do many things. I guess what I am trying to say is that I like fireworks, people should enjoy them, but all in all do the right thing, set them off using common sense and clean up your trash, all the things that should not be an issue. Think about the marine animals, and how pretty the beach is clean.
Tammy
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