PUBLIC VIEWPOINT Consider Combat Veterans On Fourth

It’s the season to take primal pleasure in explosions, but only for those who don’t happen to be military combat veterans.

As we’re waving the flag and blasting away with fi reworks, we should consider the hair-trigger sensitivities of that small minority of Americans with military combat experience, those for whom sudden explosions are not a source of pleasure, but a piercing reminder of the horror of incoming fi re, and of the deadly wreckage of military vehicles hit by hidden IEDs.

Is there a veteran in your neighborhood who is on his last nerve, unableto control the refl ex to leap for cover at the next Extreme Magnum simulated artillery shell detonation that you’ve joyfully saved for this special midnight moment?

Neighborhood fireworks should be abolished out of respect for those who experience the Fourth of July not as a season of celebration, but as the annually recurrent intrusion of unwelcome reminders of war. Ask combat veterans how they would wish to celebrate our freedoms. Sudden explosions in the night will not be on the list.

GEORGE DEAN

PATTERSON

ElkinsCATCH

BELLA VISTA PARADE First there will be a “craaaackkk” of gunfire, followed by a groundshaking “booooom” of a Civil War cannon. Then a flock of white doves will flutter skyward. After that a lone rider-less horse with the stirrups of the saddle turned backwards will clop-clop, clop-clop down the street, symbolizing the rider is missing. That rider is prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. He was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009.

The focus of this year’s parade is to call attention to a need to get Bergdahlhome. Wouldn’t it be a blessing if we could have Bergdahl in the saddle of that horse next Fourth of July? The purpose of the Fourth of July Patriot Parade is to celebrate our nation’s independence and the Patriots do that by honoring our past and present military personnel. Our parade marshals in the past have been World War II veterans because we wanted to honor as many of them as we can before it is too late. The sixth annual Bella Vista Patriot Parade begins at 10:30 a.m. on July 4 in the Sugar Creek Shopping Center.

JIM PARSONS

Bella Vista