Yet again we feel we are living on the front line in some war torn zone of the world. Years ago when people were allowed to have their own private celebrations of firework night, very few of the fireworks contained noisy bangs. There'd be the odd whizz from one rocket, a scream from another and maybe a fizz or two from a catherine wheel. The attraction of the fireworks was the spectacle, not the noise. Somewhere along the line, along with the nanny brigade encouraging us to go to organised displays, (Oh, now what does that mean? Display? Oh, of course, the LOOK of the thing), they seem to have decided that we should be forced to put our hearing at risk and terrorise small children, elderly people and animals, for several weeks before and after the event. I use the word 'forced' deliberately, as even with double glazing the noise penetrates - there is no choice in the matter!
As for the small children, the elderly and animals, I can only have pity for them. The vets face so many demands for tranquillisers for the animals to see them through this period, but no such solution is available for the parents of small children. Anyway, is it right to tranquillise animals just for the so-called pleasure of others? As for the young children and the elderly, what gives the fireworks manufacturers the right to produce something that has such a devastating effect on such large sections of the public? Why should the parents of small children face terrified children every year? Why should our elderly folk, who have already lived through the blitz and the terrors of world war 2, be subjected to such horrid reminders every year? Even as one drives, or looks out of the windows, the sky resembles that seen on the news when reporting from Iraq or Afghanistan!
I am not against fireworks per se - I enjoy the fantastic effects, but I think it is time the exceptionally loud bangs were removed. Who DOES get pleasure from this noise? Not many of the people I speak to really like the excess noise from the fireworks - and those that do can volunteer for the armed forces and spend time in Afghanistan and Iraq - they'll get all the noise they want there!
