Please, Don't Sponsor Fourth of July Fireworks

The March 6, 2010, fireworks downtown, thanks to Lux_Tyro

With all due respect to Kara Ceriello, president of the Wallingford Chamber of Commerce, we can do without fireworks this year. Event producers One Reel, in their letter announcing the fireworks cancellation, says they were unable to secure corporate sponsorship of the event, a $500,000 fee.

You have to ask, especially now, what else our very limited supply of corporations who can afford a $500,000 gift might fund instead of fireworks? Maybe they could keep five vital non-profits open this year with $100,000 grants.

I know that spending "fun" money on serious things makes some people crazy. But our economic situation is very serious for thousands upon thousands of Seattle residents, and we seem to have lost touch with the idea of even temporary community sacrifice.

Let's not pretend we're experiencing some sort of fireworks deficit in the first place. There were fireworks downtown this March. We blew up the Space Needle for New Year's.

Fireworks on the Fourth has, in becoming an "annual tradition," become a stand-in for a creative community response to the holiday. It's the package we buy because who has time and there it is on the shelf, just like last year. We know the Fourth happened because we saw the fireworks on TV.

What would a real "Family Fourth" look like? Would it happen over several days, rather than a half-hour one evening? I feel like we can do better if we take the opportunity the recession is handing us to figure out what, exactly, we're celebrating. One Reel has hopes to bring back the fireworks next year. But this year, if we get the chance to plan our own party, what could we do instead?