Here’s to a safe Fourth of July

It’s not easy being the no-fun news around this time of year. We want to go out and wave flags and march in parades as much as the next American.

But it’s important to remember in all that excitement, made sweeter by our new freedom from the coronavirus, that there’s still plenty of pitfalls out there.

We know we keep harping on some of these points. We’re a lot closer to it than you are.

But Mother Nature has been bringing plenty of fireworks to bear on the mountains around Carson Valley and she doesn’t really need any help from us.

There are places where fireworks are readily available in the WalMart, but this isn’t one of them. Sale, purchase, possession and particularly using fireworks is illegal along pretty much the entire Sierra Front.

Douglas County has had some sort of ordinance against fireworks since the Great Depression. And the mountains certainly aren’t less likely to catch fire in the middle of a drought and a heat wave.

We plan to hoist a few in honor of the Fourth, but we plan to do it at home where we won’t endanger someone else’s life by getting behind the wheel after a couple of whatever your particular poison happens to be.

There’s plenty of music, gatherings and cookouts this weekend to more than make up for the explosions, but there will be fireworks shows at Stateline, in Carson City and Virginia City.

Those will be a lot more impressive than the usual fare sold at the WalMart, and a lot less likely to cause an injury or burn down someone’s house.