Usually at this time of day the cars start filling the streets of my quiet Monterey neighborhood. Families spill out, carrying lawn chairs and blankets and hot drinks, headed for the hill on the lower Presidio just above the municipal wharf to watch the annual fireworks display. Sure, it’s a bit cheesy, and last year was a bit obnoxious when the woman brought the boom box belting out the Sousa and Lee Greenwood, but the city’s fireworks display was also a small yet meaningful moment of a community coming together, and it was always the highlight of the evening.
But not this year. Monterey, like several other cities around the state, have canceled the fireworks display because of budget cuts.
I don’t exactly oppose the move. Sure, city fireworks displays were a key part of getting people away from using their own fireworks and losing a hand, but as Monterey city officials noted, it’s not a difficult decision to cancel the fireworks to preserve other programs:
Kay Russo, director of Monterey’s recreation and community services, said the exact opposite. She thought it was more important than ever to use public funds to provide services to citizens….
A $7.5 million budget deficit for this fiscal year has forced $6 million in program and service cuts, layoffs and employee concessions totaling an additional $1 million, said Anne McGrath, city spokeswoman.
“Given the fiscal environment, I know that people will miss the fireworks display, but they understand this has to be done,” McGrath said.
And judging by the reaction of my friends and neighbors, McGrath is right. I couldn’t justify spending the money on fireworks and policing the event that could otherwise go to keep city employees on the job, keeping the library open more hours, and so on.
A canceled fireworks display doesn’t compare to the 900,000 Californians who lost dental coverage this week, the 26,000 teachers who aren’t going back to work this fall, the disabled Californians who are losing their caregivers and their support checks.
And yet they all share a common link – they’ve been sacrificed in order to protect the wealthy and corporations from a tax increase. Social values of education, health, and community gatherings are all being undermined and denigrated by a state government which has decided, without any public discussion, that spending cuts are a necessity. Even those localities that would like to raise their own taxes to keep teachers in the classrooms or ensure their neighbors and families have health coverage cannot do so, because nobody in government is willing to challenge the bogeyman that is Prop 13-induced system of government that prevents tax increases no matter the cost.
So Monterey isn’t going to have fireworks this year. Perhaps it’s a good thing – the sea otters will be pleased. But if our community wanted to do something else – improve bus service, fix our schools, build the long-desired train to the Bay Area, open a community health clinic – we are prevented from doing it, because we are effectively prevented from raising the money to make it happen. We cannot make collective decisions any more, we cannot take community action to do something as important as saving our schools or something as small and ultimately insignificant as holding a fireworks display. We are stuck with a false and rigged choice – cut schools or health care – because the biggest choice of all, whether to tax wealth or not, is not a choice we are free to make.
It’s hard then to not see the canceled fireworks display as a symbol of a broader social collapse happening all around us. On the day we celebrate 233 years of independence, and almost 163 years to the day since the US took possession of Monterey and brought California into that independent nation, the 4th of July seems almost funerary. There isn’t much to celebrate, certainly not here in California, where our national holiday feels hollow.
We are a center-left state and nation governed by a center-right politics – and in California, by a government that gives conservatives veto power even though they represent just 33% of the population. On a day when we are supposed to celebrate our freedom, it is rather ironic to realize that in California in 2009, unless you are wealthy you aren’t really free.
I attended the Monterey July 4th parade downtown this morning. Very little enthusiasm there.
At the start of Bush’s second term, some Republican Congressman mentioned how defeated animals became docile and submissive, like castrated gelding. The California Republican minority has succeeded in making the population of the State docile, compliant, and demoralized indeed.
Maybe that’s the proper definition of second tier Californians.
unless people start realizing that these cuts affect THEM PERSONALLY, I think most folks are going to be walking around numb to what is happening around them…thinking all the time that it only happens to “bad folks”, to “poor lazy people”, not themselves.
And, quite frankly, where is the outrage?
Monterey seems to have a population of about 30,000. My hometown has a population of about 13,000.
In my hometown in early June, the fire department (all volunteers) comes around, eventually covering every neighborhood. First they ask how many tickets the household needs for the fireworks. Then they ask for a contribution, which is strictly voluntary. We had five in our household and gave them $5. Many of the wealthier folks in town gave $50 or $100. They would raise about $50,000, which bought a big display in the mid to late 1960s. No one ever had to pay for a ticket.
We would all go and sit on the football field at the high school, which was a block from my home. In those days, that kind of money bought a very nice display which lasted about 30 minutes.
I can understand very large cities springing for a fireworks display. However, even in good times, it seems excessive for smaller towns like Monterey and my home town.
Surely someone could have gotten a volunteer group together and planned something. These are parlous times as the Legislature and others fiddle while we burn. I would think the citizens would be most grateful for the effort.
If government isn’t going to put on a good show then people should be allowed to buy fireworks themselves.
Banning fireworks on Independence Day is pretty messed up as it is but I don’t see how you can argue for banning fireworks when there aren’t good shows to fill a needed void.
When I watched a crap ass show up in northern California what I took away was how much it sucked that none of the people around the lake were able to demonstrate their own Independence and make up the gap. One frickin’ firework was all that hundreds of people had.
Democrats should have suspended all bans on fireworks due to the widespread cancellation of shows. That’s what I took away from it. I’m pissed, I’m sunburned, and if Democrats are too chicken-shit to lead on what is necessary to have a functioning government the least they could do is get out of the way when it comes to celebrating “Independence” Day.
and I’m very happy people can’t buy fireworks around here.
Last night we climbed the hill behind our house to scope out the festivities in the San Gabriel Valley. We were expecting a fairly dark night, but we saw dozens and dozens of smallish displays all across the valley, including one at Irwindale Speedway that outdid them all.
Our house butts up against the mountain. A family in our neighborhood had a whole host of their own fireworks in their own back yard. We could see theirs pretty well and also saw when a spark flew outside the fenced yard and ignited the dry grass right behind them. By the time my husband flew down there to help, they had put it out with buckets of water. At 4:00 am we were awakened by a search and rescue helicopter who had found another fire. The canyon mouth is full of smoke, drawn up the river from all the fireworks and brushfires last night.
We and the firemens got enough problems already without making up for yahoos who don’t care if the state burns down.
where we cannot afford to celebrate Indpendence Day, our most patriotic holiday, is irony that knows no words.