Fireworks on the Fourth: Many work to make holiday safe and pleasant

Holidays don’t just happen. Someone has to organize the parades, the fireworks and the cookouts.

And someone has to stand ready while the rest of the community is having a blast. On the Fourth of July in particular, emergency responders get one call after another for injuries and disturbances.

Friday night’s fireworks display in Independence – the official one, not those by the illegal volunteers – was spectacular, as always. It lit up the area west of the Square on that most welcome of things, a clear and cool evening in July.

Thumbs up to all of the folks who work behind the scenes make the Fourth fun and who try to keep it safe.

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The folks at the Missouri State Fair say they have seen the light and will make another run at making our state’s annual festival a little greener.

They’ll put lots of recycling cans next to trash cans and try to cut down on the tons of waste hauled off to the dump.

The fair is a great event, but conspicuous consumption – from corn dogs to gaudy T-shirts to the latest as-seen-on-TV gizmo – has always been part of the deal. That means lots of waste. Cutting down on the throw-aways is a good thing on its own, and maybe it will remind people about using less and recycling more elsewhere in their lives. Thumbs up for the effort.