America, **** yeah! Coming into save the mother****ing day yeah. America, **** yeah! Freedom is the only way, yeah. Terrorists your days are through cause now you've got to answer to. America, **** yeah! So luck my nuts, and suck on my balls. America **** yeah! Whatcha gonna do when they come for you, yeah. It's a dream that we all share, it's the hope of tomorrow. **** yeah!

I love fireworks but I had an interesting experience with them today that put a damper on that for good. My sister's boyfriend is a Iraq war (not the Gulf War) veteran with ptsd, and he left our house and went home around 5 today because he quite literally can't comfortably be around extremely loud noises or in particular, loud noises off in the distance, without it affecting (negatively, obviously) his disposition.

It is a bit of a quandary that American citizens celebrate the freedom our military provides for us in ways that some veterans themselves do not appreciate or want.

Yes, I was going to post that while fireworks are cool and all, there's a lot of veterans who suffer with fireworks in the air. That's why there's a lot of people who have signs in their front yards saying "Combat veteran lives here, please be courteous with fireworks" or something similar.

But no, enjoy your fireworks. While I can't know for sure, but I'm sure I speak for the vets suffering with PTSD when I say we'd rather you enjoy your celebration rather than put it off. There's a lot of veterans who never left the battlefield, at least, in their minds. Fireworks are a popular way to celebrate your freedom as an American. The freedom we fought to put there. Why would we not want you to celebrate that?

It just goes back to being courteous with fireworks and remembering that for some the battle rages on. It also helps to know that people care and are fighting with you, even if there's nothing they can do. And even if it seems like it's not appreciated or wanted, it is.

So perhaps instead of blasting off the TNT rockets into the sky and all of this, maybe a few bottle rockets or stuff that doesn't go boom?

yeah, and I am exactly the kind of person my sister's boyfriend does not want to be around. I will buy a metric ton of firecrackers and cracker bombs, and set those off till 3 AM in the morning.

No worries though. I can have just as much fun with a metric ton of smoke bombs.

Pretty sure people of this generation only care about the fireworks and could care less about PTSD. I'm not saying it's right, but that's the reality of it.

Eh. Remember that that can trigger the PTSD too, depending on how severe it is. The biggest thing is just take it into consideration. There's nothing stopping you from having a good time.

I feel bad for the animals getting distressed from fireworks. My cat is terrified of them.

there's an easy solution to the whole ptsd/fireworks dilemma

before you light off any fireworks, get a loudspeaker and with a siren and set off the siren and scream through the loudspeaker "ALERT, ALERT, TRIGGER WARNING; TRAUMA INDUCING SOUNDS AND VISUALS APPROACHING IN 5 4 3 2"