CELEBRATING THE 4TH OF JULY- ISSUE NO. 161

Living in Michigan all my life, celebrating the 4th of July has always been a special time for me. Until this year, Michigan has had one of the stricter laws concerning fireworks. As a youngster living in Michigan, if we wanted fireworks with "pop" to them, we had to go to Ohio or get them from someone who had. Well, that has changed in Michigan. Starting this year you can buy almost any type of firework you want. As a youngster I enjoyed shooting off all types of fireworks (loved those loud M80's). Fast forward 50 years, however, and my children say I am getting old, because I now complain about the noise from dusk to midnight filling my once quiet block. Yes, a simple change in a law has made a big difference in my state. Michigan will be generating more tax dollars and the illegal buying of fireworks from your friend who went out of state has all been eliminated. The 4th of July also reminds me that we are a nation of free people. We are celebrating our freedom to voice our opinions and make changes in how we are governed. In the State of New York, we saw how this works in the last few weeks, where expressing one's opinion brought about an important change in our profession. A lot of dedicated people in New York exercised their freedom and worked hard to get passed mandatory certification for people who work in CSSD. An extra round of sky rockets for New York this weekend. I want to wish everybody a safe and enjoyable 4th of July this year and I also want to thank our veterans and those serving in the military presently for keeping us free. God Bless America