Sweet Caroline (BAH BAH BAH...)

On Saturday I attended the big July 4th celebration on the Boston esplanade. The main act was Neil Diamond, who was cheesy as ever. Plus, the Boston Pops and a few other musical acts were part of the show, and the fireworks were set to music as well. It was a pretty fun time.

There was one particular song in the lineup that reminded me of a number of conversations I've had during the school year about American identity. For the time-constricted, the song more or less says that America is about lemonade stands, high school proms, and driving around in a Chevy. You may be surprised to find out that I don't feel particularly represented by that version of America. Another verse mentions helping out the neighbors, and I couldn't help but think, "...as long as they grew up in the same white, rural area as I did."

Admittedly, I knew what I was getting into when I went to a 4th of July fireworks show. I wasn't expecting anything more out of the show. For example, when Neil Diamond failed to point out that women in the Congo died for his audio equipment, I wasn't particularly surprised or disappointed. Like I said, I knew what I was getting into. And yet, I couldn't help but notice the cultural, social and environmental issues at play.

We blew up 2500 points of fireworks on the 4th, and that's just one show in one city. Looking just to the right of the flashing lights, one could see a huge, slow-moving cloud of thick smoke. Thankfully, we weren't downwind of it, but some folks were, and that can't be healthy. Plus the material costs. Tons of metal and plastic wasted for, more or less, a big shiny thing. It's a very pretty shiny thing, but no amount of shiny things are worth that level of damage, in my opinion.

The views expressed here are my own and not necessarily the views of the company (EnerNOC, Inc). If you thought otherwise, you probably also yell "BAH BAH BAH" and "so good! so good! so good!" during Sweet Caroline, but don't actually know any of the lyrics.