No Dark Side of Fireworks in Evidence

* I noticed your recent article, “Officials, Victims See the Dark Side of Fireworks (July 3): Our city, unfortunately, no longer permits the sale of “safe and sane” fireworks. But we were lucky to have friends living in a city which does, and so we were able to enjoy our own fireworks as part of our Fourth of July celebration.

There was no “dark side”--no fires, no burns. Eating too much of the good food was the biggest danger. We know that many people do enjoy the big municipal fireworks displays. But I did hear one child remark that our small fireworks “were more interesting than the fireworks shows.”

It is ironic that a disgruntled radical can drench a flag with gasoline and burn it to show contempt for the flag and what it stands for, and no ordinance can prevent it--flag-burning is a constitutional exercise of free speech. But to light “safe and sane” fireworks to express support for that same flag is against the law in most Orange and Los Angeles county cities.

I’d like to express my thanks to Garden Grove, Costa Mesa, Buena Park, Santa Ana, and those communities who continue to allow their citizens and their friends to celebrate the Fourth with their own fireworks in the traditional way.

THOMAS A. SCHENACH

Huntington beach