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In our view: Having a Blast Again

The return of Fourth of July fireworks makes Vancouver feel a little more like Vancouver

The Columbian
Published: July 9, 2010, 12:00am

The haze has dissipated and the noise has subsided and the litter has been removed, and somehow Vancouver feels a little more like Vancouver.

The fireworks and the accompanying daylong Fourth of July celebration returned to Fort Vancouver this week following a one-year hiatus. Attendance numbers haven’t been released, but those who participated engaged in the city’s most powerful communal experience.

The positive aspects are easy to enumerate:

• Despite the fact that admission was charged for the first time — $7 for those 13 and older — a good-sized crowd showed up. On Sunday, Elson Strahan, president of the Fort Vancouver National Trust that oversees the spectacle, said, “We feel that we have as big a crowd as we have had in the past.”

• The show, scaled down from previous extravaganzas to a 20-minute fireworks display, still provided a worthy spectacle.

• Sponsors offered plenty of giveaways to help attendees get in the spirit.

• Classic children’s games were available for the young and the young at heart, such as a gunny sack race and a hula hoop contest.

• And, perhaps most important, the shared history that leads to Fourth of July celebrations was not ignored. According to an account in The Columbian by reporter Howard Buck, “Up on the Parade Ground, volunteers showed off historic 19th century clothing and munitions, the latter producing early bangs and booms as they fired cannon and musket shots. One fellow channeled Abraham Lincoln to spin patriotic and personal anecdotes, holding court in a faux press conference. Local historian Pat Jollota later discussed the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.”

With all of that, Vancouver recaptured an important part of its heritage. While the perception is an unfair one, without the Fourth of July festivities, people in less-enlightened parts of the Portland metro area often would regard Vancouver as an indistinguishable bedroom community. If fireworks are what it takes to bring some attention and some visitors to the city, then so be it.

That identity is a significant part of Vancouver’s holiday gala. But it’s not the most significant. No, for that, we’ll turn to John Adams.

“It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore,” the statesman wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail, following the ratification of the Declaration of Independence. Of course, Adams was talking about July 2, two days before the declaration was officially adopted, but you get the point.

For all of the focus on explosions and pretty lights, we must not lose sight of the fact that the Fourth of July is a celebration of colonists who had the courage to stand up to the power of England, the fortitude to throw off the yoke of oppression, and the wisdom to create an enduring system of government.

As an aside, while Adams supported the celebration of independence with “illuminations,” we’re not sure that applies to residential neighborhoods, where people, homes, and pets can find themselves in harm’s way. But that’s an editorial for another time. For now, we are lauding the celebration at Fort Vancouver.

“We’re ecstatic,” Strahan said. “We couldn’t be more pleased. We feel very confident that we’ve built an event that’s sustainable.”

Therein lies the key. Because while the fireworks have returned, there’s no guarantee they will be back next year — although the outcome appears promising. And if they are back, we will celebrate not only the birth of the United States, but the coming together of local residents. And the fact that Vancouver feels like its old self again.

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