Founding Father John Adams wanted Americans to blow stuff up to celebrate our independence. As he wrote to his wife, Abigail, on July 3, 1776: "It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with ... Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

Hello and welcome to Monday. This one shows up on July 9, 2018. Good to have you on board for today's episode. I saw many photos posted on Facebook last week where wee little kids were doing their thing with fireworks. Guess what? I did exactly the same thing when I was a kid and allowed our boys to do the same thing when they were young. Hopefully, not as young as some of the those I saw on Facebook. I think we all know that it can be dangerous. Here is an excerpt from a report talking about fireworks-related injuries reported in 2017: Taking its cue from the admonition from the words of John Adams, it picks up: ".... And blow stuff up we did! By 1900, fireworks injuries had become so common around July Fourth that doctors dubbed the resulting infections “patriotic tetanus.” We now have a vaccine for tetanus (which is great because tetanus — a.k.a. “lockjaw” — sounds horrible). But the Fourth is still a dangerous holiday. According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, fireworks were implicated in 12,900 hospital visits, resulting in eight deaths in 2017. There were 800 hospitalizations from firecrackers, 1,200 from sparkler injuries, 400 from Roman candles, and 300 from bottle rockets (if you needed clarification, a device called a “bottle rocket” is not perfectly safe)." In my own experiences, I did observe my older brother mangle one of his fingers for holding on to a firecracker a second too long. I also well remember he and my cousin talking me into putting a firecracker into my beloved Royal Canadian Mounted Police toy pistol. It blew that barrel into two pieces. The sparklers were considered pretty much harmless when I was growing up. We now know their burn temperature, depending on the model, is between 1200 and 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. Okay, here's the old grandpa in me coming out: That temp is enough to do real damage to a toddler's fingers. Just sayin....

Please don't write me and tell me I'm going soft or somehow I've determined to trade forth and back in old wive's tales. Those injury numbers look pretty real to me. And, if someone gets too feisty about it, I'll share some photos that will make us all go weak in the stomach. My wife loves watching fireworks. (She also likes starting fires.) She prefers to see them discharged in person, but, as a consolation, we do typically watch on TV the professional fireworks on the 4th from our nation's capital, from New York City, and our local display here in the Houston metroplex. I enjoy them too, especially the music, however, it doesn't take long for my 'ooh and ahh' quota to be completely filled to overflowing. I actually was very surprised that no one involved in all of the programmings we watched didn't somehow work in some hateful things to say about our President. We've come to expect that in nearly every public forum. I did read where one teenaged young man got roughed up for wearing a 'Make America Great Again' cap. I'll say this one more time. For people who claim to support the right to free expression, they sure want that for themselves, but, not for those who have a message different from their own. They lay claim to tolerance, but, in practice, they really don't show they have any idea what it really means. Oh well, that was it from our fireworks watching and the good news is how neither myself nor the wife suffered any injuries. That's always a good thing.

The other day I was reading from a reprint copy of the newspaper, 'The Milwaukee Leader', dated Monday Evening, October 28, 1929. I purchased that particular reprint because it reported on the great stock market collapse of 1929. I have a reprint of the entire paper, therefore, I enjoy reading all the articles from this time slice of history. Here is a story on the front page in a small box that caught my attention. "HEART OUT OF PLACE, BULLET IS NOT FATAL Kirksville, Mo.--- Mrs. Willam W. Wilson's heart is not in the right place. She owes her life to that fact. Mrs. Williams was in an automobile which police commandeered to follow two fleeing thieves. A gun battle occurred. Mrs. Williams was shot through the spot where her heart was presumed to be. But she lived. At a hospital, an X-ray picture disclosed that her heart was on the right side of her body. She probably will recover." Talk about being shot in the right spot! That condition, just so you know, is referred to as Dextrocardia. Less than 1% of the population is born with this congenital condition. Think about her situation. Her car is commandeered but she is still in it. The police are chasing some criminals. A gun battle erupts. She is shot through the heart, but, not to worry, because her heart is on the other side of her chest. I Googled that incident and noticed a number of newspapers back in 1929 picked up on that story. I suppose that's what we might call having your heart in the wrong place at the right time. Or something like that. I finish up by saying, "Y'all take care, you hear?" And, may God bless us all is my prayer. Amen. ....More later.