Teacher: July 4th fireworks are bad because they simulate ‘pretend war’

Teacher: July 4th fireworks are bad because they simulate ‘pretend war’ - EAGnews.org powered by Education Action Group Foundation, Inc.:
Bill Bigelow of the radical teacher organization Rethinking Schools, wrote that we need to “rethink” the 4th of July.
This “progressive” teacher has declared war on fireworks.
The Fourth of July “…provides cover for people to blow off fireworks that terrify young children and animals, and that turn the air thick with smoke and errant projectiles.
Last year, the fire department here [Portland, OR] reported 172 fires sparked by toy missiles, defective firecrackers, and other items of explosive revelry.”
So Bigelow is concerned about public safety.
Fair enough.
But there’s more:
“Apart from the noise pollution, air pollution, and flying debris pollution, there is something profoundly inappropriate about blowing off fireworks at a time when the United States is waging war with real fireworks around the world.
To cite just one example, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London found recently that U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan alone have killed more than 200 people, including at least 60 children.
And, of course, the U.S. war in Afghanistan drags on and on.
The pretend war of celebratory fireworks thus becomes part of a propaganda campaign that inures us—especially the children among us—to the real wars half a world away.” 
Yes, to this ingenious teacher, fireworks promote war. In fact, he says fireworks are “pretend war!”