THE DREADED NATIONWIDE DEFACTO CURFEW EACH YEAR DURING THE EVENING AND NIGHTTIME HOURS OF JULY 4

Millions of Americans, myself among them, have learned that the best way to avoid the risk of being victimized by a firecracker exploding on them and injuring them on July 4 is to remain indoors all day and all night inside their locked home.

That suggests, ironically, that this annual event officially designated for nationwide "celebration of freedom" from British rule comprises the one day each year when the highest percentage of Americans nationwide are terrorized and assaulted by loud popping sounds and frequent explosions outdoors. 

Far from feeling "liberated" on July 4, the vast majority of Americans experience high levels of anxiety and intense fearfulness throughout this designated "Independence Day".

This is the one day each year when even the most cheerful of Americans fear with alarming frequency that a firecracker exploding near them or on them outdoors will cause them to "go deaf" or incur some other severely injurious permanent disability. 

These same normally-cheerful Americans also experience intermittent fear all day and all night on July 4 that possibly some of the popping sounds and explosions occurring outdoors are emanating from real-life terrorists or real-life members of an organized-crime group.

That intermittent fear, however, is usually accompanied by inaction on the part of Americans throughout this annual holiday, including those who normally pride themselves on being vigilant.

The fireworks celebrations of July 4 are very harmful to our national security. Americans are significantly less likely on this one day of the year to report suspicious "popping sounds outdoors" to their local police department. 

"If I make a phone call to the police, they might laugh at me from their end of the phone line. They'll tell me it's 'just fireworks' I'm describing to them," as Americans may note to themselves in their diary entry for July 4.

"All of this reminds me," as Americans may also note with grim fascination in their Independence Day diary entry, "that there may soon be a Hollywood movie exploring a worst-case scenario on July 4 in which many of the popping sounds outdoors that Americans are subjected to are, in fact, the sounds of actual militant groups or invading troops of soldiers from a foreign nation attempting to fatally injure American civilians on this national holiday. That type of horror movie would be truly nationwide and truly apocalyptic in its very tragic message."