Ban Graffiti and Brainless Behaviour before Fireworks

As a kid I really liked Guy Fawkes night. Dad and his mates would organise a bonfire and beers, Mum and her mates did the kai and all of us kids had great fun letting off crackers and rockets, a fair few of which have subsequently been banned.

Politics had their part to play in this with that shocker Muldoon passing a law to ban skyrockets in response to a petition from some ill advised concerned mother worried that every year or so some dopey kid looked into the beer bottle as the rocket came charging out. That law was interfering with natural selection. If that kid hadn’t copped the skyrocket it would have no doubt grown into a dangerous driver. All right don’t get too excited, but who raises kids that would do that!

Anyhow my point is that with all the relative danger of dads on the booze, bonfires without permits, rockets available, there were relatively few serious injuries or schools burned down. Compare that to these nanny state days when sales are limited, skyrockets banned, rules for Africa, stern Ministers threatening us with tennis balls and Fire chiefs admonishing us, yet the statistics of letter boxes blown up, fireworks dopily thrown into shops or at people, and all the paraphernalia of appalling behaviour things have got worse.

Banning fireworks won’t help. These are aimed at the same people who regularly pull up the nice native plants on our subdivisions, spray badly spelled graffiti on our walls, pull down anything they can topple, burn rubber on our roads, all generally while tanked on alcopops.

We’re not going to ban native plants or walls, so we need to have a look at why this is happening.

No personal responsibility coupled with alcopops too readily available is certainly one of the leading reasons. Progressively more non achievement orientated schooling hasn’t helped and removing the old whack around the ears of those acting stupidly removes the one thing the aggrieved party had left as a way to at least vent their displeasure.

I watched Guy Fawkes this year from the balcony of a multi storey apartment building in Auckland and it was a wonderful sight with flashes of bright colour bursting across the night sky and the joyful sound of kids in the park over the road enjoying the fun of fireworks.

Before the usual curmudgeons complain and call for bans, we should all look at the wider problem of poor behaviour that goes on all year long and just gets more press on Guy Fawkes night. If we could stop graffiti, thoughtless damage and theft we wouldn’t need to ban anything.