To the editor:

Fourth of July fireworks — the old American tradition of loud explosions, fiery skies and symbol of freedom — must go the way of other old traditions like slavery, smoking, three-martini lunches and internal combustion engines.

When I heard that a teenager in Oregon caused a raging forest fire in the Columbia Gorge by shooting off fireworks in the midst of a three-month drought I realized that fireworks and teenagers must be outlawed.

CHUCK BEEK

Bainbridge Island