Editor's note: The following letter was submitted to interim Normandy Park City Manager Joyce Papke after a proposed ordinance to ban fireworks in Normandy Park was introduced. The city council rejected it by a 6-1 vote.

I know that you and others as protectors of citizens know what's best for us.

Smoking is bad, pollution is bad, fatty foods are bad, not wearing your bike helmet is bad, dirty hands are bad, not recycling is bad, not buckling your seat belt is bad, owning a firearm is bad, disciplining your child is bad, and the inability of private citizens to make correct personal decisions is endless.

It's a darn shame that so many "stupid" people in the United States don't know what's best for them. So, that is why we have an enlightened government with public officials, like yourself, to teach, guide and instruct us to be good.

Democracy is based upon freedom. When that freedom is undermined by absolving individuals of responsibility for the consequences of their own behaviors, we face the death of democracy.

A ban on fireworks is just another example of governments, large and small, micromanaging our behavior and eroding the freedom to think for ourselves and depriving us of the maturity/right to think for ourselves.

Please allow me and my children all the risks and the benefits that liberty offers. Correcting poor and inappropriate behavior is not a government responsibility, it's mine.

Robert N. Ross

Normandy Park