Categories

Content Type

Sources

Faux firecrackers celebrate freedom

By Kathy Antoniotti, Akron Beacon Journal, Source: MCT News Service

If there is one thing Americans should agree on, it is their appreciation of the men and women who risked their lives more than 200 years ago in a war with Great Britain to earn the freedoms we enjoy today.

Independence Day, a national holiday we celebrate on July 4, marks the anniversary of the day in 1776 that the second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. It guaranteed freedom from a tyrannical government to future generations of Americans.

The Revolutionary War started April 19, 1775, with the battles of Lexington and Concord and ended in 1781 in Yorktown, Va., after George Washington forced Britain's Gen. Charles Cornwallis to surrender.

By 1789, the colonists, still stinging from being under British rule, were determined not to let the new government become a dictatorship. They wanted to insure and preserve the freedoms they fought for that were not specifically spelled out in the Constitution.

Concerned the document did not do enough to prevent future governments from passing laws that would infringe on specific rights of an individual, the First Congress proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution. Ten were ratified by three-quarters of the state legislatures and became known as the Bill of Rights.

Remember the brave men and women who fought against tyranny at your Fourth of July celebrations this year, and make a few firecracker favors using images from Victorian postcards that I found at http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/july-4th-crafts-0707-2 on the Web. Download the individual pictures on a color printer to decorate the faux firecrackers.

Supplies you will need:

Cardboard tubes in various sizes.

Red, white and blue ribbon, fabric, crepe and tissue paper, etc.

White lace.

Red sparkle pipe cleaners.

	String.
	White tacky glue.
	Cardboard.
	Pencil.
	Scissors.

Small pieces of individually wrapped candy.

Download the old-fashioned images and cut out.

Hold each tube upright on a piece of cardboard and trace around the bottom to make a circle. Cut out the circle slightly larger than the tracing.

Cover the tube completely with ribbon or fabric. Layer white lace over the blue or red ribbon.

Glue one of the pictures at the center of the tube.

Wrap red tissue around the top of the tube and let dry.

Pinch the tissue together and insert a small section of the pipe cleaner for a ''fuse.'' Hold in place by wrapping a string around the tissue.

Fill the tube with candy at the open end.

Glue the circle to the bottom of the tube and let dry.

___

(c) 2009, Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio).

Visit Akron Beacon Journal Online at http://www.ohio.com/.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

_____