This past Saturday afternoon, the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Hartford occurred. Midway through the parade, loud sounding bangs filled the streets along with smoke. Several people screamed and were startled by the noise. The parade consisted of a cannon which was let off. Due to the crowds of people, it was hard to see what the noise and smoke came from.

In today’s world, these cannons were seen as inappropriate by many different individuals. Due to past instances, these loud bangs made many assume the worst. For instance, in 2010, several bombs went off during a military parade. Also, in 2018, a man was arrested in Cleveland for planning bombing attacks during a 4th of July parade. As a result of such scary occurrences, many people fear being at big events, especially with so many people closely together in one place.

Senior Alex Parent attended this parade and felt ¨nervous when I heard a big bang. I couldn’t see where it came from so I thought the worst.¨ Clearly, these cannons were feared by people rather than entertaining them. Another senior, Makayla Foran claims ¨it was not entertaining, in fact it scared me to the point where I was thinking that bombs were going off.¨ Seeing how people felt and reacted to these canons made them more of a fear than a good part of the parade.

Even though these cannons were meant to provide excitement and not scare people it was not the best way to go about using them. Next year they can improve this by having the cannons visible or letting the people know ahead of time before setting them off.