What a dirty trick.

"Roger Williams Park was a possibility, but it is far from the downtown. The $25,000 fireworks display is paid for by the Providence Tourism Council, which is funded from the revenue gleaned by a 1-percent local tax on hotel stays. The Tourism Council felt that the fireworks had to be visible from the downtown in order to justify the cost."

Then the article goes on to say:

"Providence held fireworks displays at Roger Williams Park, and on a few occasions downtown, on July 4 for many years, until the city stopped Independence Day fireworks displays in the mid 1990s. Independence Day fireworks were launched off India Point Park in 2002 to greet the Mayflower II as the wooden replica ship sailed into Providence from Plymouth Harbor. The fireworks returned, partially at the request of the hotel industry, in 2005, from the State House site."

So why not just go back and hold the fireworks at Roger Williams Park or India Point Park? Too close to the great unwashed, are they? How long would Providence tourism survive without the great unwashed to serve their meals, change the linens, and wash the dishes?

Just do it, cheapskates.

By the way, is this the same tourism director that announced at last week's Waterplace Park concert that those of us present to hear the wonderful blues of Vieux Farka Toure were "enlightened"? I was embarrassed to be white, but I would have been even more embarrassed had I been African-American.