Save the 4th of July in downtown San Jose!!!

Save the 4th!

The annual 4th of July Show in downtown San Jose is in danger of being cancelled! Somebody save it! Please!

It's all about budgets these days and the word I heard was that the grants that the City of San Jose used to give to help defray the costs of putting on the downtown 4th of July celebration have dried up! Without giving you the numbers, let me just say that the budget for this event has been slashed to next to nothing. What does that mean? It means no family fun on the 4th, no fireworks display, and no Greg Kihn Band concert.

It costs money to put on an event like this: overtime for the police department, fire department, emergency services, the cost of the fireworks display, etc. The City of San Jose is trying to save some money this year, and that's understandable, but cutting out the 4th of July? That's positively un-American!

Mayor Chuck Reed! Help us! Find the money somewhere! Don't let the kids of San Jose down! In these tough times, we need a smile! What's the 4th of July without fireworks?

It seems strange to me that in Silicon Valley, the most high-tech place on the planet, crawling with successful businesses, that we can't find private funding for this event. How about some corporate sponsors? Surely some company out there will come to the rescue.

We're not talking about a million bucks here, in fact it's not even one tenth of that amount, but without a knight in shining armor, this event will sink like the setting sun in the west. Come on, all you Silicon Valley millionaires! Come to the rescue of San Jose and save the fireworks show and rock concert!

I am going to dedicate myself to this cause. I don't care what it takes! We can't let this tradition die! I am going to call the mayor today and I will let you know how it went on Monday's blog.

Save the 4th of July in downtown San Jose!!!