Something I've been working on

One project I've been working on lately is a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the first atomic bomb test, Trinity.

It's really stunning to realize how much the advent of atomic weapons changed the shape of the world. It's even more stunning to realize that congress is still spending money on nuclear "bunker busters".

In the process of documenting this project, I was able to visit the Trinity site, at the White Sands Missle Range, in New Mexico. It's pretty stunning how technocratic the site's treatment of the event is. There is no shortage of facts about the size of the detonator, or how this or that part was hauled from Ohio.

No mention of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, except in terms of which bomb was dropped where. Certainly no mention of the people at those sites. There was even a government employee at the site with a table full of radioactive tidbits working to let us know that nukes are our friend.

It's no surprise to me that we make the same mistakes over and over, since we (as a nation) not only refuse to acknowledge our mistakes, but even refuse to admit that there might be differing interpretations of the things we consider success.