What's Wrong With the Manhattan Project National Park

Lasrick writes Dawn Stover describes the radioactive dirt behind the creation of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, from its inclusion in the National Defense Authorization Act (the park legislation wouldn't pass otherwise) and lack of funding for national parks in general to the lack of funding for cleanup at Superfund nuclear sites like Hanford. And then there is how the Parks Service is presenting exhibits: at least some of them are described in the past tense, as if nuclear weapons were a thing of the past. Here's the description of the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in South Dakota: "Nuclear war loomed as an apocalyptic shadow that could possibly have brought human history to an end." Can the National Park Service be ignorant of the fact that missiles remain on station, nuclear weapons are still being stockpiled, and saber rattling did not end with the fall of the Berlin Wall?"

Comments

From The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists ?

[Crashmarik]

Seriously ? I read the rant and it sounded like a caricature of the old point counterpoint skits on saturday night live. I really expected him to end with we should have "vegetarian native americans running the country".

I mean look at this

Preserving a history that dates back thousands of years is apparently of less value to the United States than preserving the mid-20th century apparatus of war.

When he talks of the less important history, he means land that might have historical sites and will be surveyed before it is put to other uses. The " Mid 20th century apparatus of war" is from WWII and the Cold War, two of the most significant events in human history and arguably shaped the world we live in now.

Re:Those who ignore history...

[JSC]

It's kinda hard for me to ignore this bit of history. My mother was a Lab Technician in Oak Ridge during WWII (yes, I'm an older geek). Anyway, I grew up hearing stories from her about working in Oak Ridge and from my Dad about the war in Europe...so this "history" has a certain immediacy for me. Frankly, I think a museum about the Manhattan Project is a wonderful idea. Maybe it makes some people uncomfortable to talk about it but it IS our history and should never be forgotten. Got save us from preserving (and teaching) an edited "good parts" history that doesn't give the unvarnished truth. Those were difficult years and they needed difficult decisions. We need to remember that so that we can learn from it.