Not just because Norway is exceptionally cold and snowy today, and a vacation would be just what I need at the moment...
Imagine walking down the streets of Manhattan, running into Carrie and Mr. Big. Or maybe you can drop in on some old friends in "Central Perk". Or the more physical Central Park.
There is something about Manhattan - how it is portrayed in popular culture - that paints such an interesting and amazing picture (like the one above). The rest of New York has its merits too, I'm sure, but Manhattan? The home of the rich and beautiful and cool and successful? Who wouldn't dream of going there?
Why, then, did they have to ruin this picture-perfect place with taking its name for one of the biggest atrocities in human history? I am reading up on "The Manhattan Project", and I don't much like what I'm reading. Military-industrial complexes, Big Science, world politics, a quick end to an already too long war - I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that people were willing to develop and construct a weapon that spread into two separate bombs killed 150,000-250,000 - about half of them immediately, and the rest within the next few months. Not to mention the after effects from the radiation. Add to that how nuclear weapons held the world hostage during the next fifty years, and how it is still considered one of the worst threats should it fall into the wrong hands. (Or, as I'm prone to believe - all hands are wrong when it comes to nukes. The question is whether those hands will pull the trigger.)
I know. What a turn this post took. I'm complicated that way.
6 comments:
Just cling to your old ideals, Cruella.
They can do that, can't they? The Watergate also used to just be a nice hotel. Co-opting names and smearing them through the mud... rotten.
I've always thought I'd like to see Manhattan, but I also have a suspicion that I might get bored. And of course, I'd have to have money to get there. We'll see what the future holds.
I've always thought I'd like to see Manhattan, but I also have a suspicion that I might get bored. And of course, I'd have to have money to get there. We'll see what the future holds.
My daughter is obsessed with Manhattan. She's only 13, and already has a trip to NYC fully planned for after she graduates high school. A mere 5 years away.
I visited the city in 1999. Was there for 4 glorious days, and I couldn't fit in everything I wanted to do. I so want to go again.
I agree, nukes are terrible and nobody should have them.
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