Happy Birthday!!!

Well, it's that time of year again - August 6th and happy birthday to me on a date which most people associate with Hiroshima.

Most people who react thus to the date August 6th thus will also think of August 9th, when Nagasaki was closely wedded in mass death to Hiroshima.

But fewer know that Fat Man and Little Boy formed an unholy trinity with a far less well known figure, Gadget, who bloomed from a tower on July 16th and demonstrated beyond a doubt that the "Bomb in the Mind" could actually blossom into our reality.

I'm reminded of words the unknown poet of the Third Galaxy wrote so many years ago in the Arrogant Prophecies:

"The blossom bursts into the night,
budding bleeding stubs of such sick delight
that all who see it loose their sight,
they madly rage and praise the majesty of might"

After two generations of Cold War, a decade of wasted opportunity for peace and true reconciliation on our poor world followed by yet another decade of wasted human lives and resource in wars pointless, except for world domination -- which in itself is a pointless pursuit, as is obvious from human history -- what has been accomplished?

Indeed, what has been accomplished?

Nada.

Zilch.

Nothing but holes in the ground, filled with blood crying for justice.

If justice were to come in a single night, who could stand before such a wind -- we have indeed "...killed all our yesterdays and tomorrows and today is busting into flame..."

Happy birthday.

Gadget .016 seconds after it's birth on the Tower at the Trinity test.